In making so important an alteration, we ought, I conceive, at least, to act understandingly and with deliberation, and not to take a leap in the dark. We ought to be as well assured as the nature of the case will admit of that we are not acting against our own interest. When the alteration is once made, it will remain for ever. Some one State, at least, will undoubtedly find it for their particular advantage; and, as it cannot be again altered without the consent of all the States, that State which shall thus find it for their particular advantage will not consent to any other alteration which may be less to their advantage.

I suspect my letter has been so tedious, that, by this time, you repent of having done me the honor of inviting me to a correspondence with you. I confess, as a citizen of this Commonwealth, I feel myself interested in this subject. This is the only apology I can make for the undue length of my letter. I wish to be favored with your sentiments on this subject. Is the act for the alteration so circumstanced that it cannot be repealed? If not, gentlemen who view the matter in the light which I do will think it to be a case which admits of no delay.

You will please to present my best regards to Mrs. Phillips, Mr. French and lady; and believe me to be, with the highest esteem, Your most obedient, humble servant,

Hon. Mr. PHILLIPS.

J. BACON.

P.S.Notwithstanding the tedious length of the foregoing letter, I still feel an inclination to add thereto. Perhaps, after all that I have written, I have not hit on the grand reason which induced the Legislature to comply with the recommendation of Congress. I have lately been informed, that, at the time of passing the act, it was conceded in the House that the terms were unequal; and that the principal reason offered in favor of it was, that they were the best terms the Southern gentlemen could be induced to comply with. But will they comply with the Confederation as it now stands? If not, what security can we have that they will comply with any alteration that can be made? Or are we to be dictated solely by the Southern States, and to take just such a proportion of the public burden upon us as they may see fit, from time to time, to impose upon us? During the war, while we were threatened with immediate destruction from a foreign enemy, we made very unequal exertions, and, compared with

the Southern States, furnished much more than our proportion of men, money, and provisions, for the army. This we were then obliged to do for our own preservation; and shall we now, on the return of peace, couch down under a far more unequal burden, and, by our own act, make it a perpetual one, because it is the lightest the Southern States can be induced to assign us? If we voluntarily submit to this (be it ever so galling), I am sure we shall deserve to bear it.

I humbly conceive some effectual measures ought speedily to be taken for obtaining a Continental valuation on the principles of the eighth article. If this business was properly taken up, and urged in a cogent and spirited manner, I am very apprehensive the Southern gentlemen would be alarmed, and, rather than submit their interests to that scrutiny which the nature of the case will admit of, agree to an apportionment, according to the number of the inhabitants, on equal terms with us. If they will not do this, then let us have a valuation immediately, on the principles of the Confederation as it now stands, provided the alteration is not already confirmed beyond the power of a reconsideration. This I should, on the whole, prefer to an apportionment according to the number of inhabitants, provided our delegates were as thoroughly informed of the wealth and situation of the Southern States as theirs are of ours; but this, I conceive, they never will be from hearsay, nor yet from barely riding on the public roads through the country.

Let us

Permit me here to propose another case for illustration. suppose the inhabitants of this State to vest so much of their property in slaves as to procure a sufficient number to perform an equal proportion of the labor here with that which is performed by the slaves in the Southern States. This being done, let the free citizens - of this State retire from labor and business equally with the free citizens of those States. In what a situation should we very soon find ourselves! Should we be able to support the same appearances of affluence, splendor, and luxury, which are to be seen in the Southern States? or rather would not masters and slaves, in a very short time, be seen starving together in promiscuous heaps? And to what must those different appearances be ascribed, but to the greater fertility, and consequently to the greater relative value, of the soil in one place than in the other?

I have not mentioned the large number of negroes in this State which are a nuisance to us, and for which we are to pay two-fifths

more than the Southern States are to pay for an equal number of their slaves. Nor have I said any thing of the long and tedious winters, against the severities of which we have to provide, both for man and beast, an inconvenience which the inhabitants of the Southern States have scarcely an idea of. There are many other considerations that I conceive to be pertinent and weighty, as they relate to the present question, which, were I but briefly to touch upon, I must write a volume, rather than a letter. Perhaps you will say I have done this already.

As a citizen of this Commonwealth, I am indeed mortified. I think, when the alteration is once confirmed, the inhabitants of the Southern States will smile, and whisper (at least among themselves) that Issachar is - strong

Mr. ROBBINS (C.) communicated the following letter from Charles Stoddard, Esq., presenting to the Society several letters bearing the autograph signature of Governor Shirley, and other ancient papers of historical interest:

112, BEACON STREET, BOSTON, March 6, 1862.

DEAR SIR, I send with this sundry letters by Governor Shirley to my ancestor, Colonel John Stoddard, then in command of the Western frontier, together with sundry other documents of the last century, which have come down to me, from my ancestors, and which may be found of public historical interest, and, as such, of some value to the Massachusetts Historical Society.

To that Society, should they deem them of any interest, I propose, through you, to present these papers, that any facts of the past, of interest to the present or future, may be gleaned therefrom.

I am, dear sir, very respectfully yours,

CHARLES STODDARD.

To Rev. CHANDLER ROBBINS, D.D.

Voted, That the thanks of the Society be presented to Mr. Stoddard for his valuable contribution to its archives.

The President nominated Messrs. Saltonstall, Warren, and Livermore, to nominate a list of officers at the annual meeting.

He also nominated, as a Committee on the Treasurer's accounts, Messrs. Lawrence, Tudor, and Forbes.

Mr. SAVAGE communicated the following paper from Joseph Lemuel Chester, of England, author of a recently published biography of John Rogers, the martyr:

THE ROGERS GENEALOGY AND THE CANDLER MS.

BY JOSEPH LEMUEL CHESTER.

IN my Life, &c., of John Rogers, the martyr, recently published by Messrs. Longman and Company, in London, I have discussed at length the assumed connection of the Rogers families of New England with him through his alleged son and grandson, Richard Rogers of Wethersfield, and John Rogers of Dedham; and shown, I think, conclusively, the entire fallacy of the claims so pertinaciously urged during the last few years. My investigations have been of the most careful and thorough character; and I am satisfied that there is little if any more to be learned on the subject from responsible sources at present accessible. Tracing my own descent. distinctly from John Rogers of Dedham, the name being preserved to my maternal grandmother, I have felt the disappointment as keenly as any of the thousands of my American countrymen, with whom, in common, I have always heretofore indulged the agreeable delusion; and they may rest assured, that I spared no pains to establish as a fact, what I was finally compelled to pronounce, under an overwhelming weight of evidence, an utterly baseless fiction.

In the progress of that work, I necessarily collected a mass of information respecting various branches and mem

bers of the great Rogers Family; and have since been pursuing my researches especially in reference to the history of John Rogers of Dedham and his immediate connections. The man himself was worthy of a more extended biography than has ever been written of him; and was also of still greater importance, as being the direct ancestor of most of the American families of his name. In the prosecution of these special researches, I have recently fallen upon a series of remarkable blunders, hitherto received as authentic statements, of a character so serious, considering their origin and the manner in which they have been perpetuated, that I feel justified in resolving upon their public exposure at once, instead of delaying until I may finally use the materials I am now collecting in another manner.

That the strictest accuracy in all genealogical statements cannot be too strongly insisted upon, is a maxim, the importance of which I need not discuss. The variation in a single name or date will often invalidate, or involve in inextricable confusion, an entire pedigree. It is sad, then, and as unaccountable as it is sad, to find now that a series of serious discrepancies in the Rogers pedigrees, as at present recog nized, owe their origin to what can only be regarded as sheer carelessness in a man whose very name was, and ought to be, a sufficient guaranty for the correctness of any statement to which it is attached.

In my life of the martyr, I refer only casually to what is known as the "Candler Manuscript," in the British Museum; its contents, so far as the Rogers pedigree is concerned, being necessary for my purpose only as they tended to confirm my position relative to the absence of any connection between the martyr, and Richard and John Rogers of Wethersfield and Dedham. A recent more careful examination of it leads me to concur in the universal opinion of the best antiquarians, that it is a document of extreme value, and that the utmost reliance is to be placed upon its statements. The