from Col. L. Edwin Dudley, which will be read by Miss O'Hara, who has been acting as substitute for our Treasurer, since he so far recovered from his accident in Washington, on Inauguration Night—an accident resulting in the amputation of his left foot-as to take his official position.

CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
VANCOUVER, B. C., October 11, 1897.

ALBION M. DUDLEY, M. D., President Governor Thomas
Dudley Family Association, Salem, Mass.

MY DEAR DOCTOR :--I regret extremely that, for the first time, I shall be absent from a meeting of our Association. I have always been gratified by the warm interest manifested at these annual gatherings by so large a number of the descendants of our illustrious ancestor.

Recently a report has come to me that our fellow-member, Mr. Augustine Jones, has nearly finished the task, which he so generously undertook, of preparing a life of Governor Thomas Dudley. I am glad, for I believe the people will see, for the first time, the sturdy old Governor in his true character.

I have long believed that the cause of liberty of the individual, of government" by the people and for the people" was, in its early struggles, more indebted to Governor Thomas Dudley than to any other man of his time. No man living at a later time had equal opportunity to render the cause great service.

Our family especially, and all the liberty-loving people of all the world, will be indebted to Mr. Jones for the faithful performance of the great task which he accepted at our hands.

Although I am so far away in body, I shall nevertheless be with you in spirit on the 19th inst.

I wish for your meeting of this year, and for the future life of our Association, all the good and all the prosperity that any of my fellow-members can desire.

With deep regret that I must be absent from your meeting this year, with the hope and full expectation that I can attend your next meeting, I am Most sincerely yours,

L. EDWIN DUDLEY.

Among the points for which I stand indebted to Mr. Perry is this, that he has long been of the opinion that there must have been some special reason for giving the town of Exeter its name. Many colonists (like the Bostonians) simply transplanted their names from English homes; but Mr. Perry is convinced that the Exeter settlers chose the name with great deliberation, since the town of Exeter, England, bears the same relation to Exmouth that our Exeter bears to Portsmouth, as well as to sea and river, and that its hills and undulations are similar.

We listened a year ago to Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney, as she spoke of Anne Hutchinson, in comparison with Anne Bradstreet. Some of you felt sure that Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Bradstreet must have been friends, when the former was turning theological Boston upside down, in her determination to convince the people of God's indwelling spirit, and that a woman had a right to be publicly heard in the community, if she could get anyone to listen. What has this to do with Exeter? You shall see. Mrs. Hutchinson had a clerical brotherin-law, John Wheelwright, who was a friend of Oliver Cromwell, came to Massachusetts Bay at the age of forty-two, and soon after became a founder and first minister of the new Exeter, though he did not continue there till his death in 1679. His successor, the ancestor whom we especially commemorate to-night, was Samuel Dudley.

One of the reporters who called this evening remarked, after reading our program with some care, "Then the Rev. Samuel Dudley is to be the chief speaker of this occasion." I assured him that the Rev. Samuel had been dead over two hundred years, and we scarcely expected his reappearance; though such a materialization might enable us to rival the manifestations at the great Spiritual Temple only a square distant.

Mr. Dudley was the Exeter pastor from 1650 to 1683. In the middle of the seventeenth century he went among the people of Exeter, and we can understand how he was welcomed, not only as a Godly and well-learned divine, but as the eldest son of Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts Bay, one of the chief, if not the foremost, of New England's early rulers.

The Exeter people are on the eve of celebrating the two hundredth anniversary of either the organization or reorganization of their First Church, they are uncertain which; because the able New Hampshire historian, Rev. Alonzo H. Quint, D. D., insists that, contrary to colonial usage, Exeter had no religious organization till two centuries ago, though he thinks the Dover church dates from the settlement of that region. This opinion leaves the Exeter Congregational brethren a little in doubt as to what they are to celebrate in 1898, an absolute church organization, or the reorganization of a church much older, dating back to 1640; though we must certainly feel that it does not seem a reasonable supposition that a society of New Englanders should worship sixty years with no church organization. It is also interesting to know that the meetinghouse of the Exeter society has closed a whole century of life.

Samuel Dudley was a very important link between the Dover Plantations and Massachusetts Bay. If Mr. Perry could be with us he would tell you of the part taken by Mr. Dudley in certain mild controversies (I say mild, but am not so sure about their mildness) between that part of New England and this.

I asked Miss Katharine Morrill if she would not speak or read to us; but she says No, and her No is not of the kind that means Yes; although I feel assured that a woman who can use her pen as ably as has Miss Morrill in the interests of homœopathic literature, could talk to advantage. She has taken great pains to collect facts and copy data, and some of these Miss O'Hara will read.

Extracts from Exeter Records Concerning Rev. Samuel Dudley.

EXETER TOWNE RECORD.

P. 54

ATT a Towne Meeting, the (13) day of (3) mo. 1650. It is unanimously agreed upon by Mr. Samuell Dudley and the Towne of Exeter, that Mr. Dudley is forthwith so soone as comfortable subsistence can be made by the Towne for him and his famelye, in the hous which was purchased of Mr.