225 



Mr. A. C. Goodell, as. Chairman of the Curators of His- 

 tory, proposed for the consideration of the Institute the sub- 

 ject of " New England's Heraldry." The following is the 

 substance of his remarks : 



^ Alter alluding to the well known fact that it is claimed 

 by the Southern Rebels that they are of better extraction, 

 in the feudal sense, than the people of New England, he 

 proeeeded to show that this claim, though utterly unfound- 

 ed, is beginning to be treated, at home and abroad, as a 

 matter of some consequence in considering the probable 

 event of the struggle which agitates the country. 



The wholesale charge of John Arthur Ro(ibuck, the mem- 

 ber of Parliament for Sheffield, that the North is composed 

 of a mixed population of people of low origin, ol outlaws 

 and criminals, while the South, on the other hand, is largely 

 peopled by the descendants of the Cavaliers, who are there- 

 fore more nearly allied to the gentry and nobility of Great 

 Britain, had never, in the opinion of the speaker, met the 

 utter and general contradiction which it deserves. 



On the contrary, the silence of the press and even the 

 positive admission of some public Northern speakers, such 

 as the Rev. Dr. Bellows of N. Y., has the effect of establish- 

 ing this error in the minds of our enemies and in the public 

 opinion of Europe. The speaker said he was glad to know 

 that the newspaper press has, at last, begun to question the 

 truth of this invidious charge. 



Dr. 0. W. Holmes, too, in the December No. of the 

 Atlantic Monthly, has protested against this error, in very 

 strong terms, in his article, " My hunt after the Captain ;" 

 also, Count Gurowski has met the accusation with a scath- 

 ing denial in his " Diary." It is to be hoped that these 

 indications warrant the belief that the public mind will soon 

 give this subject sufficient attention. The speaker was 

 happy to announce that in several states, persons interested 

 in genealogical and historical studies are at this moment 

 engaged in preparing articles, the effect of which will be to 

 prove incontestably that a far larger proportion of the peo- 

 ple of New England are from an ancestry of gentle and 

 noble consanguinity than of the people of the South. Mr. 



ESSEX INST. PROCEED. VOL. hi. 29. 



