of the Vermont Central Railroad. His veto, as chairman of the Board of Aldermen, in May, 1847, on the exciting license question, redounds as greatly to his honor as the enterprise of Long Pond; and elicited two famous songs, one of which was on "The Man that Dared Stand Alone," and the other beginning with,

"God bless the Mayor's casting vote!

A thousand hearts exclaim."

Mr. Quincy was elected treasurer of the Boston Athenæum in 1837, and retained the station for fifteen years. He deserves the reputation of having been the chief instrument in effecting the erection of the present splendid edifice of the institution, on its delightful location in Beacon-street, by the endorsement of his name to very great amounts, in times of pressure, and as chairman of the building committee. Thus this noble institution is as much under obligation to Josiah Quincy, Jr., for its present prosperity, as to William Smith Shaw for its origin.

It is related of the Quincys, that on the day after the election of the junior to the presidency of the Senate, in 1842, a gentleman, meeting them in State-street, remarked that it was a singular circumstance there should be two presidents in the same family, at the same time; on which, President Quincy senior, breasting himself with dignity, replied, "There is a difference, however, in magnitude, as one star differeth from another star." Whereat, President Quincy the junior archly remarked, "That is true enough, father; for you are the president of boys, while I am the president of men.”

When the young men of Boston had a public festival in honor of Charles Dickens, Feb. 2, 1842, Mr. Quincy presided; and, in allusion to the remark of the president of Harvard University, that it was a very good thing for a man to carry his toast in his pocket, lest his memory might fail, Mr. Quincy stated that he had so far acted upon that principle as to prepare a toast which he had hoped would draw a speech from Gov. Davis; but he unfortunately had kept it in his pocket too long, for the governor had retired. The toast was, "The Political Pilots of Old England and New England: Though their titles may be different, they observe the same luminaries in the literary, and steer by the same stars in the moral, horizon." The effective speech of Mr. Quincy on this occasiona Welcome to Charles Dickens - appears in the Boston Book for 1850.

When the telegraph wires were stretched from Boston to Salem, in

December, 1847, and were in full operation, the following message was transmitted: "The mayor of the city of Salem sends his compliments to the mayor of the city of Boston, congratulating him on the completion of the new bond of union between the two cities." To which Mr. Quincy, with his usual felicity, made reply: "The mayor of Boston reciprocates the compliments of the mayor of Salem, and rejoices that letters of light connect the metropolis with the birth-place of Bowditch." This reminds one of a happy allusion, in a burning address of Horace Mann to his constituents, on the subject of slavery: "My words have been cool as the telegraphic wires, while my feelings have been like the lightning that runs through them." The junior Quincy is one of the rarest wits amongst us. He once remarked, with as much truth as humor, at a military festival, that it has been discovered that intemperate conviviality is not the only bond of military union; - that rum, mixed with gunpowder, is not the only means of inspiring courage; and that men who can stand alone are best fitted to stand by one another.

The fame of the Long Pond Water Works will ever be identified with the two Mayors Quincy, senior and junior. To Mayor Quincy the senior we yield the palm as being the first mayor who publicly advised and urged, in his inaugural address, January, 1826, the universal introduction of water through all the streets, lanes and avenues, of the city, either from Charles or Neponset rivers. To Mayor Quincy the junior we yield the palm as being the leader who promptly effected the project; and to Loammi Baldwin, an eminent engineer who died in June, 1838, we concede the reputation of originating the conception in 1827, and devising the enterprise, Oct. 1, 1834, of procuring the source of supply from Long Pond. The Union Water Convention of delegates from each ward in Boston, which held its first meeting at Tremont Temple, June 9, 1845, and elected Charles Allyn Wells, Esq., president, was the great moving cause of forwarding this enterprise, which was completed under Josiah Quincy, Jr. The act of the State for supplying the city of Boston with pure water from Long Pond was approved by Gov. Briggs, March 30, 1846. Is not the name of "Cochituate," on the city ordinance, a palpable misnomer, establishing a Water Board in December, 1849? This magnificent enterprise, completed at the expense of not less than five millions of dollars, transcends any other public work ever effected by the people of Boston. It has been felicitously said of the younger Quincy, that he has written his name

in water, yet it shall last forever. The imaginative vision of posterity shall see it written in letters of light, in the rainbows of the fountains. The people of Boston have never found him dry, and he has taken care they never shall be so.

When Mr. Quincy attended a public festival in honor of the visiters at the industrial exhibition in Montreal, October, 1850, he remarked, in an effective speech at the table: "Where is civil liberty enjoyed in a higher degree than in this, or in that other British country, the other side of the Atlantic? There is one difference, though, that is not so very great an one as might at first sight appear. You all of you

We bow down to

bow down to the sovereign Lady, collectively. one sovereign lady, each for himself. This is the only difference; and I fear we cannot all say, as you can of your lady, that our sovereign lady is, as a wife and mother, an ornament and honor to her sex, the first in virtue, and the first in place."

At the first celebration of the Cape Cod Association, in Boston, Nov. 11, 1851, a pleasant incident was elicited by the following toast: "The Elder and the Younger Quincy:

While for the former, Time, with gentle hand,
And all reluctant, slowly turns the sand,
The latter shows some marks -we hope unfelt -
Of early snows that summer will not melt.

I crave their pardon, but must ask, for one,
How shall we know the father from the son?"

This sentiment excited great merriment.

Hon. Josiah Quincy

junior rose, in the midst of the universal laughter, and cried out, "Gentlemen, I introduce to you my son, who sits on the right of the 'chair.'" The venerable President Quincy then rose, was greeted with cordial welcome, and proceeded to speak, with severity, of the disobedience of some sons. He was very happy in his remarks. He concluded by giving as a toast, "The Inhabitants of Cape Cod."

Mr. Quincy, Jr., now responded to his half of the sentiment above given; and, among other things, said that he "was a wise child that knew his own father, and then gave: "The Sons of Cape Cod: May they always be better men than their fathers."

EDWARD GOLDSBOROUGH PRESCOTT.

JULY 4, 1832. FOR THE BOSTON REGIMENT.

WAS grandson of Hon. William Prescott, a leader in the Battle of Bunker Hill, whom Washington described as "Prescott the brave." It is related that when Gen. Warren came up to the works, a short time before the action, on Bunker Hill, with a musket in his hand, Col. Prescott proposed to him that he should take the command, as he understood he had been appointed by Congress to be major-general, the day previous. Warren replied, "I have no command here; I have not received my commission. I come as a volunteer, and shall be happy to learn service from a soldier of your experience." Daniel Webster says, "If there was any commander-in-chief in the field, it was Prescott." Frothingham's Siege of Boston is the most reliable statement extant of the scenes around the head-quarters of the great American Revolution. The father of Edward was born at Pepperell, Aug. 19, 1762, and married Catharine G., daughter of Thomas Hickling, Esq., of the Island of St. Michael's, December, 1793. He was an Essex senator in 1805, of Gov. Gore's Council in 1809, judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk, and in 1820 a delegate of the convention for revising the State constitution.

Young Edward was born in Salem, Mass., Jan. 2, 1804. His elementary education was at Brighton, under the tuition of Jacob N. Knapp, a brother of the celebrated biographer and lawyer, who will ever be remembered as the teacher, also, of William Hickling, the most eminent American historian, a brother of Edward, whose researches in Spanish, Mexican and Peruvian annals, the more attractive in a soul so remarkable for modesty and gentleness, brighten the family escutcheon. He afterwards became a pupil of the Rev. Dr. Gardiner, a scholar of the school of Parr, who made his pupils men, as well as scholars. He was further prepared for Harvard College under Master Carter, of Lancaster; and graduated at college in 1825, when he engaged in the study of law under his venerated father, and soon became a counsellor at the Suffolk bar. He was naturally eloquent, acquitting himself fluently, and, from the force of his own convictions, impressively. When at that bar, he received frequent applications in eminent cases, as the counsel most likely to be effective, by his popular

address, in the interests of the prisoner at the bar. He was a member of the Boston city Council from 1830 to 1835, and a representative to the State Legislature. Previous to 1832, he delivered an oration on our national birth-day, at Pepperell; and in this year he was elected commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and was the colonel of the Boston regiment. He was, for a period, editor of the New England Galaxy, originated by Mr. Buckingham, which he conducted with a fair and liberal spirit. The oration of Mr. Prescott, delivered for the city authorities of Boston, July 4, 1833, was published.

Col. Prescott remarks, in the oration at the head of this outline, that "the whole field of our literature is left unexplored. Our previous situation, and the times themselves, have heretofore rendered this necessary. Our inhabitants, for a long period struggling for freedom, afterwards found themselves impoverished, and obliged to contend for existence. It was not until of late years that we have found leisure to become a literary nation, or the power to encourage native talent. Both are now ours, and a territory lies before us such as has never yet been wandered over, fraught, even in our brief history, with deeds of daring and endurance which far outstrip the bright coloring of fiction, and scenes of romantic and sublime interest which may challenge the world. These are the newly-opened quarries out of which native genius has already begun to hew for itself immortality; and from which, such men as Irving, Cooper, Bryant, Percival, Sprague, and a host of others of our young countrymen, have drawn the materials of their early fame."

In his earliest childhood, Mr. Prescott made it his chief delight, it is said, to enact the pastor. Seldom has it happened that a life has wandered further astray than his,― dissolute, perhaps, even as the immortal Col. Gardiner,- from this its earliest promise, to bring it out so clear, and full, and beautiful, at last. From the immediate centre of what the world calls pleasure, says Bishop Doane, with everything that could infatuate the heart and overwork the brain,-in professional success, in official station, in worldly prospect, Mr. Prescott, by God's grace, escaped. Previous to taking holy orders, Mr. Prescott remarked to a friend, "I have served the devil long enough, and I will henceforth devote myself to God." He gave the whole power of his soul to divinity, prayer, and Christian effort; and most