t channel one thousand feet in width, with
a least depth of seventeen feet at low water. The amount required for
the completion of the project is $205,000, provided the entire sum is
appropriated for the next fiscal year. It is proposed to expend the
money in the rapid completion of the jetties already under construction.

* * * * *

The proceedings of the Bostonian Society at its annual meeting in
January, 1885, have just been published in pamphlet form. It embraces
much valuable data. The illustrations consist of a fine heliotype view
of the Old State House, from the east end, the home of the Society;
and a copy of its well-devised seal, in the heraldic coloring. The
experiment of a cheap pamphlet giving a summary historical sketch of the
Old State House has been successful, and another similar publication is
contemplated.

* * * * *

Rebecca Nourse, who was the first person hanged as a witch at Salem, in
1692, notwithstanding her repeated affirmation of her innocence, has
just had a monument erected by her descendants. On one side of it is the
legend concerning her, and on the other these lines of the poet
Whittier:--

"O Christian martyr, who for truth could die,
When all about thee owned the hideous lie.
The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,
Is breathing freer for thy sake to-day."

* * * * *

In his address at the unveiling of Ward's statue of "The Pilgrim,"
erected in Central Park, New York, by the New England Society in the
city of New York, Mr. George William Curtis said:--

"Holding that the true rule of religious faith and worship was written
in the Bible, and that every man must read and judge for himself, the
Puritan conceived the church as a body of independent seekers and
interpreters of the truth, dispensing with priests and priestly orders
and functions; organizing itself and calling no man master."

* * * * *

AMONG THE BOOKS.

There have been earlier biographies of John Brown, the martyr of
Virginia; but by none of them have his character and acts been told so
fully and judged so fairly as now by Mr. Sanborn.[6] His later
biographer, furthermore, has had access to all the papers and letters,
that remain, bearing on Brown's life, and of these he has made the very
best possible use. In the arrangement of the materials at h