Essay by British politician and capitalist. Complete title is "Free Parliaments, or, A vindication of the fundamental right of the Commons of England...to be sole judges of all those privileges of the electors and of the elected, which are absolutely necessary to preserve free parliaments and a free people..."

Books of hours were among the most common devotional texts of the Middle Ages. Produced throughout western Europe until the early 16th century, books of hours were important status items, often elaborately illuminated, that might be tailored to the specific tastes of well-heeled clients to reflect interests in particular saints or to incorporate other elements of their personal lives and religious, political, or social commitments. Although the specifics of its origin remain uncertain, the APS Book of Hours is organized in a fairly typical fashion. Beginning with a calendar specifying feast days and other holy days, the book includes readings from the gospels, prayers (Obsecro te, O Intemerata), the Hours of the Virgin, the Hours of the Cross, the seven penitential psalms (6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129), the litanies and prayers, the office for the dead, and additional prayers devoted to Saints Barbara, Anthony, Margaret, and Sebastian. Each of the 22 sections begins with a full-page illustration, many with additional vignettes. An additional vignette of a figure of death is included in the office of the dead. The volume was donated to the APS by Detmar Basse-Müller in 1806.

Books of hours were among the most common devotional texts of the Middle Ages. Produced throughout western Europe until the early 16th century, books of hours were important status items, often elaborately illuminated, that might be tailored to the specific tastes of well-heeled clients to reflect interests in particular saints or to incorporate other elements of their personal lives and religious, political, or social commitments. Although the illuminated pages have been removed from this book of hours, the gift of Timothy Matlack in 1811, it remains an elegant and ornate manuscript, with initials and line fillers in prominent gilt, red, and blue. Only one page remains from the calendar (the last), however many of the major elements of the book can be identified, including the prayers to the Virgin, the Stabat Mater Dolorosa and stations of the cross, the penitential psalms, litanies, and prayers, and the office of the dead.

Peter S. Du Ponceau translated Gérard de Rayneval's "De la liberté des mers" (Paris, 1811) as an exercise, but not for publication.

These papers consist chiefly of essays presented by the members, with such titles as "Ambition," "On Avarice," "State of Literature in the United States," and "Consequences of the French Revolution." Also included are several letters, including one from Benjamin Say, Jr.

Catalogue and Tracts relating to Pennsylvania, 1681-1770, collected by Joshua Francis Fisher (presented to APS in 1839), contains: 1. "Catalogue of Printed Tracts relating to the Political History of . . . Pennsylvania, 1681-1770," with an introduction by Fisher (20 pp.); 2. (Sir William Keith), "The Life and character of a strange `He Monster' lately arrived in London from an English Colony in America, . . .," n.d. The "Monster" is identified as Andrew Hamilton by Walker Lewis, William and Mary Quarterly 38 (1981): 269-294; 3. A modest apology for the eight members. (3 pp.); 4. Petitions of merchants and others to the King for the safety of the Province and against the Quakers, n.d. (4 pp.).

A product of the distinctive culture of reform in antebellum Philadelphia, William Parker Foulke was the scion of the old elite who put a conservative stamp on social change. Trained as an attorney, Foulke spent much of his adult life engaging his deep amateur interest in natural history and mental philosophy and devoting himself to a variety of civic and philanthropic causes, including the colonization of formerly enslaved persons, penal reform, and cultural institutions in his native Philadelphia. The Foulke Papers are the product of the diverse social and intellectual interests of the Philadelphia attorney and philanthropist William Parker Foulke. Consisting primarily of correspondence, notes, and essays, the collection touches on Foulke's many interests. The collection includes numerous lectures delivered by Foulke along with material on the Lancaster County Prison, New York Prison Association, and the Philadelphia Society For Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons; notebooks concerning prisons and prisoners, including a 1846-1852 diary, and a listing of prisoners, their race, age, crime, sentence, and observations; a diary concerning the American Colonization Society (1852); a copy of an arctic diary (1853-1854) by John Wall Wilson, in the hand of Isaac Israel Hayes, which recounts much of the journey aboard the brig Advance, commanded by Elisha Kent Kane. There is also a list of buildings (1820-1841) designed by John Haviland, and material on the American Academy of Music, Philadelphia.