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made a corresponding member of several American and European learned societies, and received the degree of D. D. from Brown University. He re- turned to his work in 1856 and prepared a Pali grammar, with ehrestomathy and vocabulary, and an edition in the Pali language of Kachchayano's grammar, besides translations from Burmese, Pali, and Sanscrit. These grammars are standard works, and have the sanction and approval of both the Royal Asiatic and the Oriental societies. The In- dia government purchased the greater part of the second edition of his '• Tenasserim," and in 1872-'3 paid his expenses to northern Burmah, which re- quired further exploration. It was characteristic of Dr. Mason that, finding a difficulty in getting the edition of 1800 printed according to his ideas at Rangoon, he learned the printer's art when past sixty years of age, and set up the greater part of the work himself, producing the most creditable piece of book-printing that had ever been done in Burmah. Besides the works already mentioned, he prepared the first book published in the Karen language, " The Sayings of the Elders," and sub- sequently a small work on pathology and materia medica for his students, in one of the Karen dia- lects, having studied medicine for the purpose. He published in English " Report of the Tavoy Mission Society " ; " Life of Ko-Tha-Byu, the Ka- ren Apostle " ; " Memoir of Mrs. Helen M. Mason " (New York, 1847); "Memoir of Sau Quala" (Bos- ton, 1850) ; and " Story of a Workingman's Life " (New York, 1870). He also contributed largely to the " Missionary Magazine," to the " Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society," and for several years edited the " Morning Star," a Karen monthly, published in both the Sgau and Pwo dialects.

MASON, George, colonist, b. in England : d. in Stafford county, Va.. in 1686. He was the first of the Virginian family of that name that came to this country. He lived in Staffordshire, and be- longed to the family of Masons settled at Strat- ford-on-Avon. He commanded a troop of horse under Charles II., and, when the royalist forces were defeated at Worcester by Cromwell in 1651, Mason made his escape disguised as a peasant, and, embarking for this country, he landed at Norfolk, Va. He received a grant of land in Northumber- land (afterward Stafford) county, Va., in 1655, for transporting eighteen persons into the colony. He was sheriff of Stafford county in 1670, and county lieutenant in 1675. Col. Mason represented his county in " Bacon's assembly " in 1676. He was conspicuous in Indian warfare, and in Bacon's re- bellion he espoused the popular side in the house of burgesses. In the acts of the assembly for 1675, 1679, and 1684, Col. Mason is seen to be actively engaged in defending his frontier county against the Indians. — His son, George, frontiersman, b. in Stafford county, Va., about 1670; d. there in 1716, was justice of the peace in 1689-'99, and captain oi! rangers. In 1699-1700 he was county lieutenant of Stafford, under Gen. Nicholson, and was engaged, as his father had been before him, in the defence of the Potomac region against the Indians. A copy of his will is preserved in the archives of the Virginia historical society. — The second George's son, George, legislator, b. in Stafford county, Va., about 1690; d. in Charles county, Md., in 1735, like his predecessors, was county lieutenant, receiving his commission from Gov. Spotswood in 1719. For courtesies extended to the Scotch merchants and their agents in Virginia, he was complimented by

being made a "burgess and gild brother" of the city of Glasgow in 1720. He represented Stafford county in the Virginia assembly in 1718-'23 and . The county originally embraced all that part of the Northern Neck north of Westmoreland county. Col. Mason owned estates on both the Maryland and the Virginia side of the Potomac, and he was living on one of his plantations in Charles county, Md., when he was drowned wliile crossing that river. The mother of the third George Mason was Mary Powke, granddaughter of Col. Gerard Fowke, of "Gunston Hall," Staffordshire,' a royalist officer who came to Virginia at the same time with the first Col. Mason. The third George Mason married, in 1721, Ann Thomson, daughter of Stevens Thomson, attorney-general of Virginia, and granddaughter of Sir William Thomson, of Lon- don. — The third George's son, George, statesman, b. in Doeg's (afterward Mason's) i^eck, Stafford (now Fairfax) co., Va., in 1725 ; d. there, 7 Oct., 1792, after his marriage built Gunston Hall, on the Potomac, which continued in the family until after the civil war. It is situated in Truro parish. which includes Mount Vernon. There he resided until his death. (See accompanying illustration.) In 1769 he drew up the non-importation resolutions which were presented by Washington in the Virginia assembly, and unanimously adopted. One of these pledged the Virginia planters to purchase no slaves that should be brought into the country after 1 Nov. of that year. In support of the political rights of his native state, Mason printed a pamphlet entitled "Extracts from the Virginia Charters, with Some Remarks upon Them," and at a meeting of the people of Fairfax, 18 July, 1774, he present- ed a series of twenty-four resolutions reviewing the whole ground of controversy between Great Brit- ain and the colonies, recommending a congress, and urging non-intercourse with the mother-coun- try. These were sanctioned by the Virginia convention in the following August, and substantially reaffirmed by the Continental congress in October of the same year. In 1775 the convention of Vir- ginia desired to elect him as a delegate to congress, but he declined for family reasons. He was made a member of the committee of safety, which was charged with the executive government of the colony, and in 1776 he drafted the declaration of rights and the constitution of Virginia, which were unanimously adopted. James Madison pronounced Mason to be the ablest debater he had ever known. His talents in this direction were displayed in the first legislature that was held under the new constitution of Virginia, when he brought forward a measure that provided for the repeal of all the old disabling acts, the legalizing of all forms of worship, and the releasing of dissenters from the payment of parish rates. In 1777 he was elected to the Continental congress, but declined to serve. Ten years later he was a member of the conven-