as a delegate to Congress; but he had, for a long time previous, devoted unmitigated reflection and research to maturing a plan for a new government, and had already formed one well adapted to all the wants and privileges of democratick freemen. This draught was transmitted by him to the Convention; but unfortunately, the one that they had framed, had received a final vote in its favour on the day Mr. Jefferson's reached its destination. The debate had already been ardent and protracted, the members were wearied and exhausted, and after making a few alterations, and adopting entire the masterly preamble which Mr. Jefferson had prefixed, it was thought expedient, for the present, to adhere to the original plan, imperfect as on all hands it was acknowledged to be.

The extremes of right and wrong are said very closely to approach each other; and, according to a discriminating writer, an incident in the political history of Virginia does not invalidate the maxim. In June, a constitution had been adopted, breathing in every article the most vehement spirit of equal rights, and established on the downfall of arbitrary rule. No later than the following December, a serious proposition was made to establish a Dictator, "invested with every power, legislative, executive, and judiciary, civil and military, of life and of death, over our persons and over our properties." To the wise and good of every party, to the patriot and philanthropist, such a scheme could not but appear as absurd as its success would be tyrannical and awfully dangerous. In Mr. Jefferson it found a ready and efficient opponent at the

time, and he has devoted to its consideration and censure, a few pages of his later works.

But the chief service which Mr. Jefferson performed as a member of the legislature, was as one of a commission for revising the laws, consisting, besides himself, of Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, by whom no less than one hundred and twenty-six bills were prepared, from which are derived all the most liberal features of the existing laws of the commonwealth. The share of Mr. Jefferson in this great task was prominent and laborious. To him Virginia is indebted for the laws prohibiting the future importation of slaves; converting estates tail into fee simple; annulling the rights of primogeniture; establishing schools for general education; sanctioning the right of expatriation, and confirming the rights of freedom in religious opinion; which were all introduced by him, and were adopted at the time they were first proposed, or at a subsequent period; and in addition to these, he brought forward a law proportioning crimes and punishments, which was afterwards passed under a different modification.

His own account of the passage of some of these laws, the evils they were intended to remedy, and the opposition they overcame, must be gratifying to those who are concerned in the fame of their author. We have his own description. First, in relation to the law declaring tenants in tail to hold in fee simple. "In the earlier times of the colony," he informs us, "when lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, some provident individuals procured large grants; and desirous of founding great families for themselves, settled

them on their descendants in fee tail. The transmission of this property from generation to generation, in the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who, being privileged by law in the perpetuation of their wealth, were thus formed into a Patrician order, dis. tinguished by the splendour and luxury of their establishments. From this order, too, the King habitually selected his counsellors of state; the hope of which distinction devoted the whole corps to the interests and will of the crown. To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger than benefit to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, and scattered with equal hand through all its conditions, was deemed essential to a well ordered republick. To effect it, no violence was necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlargement of it by a repeal of the law. For this would authorize the present holder to divide the property among his children equally, as his affections were divided; and would place them, by natural generation, on the level of their fellow citizens. But this repeal was strongly opposed by Mr. Pendleton, who was zealously attached to ancient establishments; and who, taken all in all, was the ablest man in debate I have ever met with. He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy of Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his lofty and overwhelming diction; but he was cool, smooth, and persuasive; his language flowing, chaste, and embellished; his conceptions quick, acute, and full of resource; never vanquished; for if he lost the main bat

tle, he returned upon you, and regained so much of it as to make it a drawn one, by dexterous manoeuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the recovery of small advantages, which, little singly, were important all together. You never knew when you were clear of him, but were harassed by his perseverance, until the patience was worn down of all who had less of it than himself.Add to this, that he was one of the most virtuous and benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the most amiable and pleasant of companions, which ensured a favourable reception to whatever came from him. Finding that the general principle of entails could not be maintained, he took his stand on an amendment which he proposed, instead of an absolute abolition, to permit the tenant in tail to convey in fee simple, if he chose it: and he was within a few votes of saving so much of the old law. But the bill passed finally for entire abolition.

"In that one of the bills for organizing our judiciary system which proposed a court of chancery, I had provided for a trial by jury of all matters of fact, in that as well as in the courts of law. He defeated it by the introduction of four words only-if either party choose. The consequence has been, that as no suitor will say to his judge-Sir, I distrust you, give me a jury— juries are rarely, I might say perhaps never, seen in that court, but when called for by the Chancellor of his own accord."

As it respects the prohibiting the future importation of slaves, he continues: The first establishment in Virginia, which became permanent, was made in 1607.

have found no mention of negroes in the colony un

fil about 1650. The first brought here as slaves, were by a Dutch ship; after which, the English commenced the trade, and continued it until the revolutionary war. That suspended, ipso facto, their further importation for the present, and the business of the war pressing constantly on the legislature, this subject was not acted on finally until the year '78, when I brought in a bill to prevent their further importation. This passed without opposition, and stopped the increase of the evil by importation, leaving to future efforts its final eradication."

As it regards the free exercise of opinion in matters of religion, he remarks: "The first settlers of this colony were Englishmen, loyal subjects to their King and church; and the grant to Sir Walter Raleigh contained an express proviso, that their laws should not be against the true Christian faith, now professed in the church of England. As soon as the state of the colony admitted, it was divided into parishes, in each of which was established a minister of the Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary, in tobacco, a glebe house and land, with the other necessary appendages. To meet these expenses, all the inhabitants of the parishes were assessed, whether they were or not members of the established church. Towards Quakers, who came here, they were most cruelly intolerant, driving them from the colony by the severest penalties. In process of time, however, other sectarisms were introduced, chiefly of the Presbyterian family; and the established clergy, secure for life in their glebes and salaries, adding to these, generally, the emoluments of a classical school, found employment