present silver standard countries; while in the other case it is to be tried at the expense of this country alone. In either event, should the election result in a certain way, the experiment is to be tried. This is not the place, nor is it my intention, to express an opinion on the merits of the issue presented, or to venture any predictions as to the probable outcome of the experiment, if the popular verdict in November decides that it shall be made. I merely state the case, and the apparent alternative presented. There seems to be no escape from the dilemma; and if the experiment involving that dilemma is decided upon, it can hardly fail to present, either at the expense of this country or at the expense of those countries now employing silver as their measure of value, an historical study of surpassing interest. Whichever party to it may prove to be right, it would seem, therefore, safe to say that the present canvass, which took shape shortly after we last met, and the outcome of which all here are observing with such keen interest, cannot be classed among the ordinary presidential contests and those of little moment. Should the popular verdict be in favor of the proposed monetary experiment, it can hardly fail to result in consequences which future members of this Society will study with profound interest. For myself, therefore, I am inclined to consider the present election as involving, from the historical point of view, issues not less momentous than those involved in the election of 1864. I should class it as one of exceptional importance, wholly irrespective of the side which any person might advocate. It can be hardly otherwise than curious hereafter to note how far this view of the matter may have been influenced by a too close proximity to the event.

Mr. HENRY W. HAYNES, having been called on, spoke as follows:

Although I never had the privilege of a personal acquaintance with Professor Ernst Curtius, as one who has given some attention to the study of Greek History and Archæology, I feel that it is eminently fitting for our Society to give some formal expression to its sense of the great loss it has sustained by his death. His was the most eminent name upon the roll of our Honorary Members, with the possible exception of his

distinguished colleague, Professor Theodor Mommsen, the historian of Rome.

As we call to mind the circumstances of Curtius' life, we feel that he was exceptionally fortunate in his preparation for his life work. It might be almost regarded as providential that a young man, only twenty-three years old, should have been selected to act as tutor to the children of Brandis, who accompanied King Otho, of Bavaria, to Athens, in 1837, in the capacity of Privy Councillor. The two years he was thus enabled to spend in Greece in study and in travel, through the Peloponnesus in company with Karl Ritter, the great classical geographer, and at Delphi with Ottfried Müller, the accomplished archæologist, at the time of his lamented death, were of priceless advantage in fitting him for those investigations which he afterwards carried out with such fruitful results.

After his return home, and while he was employed as instructor in a gymnasium at Berlin, he was fortunate enough, by a brilliant lecture upon the Acropolis of Athens, to attract the attention of the Princess Augusta, the wife of Prince William of Prussia, so that shortly after, in 1844, he was selected by her to be the tutor of her son, the future Emperor Frederic. This gift of eloquent speech always stood Curtius in good stead his life long; it was employed in solemn addresses before the University upon the birthday of the King of Prussia, and in promoting those undertakings upon which he had set his heart; and enhanced by his intimate relations with the royal family, it greatly facilitated the establishment of the German School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the explorations at Olympia, which will be ever associated with his name.

For six years he continued to direct the studies of his distinguished pupil, in the mean time giving to the world in 1850 his study upon "The Peloponnesus," which still remains the most important work upon that region. In 1856 he was made Professor at Göttingen, from which University he was called to Berlin in 1869. That city always continued to be his home, and he ever held a very distinguished position in its literary society. He had already published, in 1867, the great work upon which his reputation will always rest secure, -his "History of Greece," in five volumes. I think this will

never be superseded; for it is scarcely possible for any writer to be better equipped for the historian's task, both by knowledge of the topography and the antiquities of the country and by familiar acquaintance with its literary remains.

The most important work of his later years was the supervision, from 1876 to 1880, of the excavations at Olympia, carried on at a great expense by the German government. These were unquestionably prompted by the interest excited in the mind of the Crown Prince Frederic by an address upon Olympia, delivered by Curtius in 1852; and their effect in promoting our knowledge of Greek art and antiquities cannot be overestimated.

Curtius did not lack for proper appreciation in his lifetime, and he was made the recipient of very unusual honors. In 1884 a fine bust of himself was presented to him by his admirers, including nearly a hundred American scholars, with the historian Bancroft at their head; and on his eightieth birthday a copy of this bust was set up at Olympia and crowned, while addresses in his honor were delivered by scholars of different nationalities then resident in Greece.

He has gone to his rest in the fulness of his years and his honors; and we, in common with the scholars of all countries, desire to pay to him the tribute of our respect and admiration.

An informal discussion then took place with relation to the manuscript of Bradford's History of Plymouth and some other subjects, in which the Hon. GEORGE F. HOAR, Messrs. JUSTIN WINSOR, EDWARD L. PIERCE, CLEMENT H. HILL, A. C. GOODELL, Jr., WILLIAM R. THAYER, CHARLES C. SMITH, and others participated.

The Hon. EDWARD L. PIERCE called attention to a small volume on the table, and spoke in substance as follows:

My apology for occupying the time of the Society with a family enterprise, a sketch of my maternal grandfather, Major John Lillie, 1755-1801, and an account of the Lillie family of Boston, 1663-1896, which, now printed in a volume (pp. 122), has taken the better part of my time for a half-year or more, is that it touches matters of general interest, particularly in the history of Boston.

Major Lillie served as a soldier through the Revolutionary

war; was a captain in Colonel John Crane's regiment of artillery; took part in the retreat from Long Island and in the campaigns in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He appears to have been a brave and trusted officer, and skilful in planning fortifications. The artillery, though small in numbers, was a very effective arm of the service, and was much under Washington's immediate eye. From May 1, 1782, to the end of hostilities, Major Lillie was on the staff of Major-General Henry Knox, whose headquarters were at New Windsor on the Hudson, in a mansion, still well preserved, which I visited last June. Major Lillie was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati, signing at the same time with his friends Knox and Samuel Shaw, the last-named being his kinsman. After the war he embarked in trade in Boston and Milton, and went upon voyages to the South and the Mediterranean, assisted in these enterprises, to some extent, by his maternal uncle Samuel Breck, the well-known Boston merchant, and his father-in-law Daniel Vose, the principal man of business in Milton; he formed at one time a partnership with General Knox for catching salmon at the mouth of the Penobscot; but he did not find success in any of these ventures. He again sought a place in the army, and the kindly and neighborly interest of President John Adams at length secured for him the appointment of captain in a new corps of artillerists and engineers. He was assigned to the command of the post at West Point June 17, 1801. He had now a sense of security, and took pleasure in his congenial duties; but death was at hand. He died suddenly of apoplexy September 22 of that year. The Military Academy was then in a formative condition, and his son was the eighth cadet admitted.

The Lillie family first appears in Boston in 1663, in the person of Edward Lillie, who seems to have done a considerable business at the North End, where he had a wharf bordering on the Town Dock and the Conduit, the curious reservoir of that day. He was undoubtedly an Englishman, but the place of his English origin is unknown. As the family had held to the time of the Revolution a fishing "plantation" at St. John's, Newfoundland, acquired in the seventeenth century, there is reason to suppose that, like other settlers of that town, they emigrated from the West of England to St. John's, and 1 Father of the author of the "Recollections."

thence removed to Boston, there having been an active trade between the two places as early as 1645, which increased greatly during the next fifteen years. After the peace of 1783 the British government dispossessed the family of the property, without compensation, taking the ground that they had become aliens, and could not therefore hold it under the Acts of Parliament of 1699 and 1775; but the papers in the case create a suspicion that this arbitrary proceeding was prompted by a spirit of retaliation, it being the time when the estates of British Loyalists in this country were being confiscated.

The sons of Edward Lillie were all ship-owners or mariners; and their careers illustrate the spirit of commercial adventure which distinguished New England at the close of the seventeenth and the early part of the eighteenth century. Samuel, the eldest, married a daughter of Theophilus Frary, deacon of the Old South Church, who in his theological zeal disturbed the rites of the English Church at Edward Lillie's funeral, and was in consequence bound over to keep the peace.1 Samuel Lillie (born 1663, died 1730) built a large number of vessels in the shipyards of Essex and Plymouth counties, which he sent to the West Indies and Europe, and he is likely to have been the largest ship-owner of his time in Boston; but he undertook more than he could accomplish, and his career as a merchant ended in failure. His wife's mother was an Eliot of the South End family (to which the Apostle Eliot belonged), and this connection brought him into relations with Isaac Royall, of Medford, father of the Loyalist of the same name. A suit between Lillie and Royall on a bond given by the latter was in the courts for half a century, surviving the original parties and showing a pertinacity in litigation rarely equalled in our time. Paul Dudley and John Valentine appear as prominent lawyers of that period.

Thomas Lillie, brother of Samuel, married a sister of Sir Charles Hobby. He commanded a private ship of war which cruised in the Mediterranean at the time of the war of the Spanish succession; and he died in 1704 at Cagliari in southern Sardinia from a wound received in an encounter with a Spanish ship. It appears by his nuncupative will proved six years

1 The story is told in a letter from Joshua Moodey to Increase Mather, printed in 4 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. xiii. pp. 370, 371. In their foot-note the Editors incorrectly give Lillie's Christian name as Samuel instead of Edward.