588 BALCH— SOME FORMER MEMBERS. [April 18. 



Ponceau read before this society a long paper on " The Nature and 

 Character of the Chinese System of Writing," which was printed 

 in 1838 in the second vokime of the Transactions of the Historical 

 and Literary Committee.^^ 



Besides being president of the American Philosophical Society 

 from 1827 to 1844, a period of seventeen years, Du Ponceau was 

 president of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania from 1837 to 

 1844, provost of the Law Academy of Philadelphia from 1821 to 

 1844, chancellor of the Law Association of Philadelphia from 1836 

 to 1844, and the president of the Philadelphia Athenseum for more 

 than sixty years. Du Ponceau was elected as a result of his literary 

 labors a corresponding member of many learned societies both at 

 home and abroad, such as the American Antiquarian Society (1813), 

 the Massachusetts Historical Society (1818), the New York His- 

 torical Society (1819), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 

 of Boston (1820), the French Institute (1827), the Royal Academy 

 of Turin (1829), the Academy of Inscriptions, Belles-Lettres, His- 

 tory and Antiquities of Sweden (1831), the Academy of Sciences 

 and Belles-Lettres of Palermo (1837), and many more that attest 

 the high regard in which his work was held by scholars the world 

 over. In addition. Harvard, the oldest of American universities, 

 conferred in 1820 upon this scholar who was learned in the law the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. 



Two sovereigns were members of this society, Joseph Bonaparte, 

 who was designated on the list of members as " Joseph Count de 

 Survilliers," King of Spain, from 1808 to 1813; and Louis Philippe, 

 King of the French from 1830 to 1848. The former of these royal 

 exiles presented to the society an Etruscan vase. 



Anthony Wayne, the victor of Stony Point, and whose equestrian 

 statue now mounts guard at Valley Forge, was chosen a member 

 between April 16, 1779, and January 19, 1781.^*^ 



" " A Dissertation of the Nature and Character of the Chinese System of 

 Writing, in a letter to John Vaughan, Esq.," by Peter S. Du Ponceau, LL.D., 

 Philadelphia, 1838. 



^^ Samuel Whitaker Pennypacker, " Pennsylvania in American History," 

 Philadelphia, 1910, pages 30, 208. 



