County. A fragment. Bv Henry B. Dawson. Yonkers: 1866." The third volume of the series contains the celebrated discussion concerning the Eastern Boundary of New Jersey, which secured to New York, before the Circuit Court of the United States, her ancient and legal right of control over the waters of "the lower bay," below the Narrows, and is entitled, Papers Concerning the Boundary between the States of New York and New Jersey, written by several hands. Yonkers: 1866"-" the several hands" having been General, John Cochrane, Attorney-General of New York; Hon. J. Romeyn Brodhead, the historian of New York and Secretary of the New York Historical Society, who wrote two papers; Hon. William A. Whitehead, the historian of Perth Amboy, etc., and Secretary of the New Jersey Historical Society; Mr. Dawson himself, who had unwillingly consented to act the part of an umpire between the original disputants; Mr. Whitehead in answer to Mr. Dawson; the latter in reply to Mr. Whitehead; the Attorney-General of New York, closing the argument, in the course of which he unreservedly gave the honor of the success, before the Court, to the papers of Mr. Dawson, and a "Postscript," by Mr. Dawson, concerning some portions of Mr. Whitehead's subsequent treatment of the subject. The fourth, and last, volume of the series contains the earlier chapters of a series of papers descriptive of notable spots within the county of Westchester, which he had commenced to write and publish in The Gazette, while his connection with that paper was continued. It is entitled " Rambles in Westchester County, New York. A fragment. By Henry B. Dawson. Yonkers: 1866." During the same year, 1866, he reprinted, in fac-simile, an exceedingly rare tract, containing a report of a trial which had been had in August, 1786, in the Mayor's Court, in the city of New York, to test the question of the liability of those who had occupied properties in that city, which had been abandoned by their respective owners when the Royal army had occupied the city, during the War of the Revolution. It was maintained by those owners, after the city had been evacuated by the Royal troops, that those who had occupied those abandoned premises, and who had paid rents therefor to the "Vestry" which had been created by the Commanding General of the Royal Army to receive them, were, nevertheless, liable to the absent owners for rent of those premises for the entire periods of their adverse possession of them; and, to test that very grave question, an action was brought by Elizabeth Rutgers, the owner of a brewery in Maiden Lane, against Joshua Waddington, who had occupied it under the authority of the several Commanders-in-Chief, during her exile, and paid rent therefor, to the "Vestry." The great legal principles which were involved, the great sums which were at hazard, and the great array of distinguished counsel who were engaged, to say nothing of the great ability of the Court, have made that one of the great cases in the judicial history of the country; but in 1866, only one copy of the published report of that trial, the copy which was in his own library, was known to be in existence. A very elaborate historical and genealogical and legal "Introduction" was prepared by Mr. Dawson; and a new edition was printed in the most elegant style of the Bradstreet Press, in both large and small paper, the original pamphlet having been reproduced in perfect fac-simile, under the title of "The Case

of Elizabeth Rutgers versus Joshua Waddington, determined in the Mayor's Court, in the City of New York, August 7, 1786, with an historical Introduction, by Henry B. Dawson. Morrisania: 1866."

A few weeks after his connection with The Gazette had been severed, he bought The Historical Magazine, a well-known monthly magazine, devoted to the antiquities, history, and biography of America. That work, which had been commenced in Boston, in January, 1857, under the able editorial control of John Ward Dean, had been removed to New York early in 1856, where it had been edited successively by Evert A. Duyckinck, George Folsom, John Gilmary Shea, and Doctor Henry R. Stiles, had already obtained a respectable standing in the periodical literature of the country; but the Civil War had necessarily withdrawn from it all of its subscribers who resided within the Southern States, including many of its abler contributors and more than one-half of the entire subscription-list; while of those whose names were on the books of the concern, nominally subscribers thereto, one-half, exactly one-half, had been non-paying recipients of the work, year after year, and appeared to regard themselves entitled to remain so.

The first number of The Historical Magazine, which was published by him was that of July, 1866; and in the following January, 1867, he commenced a "new series " of the work, giving double the number of pages in each number, and making two volumes per year, instead of the single volume which had been previously published. Into that work, he threw his entire strength and intellectual power, during several succeeding years; gathering around him, also, an array of distinguished voluntary "contributors" to its pages. The book notices," sometimes exceeding a hundred in a single month, for which the magazine soon became famous among librarians and bibliophiles, were always written by himself. The effect of that peculiar editorial management was speedily seen in the increased influence of the magazine, as one of the highest historical authorities in the country; but, in the continued limitation of its support to the scholars in New England and New York-in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the West, there were few who cared for it; and the South had not yet sufficiently recovered her strength to indulge in luxuries-it never paid the expense of its publication; and, after having published what was equal to thirteen complete volumes, the publication was suspended in April, 1876.

While Mr. Dawson was struggling to place The Historical Magazine on a paying basis, he was also employed in other literary ventures, some in connection with and auxiliary to that principal work, and some entirely disconnected from it.

In the autumn of 1866 he published a very valuable and very interesting little octavo volume elegantly printed by the Bradstreet Press, entitled "North American Rock-writing, and other Aboriginal Modes of Recording and Transmitting Thought. By Hon. Thomas Ewbank. Morrisania: 1866." About the same time he edited and published the official record of the "Trial of Joshua Het Smith, before a General Court Martial, for the part which he had taken in promoting the meeting, at his house, of General Benedict Arnold and Major John André, and in assisting the latter to effect his return to New York." As the original manuscript record of that historically important trial had been abstracted

from the Clinton Papers," of which it was a very valuable portion, after Mr. Dawson's copy had been made, some years previous to his use of it in The Historical Magazine and in this volume, that publication of it, carefully annotated, was a very acceptable service to every student of the history of that eventful period. The volume is a very beautiful octavo, printed in the finest style of the Bradstreet Press, and is entitled, • Record of the Trial of Joshua Het Smith, Esq., for alleged complicity in the Treason of Benedict Arnold, 1780. Edited by Henry B. Dawson. Morrisania: 1866."

During 1866 and 1867, he made a selection from the principal historical papers which had appeared in The Historical Magazine since he had become its editor, making five beautiful volumes, with the general title of The Magazine Miscellany. Edited by Henry B. Dawson. Morrisania: 1866, 1867." An enumeration of the contents of these volumes cannot be attempted in this place; but it may be said that they included highly important historical papers by Lieutenant Colonel Backus, U. S. A.; Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress; Hon. Thomas Ewbank, LL.D.; George Henry Moore, LL.D.; Hon. Buckingham Smith; Hon. Charles Lanman; Hon. J. Romeyn Brodhead; Hon. Thomas C. Amory; Hon. William B. Reed; John Ward Dean; Hon. J. Hammond Trumbull, and others equally distinguished in the literature of American history.

In 1867 he received proposals for a revision of his "Battles of the United States, by Sea and Land," to be printed in the highest style of the typographic art in America, and to be sold by subscription. Every copy of the two limited editions, on large and on small paper, respectively, was promptly subscribed for, at very large prices; and premiums were paid for transfers of subscriptions. This was the most promising of all his authorial undertakings, and he entered on it with great hopes and high expectations. But the printers failed to fulfil their contracts with the subscribers and with him, and, after two parts had been published with the double title, "Battles of the United States, by Sea and Land. By Henry B. Dawson. Revised and completed edi tion. Volume I. Morrisania: 1867." and "Battles of the War of the Revolution, by Henry B. Dawson. Volume I. Morrisania: 1867." the work was necessarily suspended. A different reason for the suspension of the publication of this work was stated by Joseph Sabin, in his "Bibliog. raphy;" but there was not the slightest foundation for any portion of what he thus stated.

by an elaborate introduction (into which he introduced, the first time it was published, the original charter of the city, that on which the existing charter is based), and accompanied by very voluminous and biographical notes. The volume in which all these are printed is entitled "Records of the City of New Amsterdam in New Netherland. Edited by Henry B. Dawson, and published by permission of the Common Council of the City of New York. Volume I. Morrisania: 1867."

Although that very commendable work was done and printed without the slightest expense to the city, and would have been similarly carried on and completed, the politicians of that day saw in the work, differently executed, an opportunity for a feast of plunder. [Dr. E. B. O'Callaghan], was brought from Albany; the assistance of some of the principal members of the New York Historical Society was secured for the promotion of the scheme; the notorious "New York Printing Company" and the equally notorious" Tweed Ring" were made partners in the enterprise. The "historian " was saddled on the city, with a salary of five thousand dollars per year, to edit the proposed work; the "Printing Company" was employed to stereotype it; and, year after year, the salary of the "editor." so called, was paid, and payment of the bills for stereotyping was regularly and abundantly drawn from the city treasury; but neither the city nor the world of historical literature has yet seen a single stereotype plate or a single printed page of that projected and expensively paid for "Records of the City of New York, edited by E. B. O'Callaghan, M.D., LL.D."* It was one of those gigantic swindles on the city for which Tweed and his associates suffered. When that new element appeared, in the matter of the publication of the City's Records, all the hopes which the editor and publisher of what had already been printed, that his magazine might secure an enlarged circulation and that the sales of his collected volumes, as they should successively appear, would yield to him a reasonable profit, were entirely blasted; and he suspended his labors thereon, and never resumed them.

During the same year, 1867, Mr. Dawson edited and published three little volumes, on historical subjects, designed for private circulation, although some few copies of each were placed on the market, and sold at high prices. The first of these was entitled "President Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, a correspondence between Hon. William B. Reed and John C. Hamilton. Morrisania: 1867"-a peculiarly spicy little book, devoted to the ancient slanders against Joseph

* Mr. W. W. Pasko, in his "Old New York," v. 2, no. 4. P. 252, says of this work: "It is also proper to say that plates were actually made of the whole of these annals, Dr. O'Callaghan prepared for publication, and stereotype but no impressions were taken other than proof. This The printing was not begun, in consequence of the exwas during the time that Tweed was governing the city. posure, and the printers could not recover pay for their work. Just at that time a fire broke out in the office of the New York Printing Company, which was another name for Tweed and his associates, and it was reported that the plates were destroyed. Some of our leading antiquaries, however, doubt this story, and say that under cover of this fire the plates were spirited away, and have the neighborhood of fifty thousand dollars, including Dr. ever since been held for a ransom. They cost the city in O'Callaghan's time, and could probably be obtained for

tion of these annals in his valuable magazine, "Old New York," a worthy successor, in a more limited field, of Dawson's Historical Magazine.-A. G.