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The Third Annual Meeting of the Virginia Historical Society was held, according to adjournment, in the Hall of the House of Delegates, on Thursday evening, the 10th inst., and was graced by the attendance of a large and brilliant audience the Governor of the Commonwealth, many members of the General Assembly, gentlemen and ladies, citizens and strangers-assembled on the interesting occasion. In the absence of the President of the Society, (the Hon. Wm. C. Rives, of Albemarle,) Wm. H. Macfarland, Esq., of this City, one of the Vice-Presidents, presided; and, on taking the chair, made a brief and very apppropriate address. After this, Gustavus A. Myers, Esq., a member, in the absence of Conway Robinson, Esq., the Chairman, read the Report of the Executive Committee, showing the progress of the Society during the past year; certainly very honorable to the Board, and very gratifying to all the friends of the cause.

The Secretary, Mr. Maxwell, then read a List of the Books, and other donations which had been received since the last Annual Meeting; and announced the names of the Honorary and Corresponding Members who had been elected during the same period.

Wm. M. Burwell, Esq., of Bedford, now read the Annual Discourse, upon the subject of the True Policy of Virginia, indicated by her past history, and, more particularly, by her present position in relation to the United States,

prompting her to develope all her natural resources in the prosecution of her agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial interests, along with the education of her citizens, and likely to result, as he hoped, in the future prosperity of all her people;-a sensible and suggestive paper, full of just thoughts, embellished with fine fancies, and altogether worthy of the grave and earnest attention with which it was heard.

The Rev. P. Slaughter, of Petersburg, a Corresponding Member of the Society, being present, and duly invited, submitted some remarks relating to his late travels in England, Scotland, and Italy, illustrating the patriotic feelings of a Virginian abroad, and referring to some points in the early annals of our State; which were finely conceived and handsomely expressed; and which were heard accordingly with lively satisfaction by all present.

The Secretary read a Letter from Hugh B. Grigsby, Esq., formerly of Norfolk, but now of Charlotte, a Corresponding Member of the Society, proposing that the Society should immediately proceed to build a suitable House, for the reception of its Library and other treasures; and offering to be one of a hundred gentlemen who should subscribe one hundred dollars each, making the sum of ten thousand dollars, for the object;-which was referred to the Executive Committee.

Mr. Conway, of Fredericksburg, now offered a resolution thanking Mr. Burwell for his able and interesting discourse, and requesting a copy of it for preservation in the archives, and for publication, along with the Proceedings of the Meeting, by the Executive Committee; which was adopted.

Altogether the meeting was one of great interest, and we feel assured that the impressions which it has made upon the minds and hearts of all present, are highly favorable and auspicious to the future prosperity of the cause in which this patriotic Society is so laudably and so successfully engaged.*

*In this short statement we refer of course only to the regular Proceedings of the Meeting, embraced in the order of the evening. There were some other incidents of the occasion,-Mr. Wise's speech, Mr. Lee's handsome reply, &c., which, strictly speaking, were hardly legitimate parts of the performance, and which we have, therefore, not thought it worth while to record.

THE REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

In submitting our Annual Report to the Society at this time, we are happy to congratulate you on what we may fairly call the prosperous state of our affairs.

It is true that owing to the extraordinary engagements of our worthy chairman in a still higher service, and, we regret to add, the want of punctuality in many of our members who have failed to forward their annual contributions, we have not been able to publish the continuation of the Early Voyages which we announced in our last report; but, in other respects, we have prosecuted our engagement with good success. For some proof of this fact, we may refer you to the pages of the Virginia Historical Register, conducted by our Secretary with our aid and sanction, which has gathered and given to the public some truly valuable contributions to the Historic Literature of our State, and some of which, we may say, would never have seen the light but for the existence of our Society and its convenient organ. At the same time, this work has done much, and will do more, to popularise the subjects of the History and Biography of our State, and to diffuse a taste for enquiry into these interesting matters among our citizens, which cannot but produce the best results.

We may mention also what our General Agent reports→→→ that during the late summer, he made some rapid excursions into the counties of Powhatan, Albemarle, Prince Edward, Charlotte and Halifax, to invite the co-operation of our fellow-citizens in those parts, and that his overtures were every where received with all the favor which he could have fairly hoped. The result will appear in the gratifying fact that we have received 80 new members into our Society, of whom ten have chosen to become Life Members,

and have thus made a handsome addition of $500 to our permanent fund. We may add, that we have also received some valuable donations to our Library which will be more particularly mentioned in our Librarian's report; and we have also imported a small parcel of rare and important books from London, which must be of great service to us in the preparation of our future works for the press.

In short, we have done what we could to maintain the cause committed to our care, according to the means put into our hands. With more means our successors will of course be able to do more; and we may trust that those means will not be wanting. The cause in which we are engaged is one which naturally appeals to all the best and finest sensibilities of our nature. It appeals, more particularly, to that patriotic feeling which attaches us to our native land, and all the free and generous institutions which it enshrines in its bosom; and to that noble sentiment which leads us to honor our ancestors, and preserve their sacred memories as at once the ornaments and the muniments of our Commonwealth. It is no wonder, then, that the announcement of it has been, every where, received with such lively demonstrations of approbation and favor as cannot be mistaken. In the just popularity of our engagement, therefore, we may find a sure guarantee for a large ultimate success. In the mean time, however, it is obvious, and recent experience has rather painfully demonstrated, that we cannot prosecute our labors with all that effect which is so desirable on many accounts, without the generous aid of the Legislature, which we have been instructed to invoke, and which, we are persuaded, will not be denied. The unsolicited recommendation of our worthy Governor on this point cannot be disregarded by the hono rable bodies which compose our General Assembly, who must share his sentiments, and will, perhaps, anticipate our

application by their own prompt and spontaneous action in the case.

We cannot close this brief statement without adverting, for a moment, to the loss which our Society, as well as the whole community, has sustained in the deaths, during the past year, of two of our honorary members-Benjamin Watkins Leigh, and Chapman Johnson-both alike and almost equally distinguished for virtues, talents, and public services, whose rare and resplendent lustre cannot be extinguished, but must continue to beam brightly about their names for years and generations to come. And we must mention also, with due emotion, the more recent demise of another honorary member,-the venerable Albert Gallatin, of New York, whose early association with our City, and with some of the Fathers of our Commonwealth, he has himself commemorated in a grateful letter preserved in our archives; and whose subsequent conduct and character conspicuously displayed in the councils of our country, and still more fairly perhaps as a private citizen but still a public man, through a long life to a "good old age," and even down to the day of his death, have crowned his memowith pure and permanent fame.

ry

FLATTERY.

O thou World, great nurse of flattery,

Why dost thou tip men's tongues with golden words,
And poise their deeds with weight of heavy lead,
That fair performance cannot follow promise?
O that a man might hold the heart's close book,
And choke the lavish tongue, when it doth utter
The breath of falsehood, not character'd there !—

Old Play.

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