On the 12th April, 1846, a church was organized in the upper part of the city of New York, under the name of the Church of the Puritans. It embraced several gentlemen of wealth and enterprise, who were warmly attached to Congregational principles, and who desired that those principles should be fitly represented in the midst of the prominent churches of this great metropolis. Rev. G. B. Cheever, D.D., was installed the pastor of this church, soon after its organization, and a site was procured on Union Place, where an elegant edifice of marble was erected, at a cost of about $55,000, which was entirely paid for by subscription. In this enterprise Mr. Hale felt a deep interest, and indeed, he did much to originate the whole movement. He subscribed $2,500 toward the erection of the house.

In February, 1848, the Madison street Church, New York (Presbyterian), changed its organization, and adopted the Congregational form of government, under the name of the Eastern Congregational Church. This change was made with great unanimity, and has been followed with happy results. Mr. Hale agreed to pay one hundred dollars per annum for five years, toward the support of the pastor of the church. Its affairs are now in a promising condition under the ministry of Rev. A. B. Crocker.

In the Autumn of 1848, the new and elegant edifice on the corner of Hammond and Factory streets, New York, erected by the Hammond Street Presbyterian Church, was bought at public auction by Messrs. S. B. Hunt and H. C. Bowen, for about fifteen thousand dollars. Public worship was sustained in the house for several weeks under the direction of the proprietors; and in the month of November a church was organized under the name of the Hammond Street Congregational Church, and an ecclesiastical society formed, to which the property was transferred. Rev. W. Patton, D. D., was subsequently installed pastor of the church. The congregation is already large, and its finances are in a prosperous condition. The enterprise has been successful beyond the most sanguine expectations of its friends, and may be regarded as established on a permanent basis. As this whole movement was made during the illness of Mr. Hale, he had no part in it personally, though it gave him great satisfaction.

One or two other churches remain to be spoken of. The Fourth Congregational Church in New York, which was formed in 1843, after struggling, in faith and patience, with many trials, sometimes meeting in a hall, sometimes in a private house, sometimes ready to disband has at length procured, on favorable terms, a neat and comfortable house of worship in Sixteenth street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, and has encouraging prospects of success. This feeble church was an object of the sympathy and benefactions of Mr. Hale.

The First Free Congregational Church, worshiping in Chrystie street, was a remnant of the church formerly worshiping in the Chatham street Chapel. It has always had to contend with pecuniary embarrassments and popular prejudices; and notwithstanding the zeal, perseverance, and self-denial of its members, may be compelled to yield to the force of circumstances, and disband. Mr. Hale gave large sums of money to this church, and, just previous to his last illness, he had devised a plan to extricate it from all embarrassment, which, had he lived, would probably have been successful.

THOMPSON'S LIFE OF DAVID HALE, 1850.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Le Vieux Lachine et le Massacre du 5 Août 1689," is the title of an address delivered by Désiré Girouard, Queen's Counsellor, before the parish of Lachine, on the two hundredth recurrence of the day. It contains a history of this massacre, more dreadful, perhaps, than any other which either French or English colonists encountered, with the single exception of that of Schenectady, now very near its two hundredth year, and also a history of the events which led up to it. The Marquis de Denonville in the Winter of 1687 invited the Five Nations to a feast which would take place the next June at Fort Frontenac. The Indians saw the preparations which were made, and believing they were in good faith, attended. They were, however, treacherously seized, and taken in irons to the prisons of Quebec, where they were placed in the dungeons. Forty were put on vessels and sent to the galleys in France, where they almost all perished. But one of the Indians had escaped from Fort Frontenac, and carried the news to his tribe. They decided to organize in silence for 1688, and then begin hostilities. In the meantime, they professed to be humiliated, and to be without thoughts of war. On the night of the 4th and 5th of August, 1689, in

the midst of a tempest of rain and hail, fifteen hundred Iroquois crossed Lake St. Louis and descended in silence upon Lachine, then a little village of between three and four hundred persons. The night was so black and stormy that the soldiers in garrison heard nothing. Before the break of day every house was surrounded by hostile Indians, and at a signal they were fallen on, the inhabitants slaughtered, their effects pillaged, and the houses set on fire. All this was accompanied with the most fiendish actions. More than two hundred French were killed, and the few who escaped carried terror with them everywhere. Such, in brief, is the story of the slaughter which Dr. Girouard tells with fullness and perspicuity. He has apparently neglected no source of information, and his pages are enriched with extracts from the parish registers of Lachine and Montreal, showing who were killed, who escaped, and who were absent. There are several illustrations, together with a map, and there are many explanatory notes. Altogether this address is one well worth having.

Mrs. Morris P. Ferris, of Garden City, has written and published an humorous poem upon The Schepen's Dream." The schepen, a good, worthy man, falls asleep in our old city two hundred years ago, and dreams of the changes that have come about, when the ground is covered with blocks of stone, the streets gridironed with railroads, and the houses built against each other. In his dream he could find no one who knew him, nor could he understand why things were so queer. The inhabitants asked his name, and when he told it, Verplanck, they found it in a list, evidently that of McAllister's Four Hundred. Then they told him that the other names, which were chiefly Dutch, were those of the people who lived without work. He denied it, said that he knew all of them as honest men, and that each had a trade or occupation. In a wrangle about the matter he woke up. The conceit is a good one, and is neatly worked out. The poem is handsomely printed on orange paper, presumably from Holland, and the Dutch words are correctly spelled, a very uncommon thing.

We have received from Mr. A. P. C. Griffin, of the Boston Public Library, a copy of the Catalogue of Books relating to New York which are contained in that collection, the most complete and most easily accessible of all in America. It has not so many books as the Congressional Library, but in availability far surpasses it. This is done very thoroughly, and the pamphlet constitutes an important addition to the working tools of one who desires to study our history.

MINOR PARAGRAPHS.

GOVERNOR'S ISLAND.-This island in New York harbor was known in colonial times as Nut Island," or "Nutten Island," and was held for the Governor's use. By an act passed March 29th, 1784, its name was changed to "Governor's Island," and it was continued for the Governor's use until otherwise disposed of by the Legislature.

By an act passed March 31, 1790, for the encouragement of literature, this island was (with other lands forming military reservations upon Lake George and Lake Champlain) granted to the Regents, unless needed for military purposes, and the same day a committee was appointed by the Board, consisting of General Schuyler, Mr. L'Hommedieu and Mr. Benson to prepare a plan for the management and disposal of these lands.

On the 7th of April, 1790, this committee reported as to Governor's Island as follows:

That a committee be appointed and authorized to enter into contracts with any person or persons who may be willing to take a lease or leases of Governor's Island, on such terms and conditions and in such manner as the committee shall deem proper, so as no such lease shall be for a longer term than twenty-one years, and so as that said island shall not be leased in more than two parcels, and the leases shall in other respects be conformable to an act of the Legislature granting the said island to this corporation.

This report was agreed to, and Mr. Verplanck, Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Benson were appointed a committee for carrying this plan into effect.

On the 2d of August of that year, Mr. Verplanck reported from this committee that in consequence of a sale at public auction the committee had entered into a contract with John Price; that the Regents would lease the said island to him for the term of twenty-one years, from the 4th day of May previous, at an annual rent of ninety-three pounds ($232.50), without any deduction for taxes. This being confirmed, leases were ordered to be prepared and sealed in duplicate, one for each party. A charge of £9 11s. for expenses of the transaction was allowed and paid.

On the 26th of March, 1794, commissioners were appointed for erecting fortifications in New York Harbor, and works were commenced upon Governor's Island. The title of the Regents became void by this proceeding. The island has from that period been exclusively devoted to military purposes, excepting that from 1794 to 1797 the Quarantine was located upon it. Jurisdiction was ceded to the United States February 15, 1800, with Fort Jay then partly erected upon it.-F. B. Hough, in Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the State of New York, pp. 82, 83.

BOARDING HOUSES A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.-When Congress sat here, most of the members were quartered at private boarding houses. These were on the streets named below:

Broad street-37-John Langdon, Senator, N. H.; Tristam Dalton, Senator, Mass.; Samuel Livermore, N. H.; Benjamin West, N. H.; 47-Paine Wingate, Senator, N. H.; Benjamin Goodhue, Mass.; Jonathan Grout, Mass.; George Thatcher, Mass.; Jonathan Sturgis, Conn.

Broadway-34-James Gunn, Senator, Ga.; 53-James Jackson, Ga.; George Matthews, Ga.; 63-James Jackson, Ga.; George Matthews, Ga.; opposite the French embassador's, Richard Izard, Senator, S. C.; corner Thames street, Elbridge Gerry, Mass.; at the White Conduit House, near the hospital, Samuel Griffin, Va.; next the Spanish minister's, William Smith, S. C.

Chatham Row, 24-at Rev. Mr. Kunze's, F. A. Muhlenberg, Speaker. Penn. Peter Muhlenberg, Penn.

Cherry street-3-George Washington, President.

College - William Samuel Johnson, Senator, Conn., at the College.

Great Dock street-15-Caleb Strong, Senator, Mass.; Fisher Ames, Mass.; George Leonard, Mass.; George Partridge, Mass.; Theodore Sedgwick, Mass.; 37-Pierce Butler, Senator, S. C.; 39—Robert Morris, Senator, Penn.; 48— Jonathan Elmer, Senator, N. J.; 51-William Paterson, Senator, N. J.

Greenwich Village-Richard Henry Lee, Senator, Va.
Greenwich road-John Adams, Vice-President.

King street, corner Nassau street-Egbert Benson, N. Y.

Little Dock street, 47-James Schureman, N. J.; Thomas Sinnickson, N. J. Maiden Lane-19-Thomas Hartley, Penn.; Daniel Heister, Penn.; John Brown, Va.; James Madison, Jr., Va.; John Page, Va.; Alexander White, Va.; 45-Peter Sylvester, N. Y.; 57-William Grayson, Senator, Va.: Theodore Bland, Va.; Isaac Coles, Va.; Josiah Parker, Va.

Pearl street-at Mr. Anderson's, George Clymer, Penn.; Thomas Fitzsimmons, Penn.

Queen street-27-John Henry, Senator, Md.; William Floyd, N. Y.

Smith street-52—Charles Carroll, Senator, Md.; Daniel Carroll, Md.; George Gale, Md.; William Smith, Md.

Wall street-12-Elias Boudinot, N. J.; 14-John Lawrence, N. Y.; Richard Bassett, Senator, Del.; George Read, Senator, Del.; Lambert Cadwallader, N. J.; Benjamin Contee, Md.; Joshua Seney, Md.; Michael Jenifer Stone, Md.; Richard Bland Lee, Va.; Andrew Moore, Va.; 19-John Vining, Del.; 40— Thomas Sumter, S. C.; at Mr. Huck's, Edanus Burke, S. C.; Daniel Huger, S. C.; Thomas Scott, Penn.; Nicholas Gilman, N. H.; Thomas Tuder Tucker, S. C.

Water street-59-Benjamin Huntington, Conn.; Roger Sherman, Conn.; 193-Oliver Ellsworth, Senator, Conn.; Abraham Baldwin, Ga.; 195-Jonathan Trumbull, Conn.; Jeremiah Wadsworth, Conn.

William street-90-William Few, Senator, Ga.

At Strongs', near the Albany pier, John Hathorn, N. Y.; Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, N. Y.

At Mr. Vandolsen's, near the Bear market-William Maclay, Senator, Penn.; Henry Wynkoop, Penn.

The fewness of streets will at once be remarked. There were eighty-one persons in the legislative and executive departments, of whom John Adams, Richard Henry Lee, Jonathan Trumbull, Jeremiah Wadsworth, Abraham Baldwin and Oliver Ellsworth lived in the country, doubtless driving in night and morning. The streets near the present Washington market could not have been well known by name, for it is recorded that two gentlemen were near the "Bear market." Others lived near the Albany pier. Mr. Huck, at the corner of Wall street and the present William street, had no number. The Rev. Dr. Kunze, a learned divine, took two boarders.

THE SALE OF MANHATTAN ISLAND.-Samuel H. Thayer, United States Minister at the Hague, has sent to the Minnesota Historical Society a photograph of a letter which he saw in the archives there, which translated reads as follows: "To the High and Mighty Lords of the States-General at the Hague: My