ate individuals in the United States
consecrated to educational purposes, by free gift and devise, more than
thirty millions of dollars." This fact, taken in conjunction with the
truly noble deed of "the Hon. Leland Stanford, who by one act set apart
for the founding and equipping of a new University in California the
magnificent endowment of twenty millions of dollars," speaks volumes.
The educational future of America was never so full of promise as
to-day.

HISTORICAL RECORD.

January 15.--Annual meeting of the American Statistical Society, at
Boston. Officers were elected as follows: President, Francis A. Walker;
vice-presidents, George C. Shattuck and Hamilton A. Hill; corresponding
secretary, Edward Atkinson; recording secretary, Carroll D. Wright;
treasurer, Lyman Mason; librarian, Julius L. Clarke; counsellors, J. R.
Chadwick, Benjamin F. Nourse, John Ward Dean; committee on publication,
R. W. Ward, Walter C. Wright, C. D. Bradlee; finance committee, Lyman
Mason, D. A. Gleason, Otis Clapp. Edward Atkinson read a paper in which
he discussed the question of the cost of living, and showed that the
tendency, recent and present, has been, and is, an ameliorating one.

* * * * *

January 16.--The Salem Athenaeum proprietors held a meeting to take
action on the proposed consolidation of its library with the several
other private collections, for the nucleus of a public library. The
proposition had already been accepted by the Essex Institute, and a
committee appointed to confer with other societies. There was some
discussion, and a committee, consisting of William Mack, the Rev. E. B.
Willson, John Robinson, T. Frank Hunt, and Charles Osgood, was chosen by
a vote of 41 to 10 to carry out the project of consolidation.

* * * * *

January 18.--Annual meeting of the Webster Historical Society, at the
Old South Meeting-house, in Boston. Officers were elected as follows:--

President, the Hon. Joshua L. Chamberlain, of Maine.

Vice-Presidents.--The Hon. Alexander H. Rice, Massachusetts; the Hon.
George F. Edmunds, Vermont; the Rev. Noah Porter, Connecticut; the Hon.
Henry Howard, Rhode Island; the Hon. Austin F. Pike, New Hampshire; the
Hon. James G. Blaine, Maine; the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, Delaware; the
Hon. William M. Evarts, New York; the Hon. J. Henry Stickney, Maryland;
the Hon. D. W. Manchester, Ohio; the Hon. John Wentworth, Illinois; the