rence for Washington is felt even by those who wander furthest
from the paths in which he trod. A President when recommending
measures of aggression and invasion can still refer to him whose
rule was ever to arm only in self-defence as to "the greatest and
best of men!" States which exult in their bankruptcy as a proof of
their superior shrewdness, and have devised "Repudiation" as a
newer and more graceful term for it, yet look up to their great
General--the very soul of good faith and honor--with their reverence
unimpaired!"

PATRICK HENRY.

The colony of Virginia was the place, and the the year 1736 the
time, of birth to Patrick Henry. His parents were in easy
circumstances, but burthened with a numerous family; they resided
at a country scat to which the ambitious name of Mount Brilliant
had been given. In childhood Patrick Henry gave little promise of
distinction. His person is represented as having been coarse, his
manners extremely awkward, his dress slovenly, and his aversion to
study invincible. No persuasion could bring him either to read or
to work. At sixteen his father gave him means to open a small
shop, which failed, however, in less than one year. Then he tried
a small farm, and married; then again he entered upon the life of
a tradesman, but in a few years more was a bankrupt. It was at
this period that he became acquainted with Mr. Jefferson,
afterwards President of the United States. "Mr. Henry," says
Jefferson, "had a little before broken up his store (shop), or
rather it had broken him up, but his misfortunes were not to be
traced either in his countenance or conduct. His manners had
something of coarseness in them; his passion was music, dancing,
and pleasantry. He excelled in the last, and it attached every one
to him."

As a last resource, Patrick Henry now determined to make a trial
of the law. It cannot be said that his preparatory studies were
unduly arduous, since, as his biographer informs us, they were all
comprised in the period of six weeks. Under such unpromising
circumstances, and in the year 1763, he obtained a brief in the
long-contested cause then raging in Virginia between the clergy on
the one side, and the legislature on the other, as regarding the
stipends which the former claimed. On this occasion Henry