A New Autograph of John Harvard.

Those who are acquainted with the biography of John Harvard, founder of Harvard College are, of course, well aware of two facts: one being that the only writing of his hitherto known is that preserved in a record deposited in the registry of the University of Cambridge, consisting of two autograph signatures; the other that he and his brother Thomas jointly held certain property by lease from the Hospital of St. Katharine, near the Tower of London.

It appears desirable to record in the Academy that a third signature has been found, the discovery of which was on this wise. At the suggestion of the writer, and with the kind and ready assent of the hospital authorities, search was made among the monuments, under the direction of Sir Arnold W. White, chapter clerk. The result was the unearthing of the original counterpart of the lease, dated July 29, 1635, by which the hospital demised to "John Harvard Clerke and Thomas Harvard Citizen and Clothworker of London," certain tenements in the parish of All hallows, Barking; and the counterpart is executed by John Harvard and Thomas Harvard.

There is one circumstance which invests the present discovery with peculiar value and intere St. The document containing the signature has not passed into the domain of antiquarian curiosity; it has not been picked up for an old song, to be resold for a large sum at a literary auction; nor have we to trace its history from one person to another, as best we can, during a period of two centuries and a half, because it is to day in the same custody to which it was committed the moment the ink was dry from the pens of the brothers Harvard.

It is very agreeable to be able to conclude with the statement that, thanks to permission courteously accorded, fac-similies of the entire document, which measures some seventeen inches by twenty, are now being executed. They will be of the full size of the original, and will leave nothing to be desired in style of production.- Letter to the London Academy.