The present, the Sixteenth Report of the Record Commissioners, contains the proceedings of the Town of Boston from A.D. 1758 through 1769. Of the special topics considered during that period in town meetings, we may note the following: Schools, Inns, Faneuil-Hall Market, the Fire of 1760, Inoculation, Long Wharf, and Beacon Hill. A project to establish Hancock's Hospital, and another to prepare a list of great benefactors of the town, were approved, but came to naught. The great feature of these meetings --one which will make this volume of lasting value is the political action of the town during this exciting period, when its representatives were Otis, Cushing, Hancock, and Adams. The votes of the town were public matters, whose influence reached throughout the Colonies. Herein will be seen the beginnings of the Revolution, and the steps by which our ancestors arrived at political freedom.

For the Record Commissioners,

WILLIAM H. WHITMORE.

CITY HALL, BOSTON, Dec. 31, 1886.