EEPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



Since the last report, May 12, 1874, the Academy has lost by 

 death twelve members, as follows : seven Fellows, Benjamin 

 Robbins Curtis, George Derby, Francis Cabot Lowell, Charles 

 G. Putnam, Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff, James Walker, 

 and Jeffries Wyman ; five foreign Honorary Members, Arge- 

 lander, Elie de Beaumont, Sir William Fairbairn, Guizot, and 

 Sir Charles Lyell. 



BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS. 



Benjamin Bobbins Curtis was born in Watertown, Massaolm- 

 setts, Nov. 4, 1809, and died in Newport, Rliode Island, Sc])t. 15, 1874. 

 He was graduated at Harvard College in the class of 1829, and 

 admitted to the bar in 1832. He commenced the practice of the law 

 in Northfield, Massachusetts, where he remained for two years. In 

 1834, he became a partner with the late Charles P. Curtis, then one 

 of the leaders of the Suffolk bar. He very soon came to be recognized 

 as a lawyer competent to lead in the most important causes ; as one 

 capable of contending with Mason, Webster, or Choate ; and familiarly 

 acquainted with all the departments of juridical science. 



Judge Woodbury died in 1851, and in September of that year, on 

 the recommendation of Mr. Webster, then Secretary of State, who 

 knew him well, Mr. Curtis was appointed associate justice of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States. The appointment received the 

 cordial approval of the profession throughout New England. On 

 the circuit he was always spoken of as a model judge. He was pa- 

 tient though prompt, courteous though firm, willing to hear and ready 

 to decide. One of the ablest lawyers in the country, who knew him 

 as a member of the Supreme Court, but echoed the common sentiment 

 of the bar when he said of him that, '' as a judge of this august tribunal, 



