isgusted by the delays and sophistries
of this class during the preceding session, one of the Johnsons, two
brothers that represented Louisa County, declared his intention to
bring into the house Patrick Henry, who was equally distinguished by his
eloquence and by an opposition to the claims of parliament, verging on
sedition. Johnson accordingly, by accepting the office of coroner,
vacated his seat in favor of Henry, who thus came to be one of the
representatives of that frontier county in the assembly of 1765--an
incident connected with events of transcendent importance.

On the twenty-fourth, Peyton Randolph reported to the house, from the
committee of the whole, a scheme for the establishment of a loan-office
or bank. The plan was to borrow L240,000 sterling from British
merchants, at an interest of five per cent.; a fund for paying the
interest and sinking the principal to be raised by an impost duty on
tobacco; bills of exchange to be drawn for L100,000, with which the
paper money in circulation was to be redeemed, the remaining L140,000 to
be imported in specie, and deposited here for a stock whereon to
circulate bank notes, to be lent out on permanent security, at an
interest of five per cent., to be paid yearly, a proportion of the
principal at the end of four years, another proportion at the end of
five years, and afterwards by equal payments once in four years, until
the whole should be repaid.

When it was urged in favor of this scheme, that from the distressed
condition of the colony, men of fortune had contracted debts, which, if
exacted suddenly, must ruin them, but which, with a little indulgence,
might be liquidated, Mr. Henry exclaimed: "What, sir! is it proposed
then to reclaim the spendthrift from his dissipation and extravagance by
filling his pockets with money?" Thomas Jefferson, then a law-student at
Williamsburg, was present during this debate, and the manner in which
Henry uttered this sentence was indelibly impressed on his memory.

The resolutions embodying this scheme were passed by the house, and a
committee of conference was appointed at the same time, and before the
vote upon them was taken in the council. In this conference the managers
on the part of the house were Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Archibald Cary, Mr.
Benjamin Harrison, Mr. Burwell, Mr. Braxton, and Mr. Fleming. The
council[540:A] refused to concur in the scheme. Had it been carried into
effect, the indebtedness of Virginia at th