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XVIII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS.

The committee retired and on its return reported through the chairman, Dr. Welling, the following preamble and resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:

Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution has been called to meet in extraordinary session by the afflicting intelligence that MORRISON REMICK WAITE, late Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and late Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, has been removed by the hand of death from the scene of his high activities and distinguished usefulness; therefore be it 

Resolved, That sitting as we do at this time and place, in the very center of that dark shadow which has fallen upon the whole land in the very lamented death of the late Chief-Justice Waite, and appalled as we are by the suddenness as well as by the magnitude of the great affliction which in coming to the nation at large has come to us individually, with an added pathos of sorrow because of the nearer view we have had, for so many years, of the talents, virtues, and graces which found their familiar home in the person of our honoured friend, we could with much good reason crave for ourselves, in this hour of bereavement, the humble permission of mourning apart, that we might silently gauge the depth and the dimensions of a calamity which brings to us its message of personal grief and which has also torn away from out highest seat of justice its venerated and beloved chief; from the legal profession of the country its foremost official representative and therefore its crowning exponent; from the walk of social life in this national capital a commanding presence no less remarkable for his genial and open-hearted sincerity than his affable and gracious benignity; and from the Christian communion a true and faithful disciple who witnessed a good confession as much by the simplicity and humility with which he walked before God as by the unswerving consistency with which he wore the ornament of a pure heart and of a meek and quiet spirit before the scrutiny of his fellow-men.

Resolved, That while an obvious sense of propriety must dictate that we should leave to others in that great forum which was the chosen arena of his life's career the sad privilege of depicting, with minute and detailed analysis, the remarkable combination of strong and lovely trait which met in the person of the late Chief-Justice and gave to the symmetrical character of our beloved friend its blended sweetness and light, we can not omit, even in this hour of our special sorrow, to bear our cheerful testimony to the pleasing amenity with which he presided over the deliberations of this council chamber as the Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, and sharing, as we all do, in a profound admiration for the intelligence he brought to our discussions, while ever moderating them by the guidance of his clear thought and mild wisdom, we can but render our reverent homage to the engaging personal qualities which endeared him to us as a man, while at the same time gratefully confessing our obligations to him for the provident care and deep interest which he always brought to the discharge of his official duties in this place, where, through all the years of his honorable and useful service at the head of this Board, the Secretary of the Institution in common with ourselves has leaned on him as the wise and true counsellor who could be trusted as well for the rectitude of his moral intuitions as for the clear perceptions of his calm and judicious intellect.

Resolved, That we will attend the funeral of our departed Chancellor in a body, and that the Secretary of the Institution, together with a deputation from the members of the Board, be requested to accompany