112 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



1606, which gave the company power over the land from 

 South Carolina to Maine. The speaker then went on to 

 furnish a concise statement of the settlement of the vari- 

 ous colonies and of the steps by which they acquired the 

 executive and legislative branches. 



A new feature seems to have gradually grown up in these 

 colonies, for which we can find no exact precedent in Eng- 

 lish history. The executive branch consisted not in one 

 man, the King's representative, but in the governor and 

 council. In Pennsylvania this council had only executive 

 power, but in the other colonies it formed the upper 

 branch of the legislature. The words royal and propriety 

 will show how the governors of those colonies were ap- 

 pointed, while in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Con- 

 necticut, the unusual liberty again appeared in the appoint- 

 ing of the governor by the people. 



Monday, March 2, 1891.— Mr. William L. Welch, lec- 

 tured on "Recollections of the Burnside Expedition" in 

 1862, which resulted in the capture of Roanoke Island and 

 Newberne, N. C, from the Confederate forces. 



Five Massachusetts Regiments were in the command ; 

 in the 23rd Massachusetts Regiment, were two Salem com- 

 panies : A, Captain E. A. P. Brewster, and F, Captain 

 George M. Whipple. 



Mr. Welch spoke of the regiment leaving camp at 

 Lynnfield, in November, 1861, and described the incidents 

 of the journey to Annapolis where the troops went on 

 board transports on January 6, 1862. On January 15, 

 the last of the sailing vessels entered Hatteras inlet but it 

 was fully two weeks before the fleet got over the swash or 

 inner bar on account of shoal water. During the stay at 

 the Inlet the troops suffered from want of food and water. 

 The almost continuous storm and the non-arrival of water- 



