USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Middlesex County manual, history from 1878 > Part 6
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When the Army of General Sherman had "sung the chorus from Atlanta to the Sea," the Fleet of Admiral Dahlgren cooperated with him in various movements. These are recorded in this book, as well as the operations of the Fleet Brigade during the Broad River Expedition; the Battles of Honey Hill and Boyd's Neck; the capture of Savannah, Charles- ton, etc. Life in the Charleston Race-Course Prison is described; General Hardee; Senator Wilson at the graves of Calhoun and Hayne; the Freedmen ; the Southern People ; and many points are discussed touching the Law of Naval Courts-Martial.
Equally interesting are the "Leaves" from the author's life ashore, since the close of the War. He discusses Points in the Law of Patents; Marriage ; Divorce ; Divorce Bureaux, their Operators, and their Victims ; Alimony ; Libel and Privilege, and gives various Notable Cases. ,
Some, perhaps, will find more interesting mat- ter in his Notes of Foreign Travel, especially those outside of the usual track of European tourists, in the Valley of the Severn, etc.
HISTORY OF CAMBRIDGE. By Lucius R. Paige.
An admirable history of the intended capital of Massachusetts, excellently arranged, and written with candor and impartiality. The sixteenth chapter con- tains interesting information touching the County Buildings in Cambridge. The Rev. Dr. Paige has made excellent use of the County records, as well as of the Colony and State records. The claim of
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Mayor Green, which is countenanced by Dr. Paige, that Cambridge introduced into this State the system of graded schools, in lieu of the district system, will not stand the test of chronology. Judge Cowley says, Lowell adopted this system, September 3rd, 1832. Dr. Paige says, Cambridge adopted it on October 6, 1834. ' Compare Cowley's History of Lowell, pp. 104-105, with Paige's History of Cam- bridge, p. 377.
LOWELL HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS. [In Press.]
The Old Residents' Historical Society have published three numbers of their Collections. The fourth number will complete a volume. It is much to be wished that this Society, now so firmly estab- lished, would enlarge the sphere of its usefulness, and become a County Society ; or, at least, admit to membership ladies and gentlemen of historical pur- suits or tastes, without requiring residence for a quarter of a century in Lowell.
HISTORY OF DUNSTABLE. By Rev. Elias Nason.
This volume, which treats of the Massachusetts Dunstable, is a worthy companion for Fox's History of the New Hampshire town of the same name. The author's various works have established for him a bright reputation as a writer ; but at page 56, we ob- serve, he has fallen into error. The tragic death of Whitney, which he places "about" 1734, occurred full thirty years later, during the French and Indian War.
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HISTORY OF BILLERICA. By Rev. Henry A. Hazen. [In Press.]
This book will be warmly welcomed by all who are interested in that ancient town-the mother of Tewksbury, ( whose history the book includes, ) and grand-mother of Lowell. Will no one undertake a ·similar labor of love for Chelmsford ? or for Dracut ?
BROWNE'S DIVORCE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. Thoroughly Revised and greatly Enlarged. By Charles Cowley.
A lady, who is herself an excellent writer, says : "Browne's Divorce has thrilled me while reading it, with alternate emotions of exquisite pleasure and of real pain. I once heard Mr. Cowley make what is ·called the closing argument in a case where a man was charged by a woman with an indelicate as- sault. Mr. Sweetser had made a powerful appeal for the defendant, and had torn the character of the un- fortunate plaintiff to tatters. It seemed a hard task indeed to reply ; but Mr. Cowley proved more than a match for his antagonist. He thoroughly dissected the defendant in a manner which, merciless though it was, was felt to be just.
Heaven spare me from such a dissecting knife. It is no wonder that Browne gave up the ghost when this extinguishing delineation of his domestic life came before the world. The style is that of a master. There are passages worthy of Gibbon ; there are others that resemble Macaulay ; and there are spurts of wild rollicking fun, that make you roar as you read.
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Withal, now and then, there are touchies of tender- ness that often compel tears. Is it possible that a writer of such refined sensibility deliberately polluted his bright, sparkling pages with a lascivious acrostic? Or was the Cubas sonnet inserted merely to show Browne's utter rotteness ? Or, lastly, did it slip into the book without the author's discovering its half- concealed impurity ?*
It reminds me, however, of Van Laun's criti- cism of Balzac : 'If we are shocked at times, it is by the revelation of the truth, not by the wanton crea- tion of the writer ; if we are disgusted, it is by our- selves or by human nature !'
Had the weird and wonderful Balzac read Judge Cowley's thrilling narrative, it would doubtless have presented to his vivid imagination the same mournful procession of ideas which, as he tells us, always filled his mind at the word Adultery :- 'Tears, shame, hatred, terror, secret crimes, bloody wars, families without a head, were personified before me, and started up suddenly as I read the sacramental word, Adultery.' "
HISTORY OF LEXINGTON. By Charles Hudson.
"It is a town history; written for the town; published by the town. It is the plea of the town ; in behalf of the town, in matters in which the town
*It was even thus. As soon as the wantonness of this sonnet was discovered, it was expunged. All the later editions are free from it.
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is greatly concerned. What the town does not claim in this volume, therefore, cannot reasonably be claim- ed for the town hereafter."
So says Mr. Dawson, who pronounces it one of the very best of town histories. With his usual pas- sion for criticism, referring to the events of April 19, 1775, Mr. Dawson ironically commends the effort of Mr. Hudson "to show that although his townsmen, after their blustering show of resistance, actually ran away, ingloriously, they did not do so without firing a single shot-the necessity of all which is apparent, since that could not be called a Battle in which all the firing was done by one of the parties and all the running by the other."
The same historical iconoclast declares that the Patriots at Lexington were "very much such a party as those with which the Chinese were wont to oppose the progress of the allies, when they, too, assembled by the way-side, sounded their horns, beat their gongs, and-ran away."
SEMI-CENTENNIAL REPORT OF THE OVERSEERS OF THE POOR OF LOWELL.
. This valuable collection of historical, statistical and legal matter in relation to the city farm, alms- house, work-honse, reform school, insane hospital, and the care of the poor in Lowell, is the first report ever issued by this board. The changes in the organiza- tion of this important body and the names of all its members, are included. Annual reports are now issued. That for 1877 was prepared by Dr. Allen,
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whose long experience on the Board of State Charities give weight to his suggestions. That for 1876 was written by Judge Charles Cowley, who prepared this semi-centennial report, and who also initiated the salutary change in the organization of this board, which was effected by the Revised Charter of Lowell, and which has since been followed in other cities.
HISTORY OF MARLBOROUGH. By Chas. Hudson.
The author's contributions to the history of his native town, Marlborough, and his adopted town, Lexington, as well as of the town of Hudson, which honored itself no less than him by taking his name, deserves the thanks of all who are interested in local history.
Mr. Hudson devotes much, but not too much space to the history of the Indian town which Eliot and Gookin established in Marlborough, and rather extenuates the conduct of the white settlers towards what the apostle Eliot called "the ruins of the red men" who were their neighbors; but we think the best way for the historian is to relate facts just as they occurred. History is not eulogy. The histo- rian is a judge, and not an advocate.
As there never were any "Natick and Wamesit tribes," Mr. Hudson's statement, (page 53) that "the Indians at Marlborough were a branch" of those tribes, requires correction. If he means that they were a branch of the Pawtucket tribe, which ren- dezvoused where Lowell now stands, we should like to see the evidence of it.
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MEMOIR OF EPHRAIM HEALD. By Ephraim
Brown. [In Press.]
The career of Major Heald was as full of wild adventure and of peril as that of Daniel Boone or that of Colonel Crocket; and he was morally far superior to either of them All that was striking, perilous, romantic, or heroic in Middlesex County life in primitive times, is illustrated abundantly in him. As scout, trapper, hunter and pioneer, he had more varied and stranger experiences than any other fron- tiersman whose life has been recorded.
The author is the Major's grandson ; and in his own career as an inventor and otherwise, he has displayed ingenuity equal to that which his grand- sire exhibited in his contests with Indians, moose, bears, and panthers.
THE WRONG LAWYER DISBARRED ; OR FRAUD IN THE COURTS EXPOSED. By Causidicus.
Ten years ago, John D. Howe was disbarred. About the same time, Samuel J. Randall was also disbarred. Henry C. Hutchins's conduct in connec- tion with the Browne Divorce has for some time been under consideration by the Judges of the Sup- reme Court. Thus far he has been spared ; but John F. Dearington, whose case was brought before the Court "on the same day" with that of Hutch- ins, was disbarred; and this pamphlet states the canses. The petition of George C. Browne, which is here printed in full, is one of painful interest.
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Causidicus argues that, "compared with the mal-practices of Dearington, the offence of Hutch- ins was as a mountain to. a mole hill." But al- though Middlesex County, especially Newton, was formerly the theatre of the Browne family's pranks, the Suffolk Bar Association, (if it has any higher pur- pose than eating and drinking) would seem to be the body that ought to move upon Mr. Hutchins's works. Who is Causidicus? People who read the Rev. B. F. Clark's pamphlets on the controversy between George F. Farley, Asahel Huntington and Samuel Parker, have surmized that Mr. Clark is Causidicus ; but he is not.
CYCLOPÆDIA OF MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE :
COMBINING LAW, HISTORY, POETRY, AND
BIOGRAPHY. By Charles Cowley. [In Press. ]
Designed to embody the Elements of Law, the Romance of History, the Gems of Biography, and the Pearls of Poetry. In this Cyclopædia as in · human life, Tragedy is interwoven with Comedy ; blood and tears, with mirth and joy.
HISTORY OF LOWELL. By Charles Cowley. Second Revised Edition. Illustrated.
Town histories are of the most useful of literary productions, though they seldom bring to their au- thors much fame, or any emolument. Mr. Cowley's labors are of an exceptional character, as his very entertaining volume has proved an entire success, and gained for him an enviable position among our best known writers. This is in part due to the good
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fortune that was his in having so fair a subject upon which to labor. Lowell has an unparalleled place in the history of New England's larger communities. The singularity of her origin, marking as it does the opening of a novel and a mighty form of Ameri- can industry ; her rapid growth in numbers, wealth, and reputation, so that her name quickly became known to remote peoples, who knew hardly more of America than that it contained Lowell ; the activity, the intelligence, and boldness of her population, embracing, as it does, almost every form of mental and physical power, because conscripted from numer- ous localities ; the political weight of her leading men of all parties, and their daring action at im- portant crisis ; the enlightened and practical patriot- ism of her people during the late war ;- all these things, and others that might be mentioned, combine to make of, Lowell one of the most interesting subjects on which a man of good talents could wish to concentrate his time and attention.
Such a man is Mr. Cowley, and it is the sim- plest justice to say, that his history of the place of his residence owes much of its unquestioned excel- lence to his capacity to treat of public affairs in a vigorous and vivacious manner. His style is clear and strong. He has labored most industriously and honestly to bring together, within reasonable compass, every thing that can illumine the history of the opulent and energetic community of which he writes, and he places that history before his readers in a very attractive manner.
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Such another collection of facts in illustration of the origin, growth, and character of what is in its way a model city, it would be impossible to find. Not a fact of importance is omitted, and there is a great deal told that will be of the first usefulness to the historian of modern Massachusetts, if such an his- torian she is ever to have. There is much that relates to individuals, men of note,-as Kirk Boott, Dr. Ayer, Gen. Butler, Mr. Warland, W. S. Robin- son, "Warrington," the Abbotts, George Wellman, Thomas Hopkinson, General Schouler, John P. Robinson, B. W. Ball, and others, and this sort of reading is much liked. Lowell's part in the civil war, which does her the utmost honor, is faithfully and min- utely told. He can speak with decided effect on this branch of his subject, as he served himself, and had the honor of being wounded in one of those bitter and bloody engagements which took place near Charleston in the last year of the war, in which so many good lives and so many useful limbs were sacrificed to little purpose .- Hon. Charles C. Haze- well, in the Boston Traveller.
THE CASE OF CHARLES COWLEY US CHARLES R. TRAIN, WILLIAM F. SLOCUM AND LAW- RENCE MCLAUGHLAN.
This remarkable case has been printed for the use of the Legislature, the Suffolk Bar Association and the Supreme Judicial Court, in which it is now pending. It is painful enough to read that the At- torney-General of Louisiana has been indicted for
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murder in his own Parish. It is more painful to see the Attorney-General of Massachusetts accused of the crimes which are here alleged against him and William F. Slocum. Train was once District Attorney for Middlesex. He has also represented this County in the General Court and in Congress. Slocum was once Trial Justice at Newton. He was one of those magistrates who pocketed the moneys paid to them for fines and forfeited recognizances and whose "irregularities" were exposed by the Legislative Committee on County Frauds,
The public have an interest in it for the further reason, that it is contended in behalf of Train and Slocum, that, as the attorneys of the Rev. Joseph B. Clark, they were privileged to suborn Minon, Smith, McLaughlan and other witnesses to commit perjury.
FAMOUS DIVORCES OF ALL AGES. By Charles Cowley.
Divorces are morally, if not legally, the most interesting branch of Criminal Jurisprudence.
"The Annals of Criminal Jurisprudence," says Edmund Burke, "exhibit human nature in a variety of positions, at once the most striking, interesting, and affecting. They present tragedies of real life, often heightened in their effect by the grossness of the injustice, and the malignity of the prejudices, which accompanied them. At the same time real culprits, as original characters, stand forward on the canvas of humanity as prominent objects for our
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special study. I have often wondered that the English language contains no book like the Causes Cel- ebres of the French, particularly as the openness of our proceedings renders the records more certain and accessible, while our public history and domestic con- flicts have afforded so many splendid examples of the unfortunate and the guilty. Such a collection, drawn from our own national sources, and varied by refer- ences to cases of the continental nations, would exhibit man as he is in action and principle, and not as he is usually drawn by poets and speculative . philosophers."
THE PILGRIM FATHERS. Oration delivered before the City Council and Citizens of Low- ell, December 22, 1876. By Hon. John A Goodwin.
This oration contains many facts of Pilgrim history which could not be found elsewhere, without referring to perhaps a dozen authors, each differing more or less from all the others; and some facts that could be found nowhere else. It is monumental to the author, and credit- able to his associates in the City Council, at whose invi- tation it was spoken.
Four historic visits were made to Plymouth, prior to the coming of the Pilgrims, which Mr. Goodwin does not mention. They were made as follows :- by Gosnold in 1602; by Pring in 1603; by Champlain in 1604; and by Captain John Smith in 1614
HISTORY OF WOBURN. By Samuel Sewall.
The venerable author carefully narrates the history of one of the most important towns in Middlesex County from 1640 to 1860. The town of Burlington being an
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off-shoot of Woburn, hier history is included it that of her municipal mother. Mr. Dawson has noticed, in his His- torical Magazine, that Edward Johnson, one of the founders of this town, has been strangely confounded with an illiterate carpenter who, also, is said to have settled in Woburn, about 1637; as well as with a third person of that name, a resident of another Colony, who very probably wrote The Wonder-working Providence. And he says, "There is no more reliable evidence of the truth of this portion of the narrative than there is of the truth of Sinbad the Sailor."
INDIAN AND PIONEER MEMORIES OF THE REGION OF LOWELL. By Charles Cowley.
The work is really the history of Lowell before Low- ell was, and shows how much of interesting matter there is to be told of that important section of country.ere cot- ton had been ginned at the South, or cottons manufac- tured at the North. We are glad to see that Mr. Cowley does justice to the Indians, a race vilely used by the whites, who generally libel those whom they trample up- on or destroy. Often rising to eloquence, just in its opinions, and abounding with facts not easily to be ob- tained, Mr. Cowley's pamphlet deserves high praise; and we should think it might be uscfully extended into a larger and more elaborate work .- Boston Traveller.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IN LOWELL.
The pamphlet entitled, "Proceedings in the City of Lowell at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Incor- poration of the Town of Lowell, March 1, 1876," contains materials of great value to the student of local history and biography. It was one of the first of the series of historic documents printed by the Penhallow Printing Company under its present organization. That portion of General Butler's oration (pages 37-41) in which he des-
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cribes Lowell as he first saw it, from the summit of Chris- tian Hill, in 1828, will be read with a keener interest hun- dreds of years hence than it is now. It is as true to life as is the outline of himself-"a slender boy of less than ten years, with a foxskin cap closely drawn over his ears, linsey-woolsey jacket tightly buttoned to his throat."
It is to be regretted that General Butler could not spare the time for a careful revision of this oration. Not a line of it was written with a pen; but the words were dictated to his type-writer as lie paced his room, when the beloved companion of his life was approaching her end, and when he was never more burdened with pub- lic and private labors and cares. It was his intention that the fifth paragraph on page 37, should read thus :-
"To the left, a group of huts, part with mud walls roofed with slabs, with here and there a small white frame house near them, stood at a place called the 'Acre' (which afterwards became the subject of an almost inter- minable litigation) surrounding the spot where now the magnificent edifice of the first Catholic Church rears its illuminated cross for the adoration of its worshippers." MARITIME INTERNATIONAL LAW. By John A. Dahlgren, late Rear Admiral, U. S. Navy. Edited by Charles Cowley, of the Massachusetts Bar, formerly Judge-Advocate on the Staff of the Author.
These notes were left in an incomplete state, but they have furnished the basis for a very excellent practical treatise upon those parts of international law that naval officers have to do with. The work of the editor, who has given the treatise its finishing touches, is thoroughly well done, and we know no volume in which the topics mentioned are more carefully considered. These topics are : Law of Blockade; Contraband of War; Visitation and Search; Duties of Naval Commanders on Foreign Stations .- Albany Law Journal.
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A CROSBY FAMILY. By Hon. Nathan Crosby.
An admirable monograph on an old Middlesex County family of excellent repute. Another Lowell gentleman, Mr James S. Russell. has in preparation a genealogy of the Russell and Potter families.
THE DIALOGUES OF PLATO WITH SOCRATES AND CRITO. Literally Translated by John
Curran-Keegan. [In Press.]
These two dialogues-one on Friendship, the other on Citizenship-have borne a high reputation for two and twenty centuries, and have been repeatedly translated by "able hands."
Mr. Keegan is a grandson of the famous Irish orator, John Philpot Curran, and graduated with honors at Trinity College in his native city, (Dublin,) in the class of 1877. He is now preparing for the Middlesex Bar, where he will give a good account of himself.
The special merit of his translation of this classic is that it is literal, and peculiarly adapted to beginners in Greek. Lowell, which had the honor to publish the first American edition of Goethe's Faust, is about to present through the Penhallow Printing Company, the first American translation of Plato's most famous work.
THE BURNING OF THE CONVENT. By Louisa Whitney.
This is strictly a Middlesex County book, by a Mid- dlesex County Lady. The same fleet which brought to the British North American Colonies the Army of Count Rochambeau to aid in the War of Independence, also brought over a body of Irish Nuns, who had been educat- ed in French Convents, to keep a boarding school for the children of the more wealthy of the Colouists, the child- ren of Protestants being preferred. These Nuns finally established themselves in a Convent ou Mount Benedict
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in Charlestown. On the night of August 11th, 1834, that Convent was destroyed by a mob, and the Author relates how it was done.
The convent had stood fourteen years. In connection with Mrs. Whitney's sprightly narrative, one should not fail to read Mr. Froude's "Annals of an English Abbey," in the third series of his Short Studies on Great Subjects. EULOGY OF HON. TAPPAN WENTWORTH. By Nathan Crosby.
Judge Crosby's affectionate tribute to the memory of his friend is full in its details of his early. life, but less so touching the incidents of his later career. The notorious ballot-box frauds, by which William H. Loughlin was foisted into the seat in the House of Representatives, which unquestionably belonged to the subject of this well merited eulogy, might well have been adverted to by the learned Judge. But still, he may have been wise in studying "the things that make for peace."
Mr. Wentworth was the legal adviser of Miss Rogers, when she made that public-spirited offer to the city of Lowell, of the gift of Fort Hill, which the short-sighted eity government of that day rejected. It is unquestion- able, that the disgust excited in Mr. Wentworth's mind by the blindness of that blundering body, found expression in his will, in which Dartmouth College is magnificently remembered, and Lowell is remembered to be forgotten.
It is to be hoped that, "in the sweet bye and bye," of which Moody and Sankey so often sing, (if not sooner,) Miss Rogers will renew her generous offer, and that the eity will promptly accept it. Fort Ilill should be made a Rogers Park. planted with noble trees, and laid out in beautiful walks. Its summit should be crowned with a bronze equestrian statue of General Butler as he appeared. on the grandest night of his eventful life, when he took possession of Federal Hill in Baltimore.
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HISTORY OF GROTON. By Samuel A. Green.
Butler's History of Groton is so excellent a book, that none but a very learned, or a very presumptuous man, can be expected to add much to Butler's contribu- tions, or to correct his many errors. Dr. Green has given so many proofs of his unwearied industry, his ex- haustive researches, and his sound judgment, in matters of history,-notably, in his Centennial Oration at Groton, -that we look for a rich treat from him in this work. HISTORY OF CONCORD. By Frederick Hudson.
It is devoutly to be wished, that this work may shortly be published. It is true that Shattuck's History of Concord (which included Bedtord, Acton. Lincoln, and Carlisle) is one of the very best local histories that have come down to us from the last generation. But no man like the late Mr. Hudson could travel the long path of old Concord's history without finding many new facts, and presenting many old facts in new and striking lights, besides enriching his pages with many admirable reflec- tions and suggestions.
We are happy to learn that the work was in a state nearly complete, when the terrible accident took place, by which the author lost his life.
From 1692 to 1839 Concord was a shire town of Middlesex, and regular sittings of the courts were held there. The first court house in Concord was built in 1719; the second was built in 1794 and burned in 1849; the third, (now occupied by the Middlesex Mutual Fire Insurance Company,) was built in 1851.
While the Courts were held at Concord, many memo- rable trials took place there-such as that of Job Shat- tuck, one of the leaders in Shay's Rebellion. in 1787; that of the rioters who burned the Ursuline Convent at Charlestown in 1835; that of the Phoenix Bank swindlers in 1842; and that of Samuel Parker in 1848. The only
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man ever put to death in Concord by sentence of the law, was a burglar named Smith who was hanged. at the commencement of the present century, by Sheriff Hosmer.
MEMOIR OF JAMES C. AVER. [In Press.]
The Phrenological Journal has lately published a brief but excellent memoir of Nathan Allen, M. D., LL. D.
The forthcoming volume of Lowell Historical Collec- tions will contain an autobiography of John O. Green, M. D., President of the Old Residents' Association.
Dr. Ayer was never a practicing physician like Drs. Allen and Green; but the immense fortune which he accumulated, the world-wide business which his enter- prize built up, the radical reforms which he, more than any other man, effected, in the management of the great manufacturing corporations of Lowell, and indeed of all New England, and the prominence in which he stood (though in a private station) before the community for many years,-all call for the preparation and publication of some record of his active and eventful career. The malady from which he is now suffering, being probably incurable, his name no longer appears in its accustomed place on the numerous manufacturing and banking corpo- rations in which he was a large proprietor, and he has not been seen at any public assembly in Lowell since the celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary of its incorporation, March 1, 1876.
Except that his uncle, Mayor Cook, gave him fatherly counsel in the years of his boyhood after his own father died, and excepting a little help from his father-in-law, Senator Southwick, in a critical period of his life, Dr. Ayer is the sole architect of his own fortune. In his later life, he has had able lientenants, but they have been of his own training. Moreover, he has had none of the avenues opened to him, through which the common herd
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of public men pass to distinction. The doors of Con- gress, opened to hundreds of the most mediocre creatures that ever brayed, were closed to him; though he would have won in the canvass of 1874, but for the discredit into which his party had fallen by its blind and blunder- ing dealings with the South.
The salutary measures of legislation touching the corporations, which were passed in consequence of the agitations started by him, were passed without his per- sonally entering the legislative halls. Lowell, which year after year, for thirty years, sent her annual quota of hoodlums to the General Court, left the genius of Dr. Ayer to create its own opportunities ; and as one of the results of all this, his name is familiar in hundreds of cities where Lowell is known only as the place where Ayer's Almanac is printed, and Ayer's medicines prepared.
THE WRONG MEMBER OF THE MIDDLESEX BAR CONVICTED OF PERJURY. By Rev. B. F. Clark.
This pamphlet, which first appeared in 1848, is about to be republished with a commentary on the case. The author gives pretty good reasons for the belief that the late George F. Farley should have been convicted of per- jury, instead of Samuel Parker, who, however, was finally acquitted. Rufus Choate, Albert H. Nelson, Edward Mellen, Asahel Huntington and Charles R. Train, all figured prominently, (some of them not at all creditably,) against Mr. Parker, and Franklin Dexter, John P. Robin- son, Charles Allen, and Benjamin F. Butler for him. It was one of the first cases in which Mr. Butler's genius shone conspicuously. The conviction of Judge Prescott on articles of impeachment, and the conviction of Mr. Parker on the trumped up charge of perjury, were the two greatest judicial outrages that have occurred in Mid- dlesex since the hanging of the witches.
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MEMOIR OF JOSEPH B. VARNUM.
It is almost sixty years since Joseph Bradley Varnum, by far the most conspicuous figure in Northern Mid- dlesex during the Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary periods of our history, was buried "under arms," on the banks of the Merrimack River. By the public at large, he is well nigh forgotten; by historical students, he is known only as a member of either branch of Congress- as Speaker of the House, and as President pro tem of the Senate. But the effect , of his impact on the politics of Massachusetts was very great for more than thirty years ; and in County affairs more particularly he exercised a controlling power. As a Legislator, as a General and as a Judge, his life will well repay a perusal, and we are happy to know that one of the most competent of his numerous grandsons, now a citizen of Missouri, is en- gaged upon this work.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COUNTY EX- PENDITURES. 1
This report, made three years ago, contains expo- sures of corruption and long-continued, systematic embezzlements, by numerous county officers, which are perfectly astounding. We have had Trial Justices as arrant knaves as the prisoners upon whom they passed judgment. Some of our District Attorneys and Clerks of Courts have been no better. This report was prepared by W. C. Parker, Jr., of New Bedford, and the friends of "Retrenchment and Reform" can do no better than repub- lish this report, with appropriate notes and comments. Those officers who, while others were wallowing in corrup- tion, kept their own feet in the straight and narrow path of honor and probity, deserve the highest praise ; while the "corruptionists" should be dealt with unsparingly. In this respect, it is gratifying to know that the Police Court of Lowell has been a pattern court. All moneys
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paid by defendants or their sureties for forfeited recog- nizanees in this Court, have actually reached the County Treasury, and the Court is a source of income to the public, instead of being the public burden which too many similar tribunals are.
THE UNWIGGED JUDGE : OR DEBAUCHERY UPON THE BENCH.
A well known member of the Middlesex Bar is cred- ited with having in preparation a story under this title. founded on certain incidents in the life of a libertine who was at one time Judge of the Police .Court of Boston. The book will doubtless relate the attempt to extort from Vice- President Wilson the Consulate at Naples as "the price of peace" touching certain old scandals about him. This "operation" is mentioned in a note to Cowley's. "Famous Divorces of All Ages."
Other scenes there are, worthy of the pen of another Hawthorne-particularly that where the judge sentences to the House of Correction the frail Carrie whom he has himself debauched and ruined ; and that where, npon an official visit to the Girls' Reform School, the ermined scoundrel meets, face to face, his own little cast-away, foundling daughter.
LIFE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG.
The late President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was unquestionably the most extra- ordinary man ever born in Middlesex County. Another son of old Middlesex now purposes to publish his Life. Some delay, however, is inevitable, on account of getting many facts required to make the book complete; especi- ally those relating to his missionary labors in his native county nearly forty years ago. Another missionary . Elder Cummings, afterwards organized a branch of the Mormon Church in Lowell.
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