feel, therefore, that I should have but illy enjoyed the festivities of your anniversary, had I been able to attend. Respectfully, your obedient servant, Jos. C. HORNBLOWER. FROM HON. W. H. Y. HACKETT. PORTSMOUTH, N. H., August 22d, 1862. MY DEAR SIR-I have received your favor of yesterday's date inviting me in behalf of the Executive Committee to attend the Popham celebration on the 29th inst., and to respond to a sentiment on the early Piscataqua settlement. I regret to say that I am so circumstanced that it will be out of my power to be with you on that occasion. I thank you and the committee for an invitation which I would gladly accept. If able to participate in your festivities the substance of my response would be : "If the Kennebec was colonized before the Piscataqua, the people on the banks of the Piscataqua will not be behind those on the banks of the Kennebec, in defending those principles which led to the settlement and colonization of both." I hope you will not deem it impertinent in me to suggest that the Rev. Charles Burroughs, D. D.,- one of my predecessors in the Presidency of the N. H. Historical Society,resides in this city, and if the committee should think it to invite him, he would be likely to attend. proper I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Rev. A. D. WHEELER, D. D., Topsham, Me. FROM WILLIAM TURNER, ESQ. ST. GEORGE'S SOCIETY, Rev. EDWARD BALLARD, SIR-I am instructed by the President of this Society, (the Hon. George Moffatt), to acknowledge the receipt of a circular handed to him by John Lewis, Esq., the late President, inviting him to assist at a public celebration on the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the first English Colony on the shores of New England, Aug. 19th, 1607, &c. The President desires me to express his thanks for the kind invitation and his regret that other engagements will not allow him to be present on an occasion so interesting. The invitation has, however, been forwarded to the First Vice President, J. J. Day, Esq., who is sojourning at Portland, or the vicinity, and who should it come to his hands in time, will doubtless do himself the pleasure of representing this Society on the occasion. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your very obedient servant, WM. TURNER, Secretary. FROM REV. DR. HEDGE. BROOKLINE, MASS., Aug. 20th, 1862. To the Executive Committee for the celebration of the Anniversary of the Settlement of Fort St. George. GENTLEMEN-I acknowledge with many thanks your favor of the 12th inst., inviting me to be present at the celebration of the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the first settlement of the English in New England. The occasion is one of great interest, and like all attempts to uncover and illustrate the antiquities of our country, it has my warmest sympathy. I was too long a citizen of Maine not to feel a personal pride in her past, as well as in her present and her future. I glory in her historical memorials as well as in her industrial and civil promise. That early settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec carrying the history of New England farther back by several years than the landing of the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony, and bringing it near to the beginning of the 17th century, is a fact well worthy of commemoration as the first act in the annals of Maine. I rejoice to know that historical interest and patriotic feeling have combined to give it the prominence it deserves. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be present with you on that occasion, but circumstances beyond my control will oblige me to forego that privilege. Hoping that the celebration proposed may prove every way successful and satisfactory to all concerned in it, I am, gentlemen, your obliged servant, FRED. H. HEDGE. Messrs. B. C. BAILEY, J. O. FISKE, OLIVER MOSES, &c., &c. FROM PRESIDENT KING. COLUMBIA COLLEGE, N. Y. PRESIDENT'S ROOM, 25th Aug., 1862. GENTLEMEN:-Your invitation to be present at the public celebration "of the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the first English Colony on the shores of New England," on the 29th inst., finds me and my household in deep affliction at the loss, within a few days, of my youngest son, who had just reached the age of manhood, with every promise of a vigorous, useful, and honorable life. Under other circumstances the opportunity thus offered to me would have been eagerly embraced to show my affection and respect for those founders; and to claim, in right of my father's blood and birthright, some share in the inherited glories of such an ancestry. May that star which has thus far directed the progress of your great Commonwealth, which on every ocean has guided in safety your multitudinous shipping, and which now burns anew with undimmed lustre in the van of the great battle waging by the freemen of our land for the preservation of its liberties and Union, continue to shed its heavenly light and life over the strong-handed and high-hearted race, whose beginnings you meet to commemorate. In the bonds of a common fellowship, I remain, very truly yours, Rev. EDWARD BALLARD, Secretary, &c. CHAS. KING. FROM REV. DR. BEARDSLEY. SECRETARY OF NEW HAVEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. NEW HAVEN, CONN., August 26th, 1862. REV. AND DEAR SIR-My engagements will not allow me the pleasure of being present at the "public celebration on the two hundred and fifty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the first English Colony on the shores of New England.” I regret this the more as I take special interest in all historical researches, and in all gatherings designed to perpetuate the memory and the deeds of the first settlers of our country. Although the colony of Popham, which sought to transfer the religion and civilization of England to the wilds of North America, met with disaster and became disheartened, still I am glad that the enterprise is to be commemorated at this late day; and that henceforth it will be more widely known how that the shores of the Kennebec thirteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, echoed to the voice of a Protestant faith, and to the sound of the pure and fervent Liturgy of the Church of England. Maine, within my recollection, has risen from a province in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the dignity of a great State, and while there may be no descendants of those who belonged to the colony at Sagadahoc, you have the descendants of noble men who shared in the earlier perils of our government, as their sons share in the later. In looking over the names of your "Executive Committee," I thought of Jacob Bailey at Pownalborough- a man of many trials and persecutions- and of Wheeler at Georgetown, for several years his only counselor and co-worker in the missions of the Church of England in Maine. I am not aware that your State contains persons of my own name - but I know that just over the line, in the British territory, there were branches that shot off from the parent tree in the storms of the revolution; and if they have since sprung up and had a comely growth, it will redound to the credit of an honored ancestor; but if otherwise, it will not be the first time in history that the branch has so degenerated as to yield no wholesome fruit. Thanking you for your invitation and wishing you a pleasant and successful gathering, I remain, Very truly your friend and brother, Rev. EDWARD BALLARD, Secretary, &c. E. E. BEARDSLEY. FROM HON. MR. STEWART OF THE BRITISH EMBASSY. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 19th, 1862. SIRI regret that my engagements here will prevent my being able to avail myself of the invitation which you have done me the honor to address to me, in the name of the Executive Committee, who have undertaken to manage the approach |