AmM°ay?imrm'}  The  Franklin  Bi-Centenary.  241 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  is  the  president  of  the  Society,  and  he, 
together  with  the  other  officers  of  the  Society  having  the  celebration 
in  charge,  deserves  great  credit  for  the  admirable  way  in  which  the 
celebration  was  planned  and  carried  out.  In  this  connection  Dr.  I. 
Minis  Hays,  senior  Secretary  of  the  Society,  deserves  special  men- 
tion, not  only  for  having  first  conceived  the  idea  of  holding  the 
celebration,  but  also  because  of  the  great  amount  of  work  which  he 
did  in  arranging  for  it. 
That  the  celebration  was  planned  on  broad  lines  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  no  less  than  125  of  the  oldest  and  leading  learned  societies 
and  institutions  of  learning  in  all  parts  of  the  world  were  represented 
by  delegates.  The  delegates  numbered  about  200  and  included 
members  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  members  of  the 
Legislature  of  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  and  members  of  the  Council 
of  the  City  of  Philadelphia.  The  meeting  was  therefore  national  in 
character,  and  some  of  the  events  connected  with  it  served  to  make 
it  international  in  significance  and  illustrated  again  the  happy 
thought  that  the  men  of  science  and  the  men  of  letters  constitute  a 
world  democracy.  The  special  features  of  the  programme  were  the 
conferring  of  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  upon  Miss 
Agnes  Irwin,  great-great  granddaughter  of  Franklin  and  dean  of 
RadclirTe  College,  the  Woman's  Annex  to  Harvard  University,  by 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  Lord  Rector  of  St.  Andrew's  University, 
Scotland,  who  stated  that  this  same  degree  had  been  conferred  by 
St.  Andrew's  University  on  Benjamin  Franklin  in  1759;  the  pre- 
sentation to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  of  two  medallions 
— one  of  Benjamin  Franklin  made  by  his  friend  and  admirer  Josiah 
Wedgewood  and  one  of  Erasmus  Darwin — by  Sir  George  H.  Darwin, 
great-grandson  of  Josiah  Wedgewood  and  great-grandson  of  Eras- 
mus Darwin ;  the  conferring  of  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  ot 
Laws  upon  King  Edward  VII  through  the  British  Ambassador  to 
the  United  States,  Sir  Henry  Mortimer  Durand,  by  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania ;  presentation  of  the  Commemorative  Medal  to  the 
Republic  of  France  through  His  Excellency  Jules  Jusserand,  LL.D., 
Ambassador  Extraordinary  and  Envoy  Plenipotentiary,  by  Hon. 
Elihu  Root,  LL.D.,  Secretary  of  State,  under  the  direction  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  exhibition  of  the  Wilson 
portrait  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  which  was  stolen  from  his  residence 
in  Philadelphia  during  the  Revolution,  carried  to  England  and 
