parliament of Great Britain, which makes it
necessary for me to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly."

The burgesses repaired immediately to the Raleigh,[573:A] and in the
room called "the Apollo" adopted resolutions against the use of tea and
other East India commodities, and recommended the annual convening of a
congress. In this measure, as in the appointment of committees of
correspondence, Virginia took the lead. North Carolina promptly followed
her example. Notwithstanding the untoward turn of events, Washington
dined with the governor on the twenty-fifth, and passed the evening with
him, rode with him to his farm, and breakfasted there on the following
day, and attended the ball given on the twenty-seventh in honor of Lady
Dunmore.

Further news being received from Boston, the members who remained in
Williamsburg held a meeting on the twenty-ninth, at which Peyton
Randolph presided, and they issued a circular, recommending a meeting of
deputies in a convention to assemble there on the first of August.

A dissolution of the assembly had been expected, but it had been
supposed that it would be deferred until the public business should be
despatched--toward the latter part of June. Consultations and measures
for the preservation of the public rights and liberties were conducted
and matured very privately, and by very few members, of whom Patrick
Henry was the leader. George Mason, who arrived in Williamsburg in the
latter part of May, says, in a letter to a friend: "At the request of
the gentlemen concerned, I have spent an evening with them upon the
subject, where I had an opportunity of conversing with Mr. Henry and
knowing his sentiments, as well as hearing him speak in the house since
on different occasions. He is by far the most powerful speaker I ever
heard. Every word he says not only engages, but commands the attention,
and your passions are no longer your own when he addresses them. But his
eloquence is the least part of his merit. He is, in my opinion, the
first man upon this continent as well in abilities as public virtues,
and had he lived in Rome about the time of the first Punic war, when the
Roman people had arrived at their meridian glory, and their virtue not
tarnished, Mr. Henry's talents must have put him at the head of that
glorious commonwealth."

Mr. Mason found the minds of all at Williamsburg entirely absorbed in
the news from Massachusetts. The burgesses, at their own expense,