It was presumed their necks were hardened so as to bear a heavier burden. Deluded alchemists-they little understood the kind of meta. put in their crucible. Direct taxation without representation was no part of the English constitution. This violation could not be tamely submitted to. The second edition of the revenue plan revised and stereotyped in 1767 by Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the Exchequer, imposing a duty on glass, paper, pasteboard, tea and painters' colorskindled a flame in the Colonies that no earthly power could quench. Public meetings against the measure-resolutions of the deepest censure, remonstrances of the strongest character, arguments of the most conclusive logic were hurled back upon the ministry. Boston harbor was converted into a teapot and all the tea afloat used at one drawing. Non-importation agreements, committees of safety, preparations for defence, non-intercourse, bloodshed, war and Independence followed. In all these movements Mr. Hart concurred and firmly opposed the encroachments of the crown.

In 1774 he was elected to Congress and entered upon the high duties of his station with a deep sense of the responsibilities that rested upon that body at that particular time. Mild, deliberate, cautious, discreet and firm in his purposes-he became an important member in carrying out the measures then contemplated-reconciliation and a restoration of amity. On the 10th of May 1775 he again took his place in Congress. The cry of blood, shed on the 19th of the preceding April at Lexington, had infused a spirit among the members widely different from that which pervaded their minds at the previous meeting. It was then that the cool deliberation of such men as Mr. Hart was indispensable. The ardor and impetuosity of youth had passed away-propositions and arguments were placed in the balance of reason. Causes, effects, objects, ends, plans, means, consequencesall were put in the scales of justice and honestly weighed. In this manner every act was performed with clean hands, the cause of Liberty honored, prospered and crowned with triumphant success. At this time Mr. Hart was a member and Vice President of the Assembly of New Jersey and shortly after had the proud satisfaction of aiding in the funeral obsequies of the old government and joined in the festivi ties of forming a new one upon the broad platform of republicanism.

On the 14th of February 1776 he was again elected to the Conti nental Congress and when the Chart of Liberty was presented he care. fully examined its bold physiognomy-pronounced its points, features, landmarks, delineations and entire combinations worthy of freemen gave it his vote, his signature and his benediction. At the close of the

session he retired from public life and declined a re-election. As he anticipated, the British drove away his family, destroyed his property and after he returned hunted him from place to place and several times had him so nearly cornered that his escape seemed impossible. His exposure in eluding the pursuit of the relentless foe brought on illness that terminated his life in 1780. He was a worthy member of the Baptist church-a devoted Christian-an HONEST MAN.

PATRICK HENRY.

GENIUS is one of the indefinable attributes of man. We may think, see, talk and write upon this noble quality, rehearse its triumphant achievements, its magic wonders, its untiring efforts-but what is genius? that's the question-one that none but pedants will attempt to answer. The thing, the moving cause, the modus operandi can no more be comprehended and reduced to materiality than the spirit that animates our bodies. The man who can do this can analyze the tornado, put the thunder cloud in his breeches pocket and quaff lightning for a beverage. Metaphysicians, physiologists and craniologists may put on their robes of mystery, arm each eye with a microscope, each finger with the acutest phrenological sensibility, whet up all their mental powers to the finest keenness, strain their imagination to its utmost tension, tax speculation one hundred per cent. and then call to their aid the brightest specimens of this occult power-the combined force could not weave a web and label it GENIUS that would not be an insult to common sense. Genius is the essential oil of mental power. No frost can freeze it, no fog can mildew it, no heat can paralyze it, no potentate can crush it. In all countries and climes it springs up spontaneously but flourishes most luxuriantly and attains a more perfect symmetry and greater strength when nurtured by intelligence and freedom. So versatile is this concentrated essence of mental power that we can form no rule to pre-determine its personal locality, its time of development, its measure of strength or the extent of its orbit. Like a blazing meteor-it bursts suddenly upon us as in the darkness of night, illuminating the world and like the lightning thunder boltshivers every obstacle that stands in its way.

Thus it was with Patrick Henry born at Studley, Hanover County, Virginia, on the 29th of May 1736. His father was a highly reputable man of Scotch descent-his mother was the sister of Judge Winston who was justly celebrated as an eloquent speaker. During his

childhood and youth Patrick was remarkable for indolence and a love of recreation. He arrived at manhood with a limited education and ignorant of all occupations. His mind was not cultivated, his native talents were not developed, his genius was not awakened until after he was a husband and a father. His friends vainly endeavored to put him on a course of application to business by setting him up in the mercantile line. Prefering his fishing rod and gun to measuring tape he soon failed. Finding himself bankrupt he concluded that the in-. creasing troubles of his pilgrimage were too numerous to bear alone. He married the daughter of a respectable planter and became a tiller of the ground. Unacquainted with this new vocation he soon swamped in the quagmire of adversity. He then gibed, put his helm hard up and tacked to the mercantile business. Still he was unfortunate. Poverty claimed him as a favorite son and bestowed upon him special attention. An increasing family needed increased means of support. Creditors had the assurance to shower duns upon him and cruelly reduced him to misery and want. He then conceived the idea of studying law. For the first time he felt most keenly the waste of time in his childhood and youth. He saw many of his age who had ascended high on the ladder of fame whose native powers of mind he knew to be inferior to his. He bent his whole energies to study and in six weeks after he commenced was admitted to the Bar, more as a compliment to his respectable connexions and his destitute situation. than from the knowledge he had obtained of the abstruse science of law during the brief period he had been engaged in its investigation. Folded in the coils of extreme want for the three ensuing years he made but slight advances in his profession. He obtained the necessaries of life by aiding his father-in-law at a tavern bar instead of being at the Bar of the court. He was still ardently attached to his gun. He often took his knapsack of provisions and remained in the woods several days and nights. On his return he would enter the court in his coarse and blood stained hunting dress-take up his causes -carry them through with astonishing adroitness and finally gained a popular reputation as an advocate.

In 1764 he was employed in a case of contested election tried at Richmond, which introduced him among the fashionable and gay whose dress and manners formed a great contrast with his. He made no preparation to meet his learned and polished adversaries. As he moved awkwardly among them, some, who were squinting at him and his coarse apparel, suppossed him non compos mentis. When the case was tried the audience and court were electrified by his torrent of

native eloquence and lucid logic. Judges Tyler and Winston who were upon the bench declared they had never before witnessed so happy and powerful an effort in point of sublime rhetoric and conclusive argument. The towering genius of Patrick Henry then burst from embryo into blooming life. From that time his fame spread its expansive wings and soared far above those of gayer plumage but of less strength. A lucrative practice banished want, sunshine friends returned and flashed around him, he leaped upon the flood tide of prosperity. From his childhood he had been a close observer of human nature-the only germ of genius visible in his juvenile character. He had studiously cultivated this important attribute which was of great advantage to him through life. So familiar had he become with the propensities and operations of the mind that he comprehended all its intricacies, impulses and variations. This gave him a great advantage over many of his professional brethren who had studied Greek and Latin more but human nature less than this self-made man. He took a deep and comprehensive view of the causes that impel men to action. and of the results produced by the multifarious influences that control them. He grasped the designs of creation, the duty of man to his fellow and his God, the laws of nature, reason and revelation and became a bold advocate for liberty of conscience, equal rights and universal freedom. From the expansive view he had taken of the rights of man, the different forms of government, the oppression of kings, the policy pursued by the mother country towards the American colonies, he was fully convinced that to be great and happy a nation must be free and independent. With the eye of a statesman he had viewed the increasing oppression of the crown. They had reached his noble soul and roused that soul to action. Patrick Henry first charged the revolutionary ball with patriotic fire in Virginia and gave it an impetus that gathered force as it rolled onward.

In 1765 he was elected to the Assembly and at once took a bold decisive stand against British oppression. He introduced resolutions against the Stamp Act that were so pointed and bold as to alarm many of the older members although they admitted the truth and justice of the sentiments expressed. They had not his genius to design or his moral courage to execute. To impart a share of these to them and allay the palpitations of their trembling hearts was the province of this young champion of freedom. In this he succeeded-his resolutions were passed. Each was drawn from the translucent fountain of eternal justice-based upon equity and law and within the orbit of Magna

Charta that had been the polar star of the English government ever since the 19th of June 1215. Read them and judge.

"Resolved-That the first adventurers and settlers of this his majesty's colony and dominion brought with them and transmitted to their posterity and all other his majesty's subjects since inhabiting in this his majesty's said colony-all the privileges, franchises and immunities that have at any time been held, enjoyed and possessed by the people of Great Britain.

"Resolved-That by two royal charters granted by King James I. the colonies aforesaid are declared entitled to all the privileges, liberties and immunities of denizens and natural born subjects to all intents and purposes as if they had been born and abiding within the realm of England.

"Resolved-That the taxation of the people by themselves or by persons chosen by themselves to represent them who can only know what taxes the people are able to bear and the easiest mode of raising them and are equally affected by such taxes themselves, is the distinguishing characteristic of British freedom and without which the ancient constitution cannot subsist.

"Resolved-That his majesty's liege people of this most ancient colony have uninterruptedly enjoyed the right of being thus governed by their own Assembly in the article of their taxes and internal police and that the same hath never been forfeited or in any other way given up but hath been constantly recognized by the king's people of Great Britain.

"Resolved therefore-That the General Assembly of this colony has the sole right and power to lay taxes and impositions upon the inhabitants of this colony and that any attempt to vest such power in any person or persons whosoever other than the General Assembly aforesaid has a manifest tendency to destroy British as well as American freedom."

The cringing sycophants of a corrupt and corrupting ministry could not-dare not deny the correctness of these resolutions. They were hailed by every patriot as the firm pillars of American liberty. They were based upon the well defined principles of the English constitution and confined within the limits of the ancient landmarks of that sacred instrument. They were enforced by the overwhelming eloquence and logic of Mr. Henry and seconded by the cool deep calculating Johnson, who sustained them by arguments and conclusions that carried conviction and conversion to the minds of many who were poising on the agonizing pivot of hesitation a few moments before. Some members opposed them who subsequently espoused the cause of equal rights