with the kindest affections; he was in truth, one of the best of companions, and one of the warmest of friends. The fact that he was the acknowledged head of the several bars at which he practised in the country, may assure the reader of his capacity for the commission which he so cheerfully undertook, in regard to Mr. Henry; and the unblemished integrity of his life may assure him also of the fidelity with which that commission was executed. So many important anecdotes in the following work depend on the credit of this gentleman as a witness, that the slight sketch which has been given of his character. will not, it is hoped, be thought foreign to the purpose of this preface. Mr. Pope did not confine his inquiries to the county of Hanover: he was indefatigable in collecting information from every quarter; which he never accepted, however, but from the purest sources; and his authority for every incident was given with the most scrupulous accuracy. The author had hoped to have had it in his power to gratify this gentleman, by submitting to his view the joint result of their labours, and obtaining the benefit of his last corrections; but he was disappointed by his untimely and melancholy death. He fell a victim to that savage practice, which, under the false name of honour, continued to prevail too long; and his death is believed to have been highly instrumental in hastening that system of legislation in restraint of this practice, which now exists in Virginia.

Besides the contributions furnished by Mr. Pope, the writer derived material aid from various other quarters. The widow of Mr. Henry was still living, and had intermarried with Judge Winston; from this gentleman (who was also related to Mr. Hery by blood, and had been intimately acquainted with him through the far greater part of his life,) the author received a succinct but extremely accurate and comprehensive memoir.

Col. Meredith, of Amherst, was a few years older than Mr. Henry, had been raised in the same neighbourhood, and had finally married one of his sisters. Having known Mr. Henry from his birth to his death, he had it in his power to supply very copious details, which were taken down from his narration by the present Judge Cabell, and forwarded to the author.

One of the most intimate and confidential friends of Mr. Henry was the late Judge Tyler. The judge had a kind of Roman frankness, and even bluntness, in his manners, together with a decision of character and a benevolence of spirit, which had attached Mr. Henry to him, from his first appearance on the public stage. They were, for a long time, members of the House of Delegates together, and their friendship continued until it was severed by death. From Judge Tyler the author received a very minute and interesting communication of incidents, the whole of which had either passed in his own presence, or had been related to him by Mr. Henry himself.

The writer is indebted to Judge Tucker for two or three of his best incidents; one of them will probably be pronounced the most interesting passage of the work. He owes to the same gentleman, too, the fullest and liveliest description of the person of Mr. Henry, which has been furnished from any

quarter; and he stands further indebted to him for a rare and (to the purpose of this work) a very important book-the Journals of the House of Burgesses for the years seventeen hundred and sixty-three, four, five, six, and seven.

From Judge Roane the author has received one of the fairest and most satisfactory communications that has been made to him; and the vigour and elegance with which that gentleman writes, has frequently enabled the author to relieve the dulness of his own narrative, by extracts from his statements.

Mr. Jefferson, too, has exercised his well-known kindness and candour on this occasion; having not only favoured the author with a very full communication in the first instance; but assisted him, subsequently and repeatedly, with his able counsel, in reconciling apparent contradictions, and clearing away difficulties of fact.

Besides these statements, drawn from the memory of his correspondents, the writer was favoured, by the late Governor Page, with the reading of a pretty extended sketch, which he had himself prepared, of the life of Mr. Henry; and he has, furtherinore, availed himself of the kind perinission of Mr. Peyton Randolph, to examine an extremely valuable manuscript history of Virginia, written by his father, the late Mr. Edmund Randolph; which em braces the whole period of Mr. Henry's public life.

In addition to these stores of information the author has had the good fortune to procure complete files of the public newspapers, reaching from the year seventeen hundred and sixty-five down to the close of the American revolution; by these he has been enabled to correct, in some important instances, the memory of his correspondents, in relation not only to dates, but to facts themselves.

He has been fortunate, too, in having procured several original letters, which shed much light on important and hitherto disputed facts, in the life of Mr. Henry.

The records of the General Court, and the archives of the state, having been convenient to the author, and always open to him, he has endeavoured assiduously and carefully to avail himself of that certain and permanent evidence which they afford; and has been enabled, by this means, as the reader will discover, to correct some strange mistakes in historical facts.

The author's correspondents will find, that he has departed, in some instances, from their respective statements; and he owes them an explanation for having done so the explanation is this-their statements were, in several instances, diametrically opposed to each other; and were sometimes all contradicted by the public prints, or the records of the state. It ought not to be matter of surprise, that these contradictions should exist, even among those most respectable gentlemen, relying, as they did, upon human memory merely; and speaking of events so very remote, without a previous opportunity of communicating with each other. It will be seen by them, that the author has been obliged in several instances, to contradict even the several histories of the times, concerning which he writes; but this he has never done, without

the most decisive proofs of his own correctness, which he has always cited; nor has he ever departed from the narratives of his several correspondents, except under the direction of preponderating evidence. As among those contradictory statements, all could not be true, he has sought the correction by public documnets, when such correction was attainable; and when it was not, he has selected, among his narrators, those whose opportunities to know the fact in question seemed to be the best. This he has done, without the slightest intention to throw a shadow of suspicion on the credit of any gentleman who has been so obliging as to answer his inquiries; but merely from the necessity which he was under, either of making some selection, or abandoning the work altogether; and because he knew of no better rule of selection, than that which he has adopted.

Although it has been so long since the collection of these materials was begun, it was not until the summer of eighteen hundred and fourteen that the last communication was received. Even then, when the author sat down to the task of imbodying his materials, there were so many intricacies to disentangle, and so inany inconsistencies, from time to time, to explain and settle, and that, too, through the tedious agency of cross-mails, that his progress was continually impeded, and has been, to him, most painfully retarded.

Other causes, too, have contributed to delay the publication. The author is a practising lawyer; and the courts which he attends, keep him perpetually and exclusively occupied in that attendance, through ten months of the year; nor does the summer recess of two months afford a remission from professional labour. In Virginia, the duties of attorney, counsellor, conveyancer, and advocate, are all performed by the same individual; hence, the summer vaca tion, instead of being a time of leisure, is not only the season of preparation for the approaching courts, but is subject, moreover, to a perpetual recurrence of what are here called office duties, which renders a steady application to any other subject impossible.

These sketches are now submitted to the public, with unaffected diffidence; not of the facts which they detail, for on them the author has the firmest relia cc; but of the manner in which he has been able to accomplish his undertaking. For, (to say nothing of his inexperience and want of ability for such a work) he has been compelled to write (when he was suffered to write at all) amidst that incessant professional annoyance which has been mentioned, and which is known by every man who has ever made the trial, to forbid the hope of success in any composition of this extent. Conld the writer have looked forward, with any reasonable calculation, to a period of greater ease, his respect for the memory of Mr. Henry, as well as his regard for himself, would have induced him to suspend this undertaking until that period should have arrived. But having no ground for any hope of this kind, he has thought it better to hazard even these crude sketches, than to suffer the materials, which he had accumulated with so much toil, and for an object which he thought so laudable, to perish on his hands.

These remarks are not made with the view of deprecating the censures of critics by profession; but merely to bespeak the candour of that larger portion of readers, who are willing to be pleased with the best efforts that can be reasonably expected from the circumstances of the case. The author, however, is well satisfied that the most indulgent reader (although benevolently disposed to overlook defects of execution) will be certainly disappointed in the matter itself of this work; for, notwithstanding all his exertions, he is entirely conscious that the materials, which he has been able to collect are scanty and meager, and utterly disproportionate to the great fame of Mr. Henry. It is probable, that much of what was once known of him had perished, before the author commenced his researches; and, it is very possible, that much may still be known, which he has not been able to discover; because it lies in unsuspected sources, or with persons unwilling, for some reason or other, to communicate their information. It is the conviction, that he has not been able to inform himself of the whole events of Mr. Henry's life, and that his collection can be considered only as so many detached SKETCHES. If, in this humble and unassuming character, it shall give any pleasure to the numerous admirers of Mr. Henry, in Virginia, the author will have attained all that he has a right to expect.

RICHMOND, Va. Sept. 5th, 1817.

NOTE A

Ir appears by the journals of the house of burgesses, of the 14th November, seventeen hundred and sixty-four, (page 38,) that a committee was appointed to draw up the following address, memorial, and remonstrance; which committee was composed of the following persons, to wit: Mr. Attorney, (Peyton Randolph,) Mr. Richard Henry Lee, Mr. Landon Carter, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Edmund Pendleton, Mr. Benjamin Harrison Mr. Cary, and Mr. Fleming, te whom, afterward, Mr. Bland was added. The address to the king is from the pen of the attorney.*

⚫ On the authority of Mr. Jefferson. "To the king's most excellent Majesty. "Most Gracious Sovereign,

"We, your majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the council and burgesser of your ancient colony and dominion of Virginia, now met in general assembly, beg leave to assure your majesty of our firm and inviolable attachment to yous sacred person and government; and as your faithful subjects here have at all times been zealous to demonstrate this truth, by a ready compliance with the royal requisttion during the late war, by which a heavy and oppressive debt of near half a million had been incurred, so at this time they implore permission to approach the throne with humble confidence, and to entreat that your majesty will be graciously pleased to ptotect our people of this colony in the enjoyment of their ancient and inestimable right of being governed by such laws, respecting their internal polity and taxation, as are derived from their own consen(, with the approbation of their sovereign or his substitute: a right which, as men, and descendants of Britons, they have ever quietly possessed. since, first by royal permission and encouragement, they left the mother kingdom to extend its commerce and dominion.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE appearance of a duodecimo edition of Marshall's Life of Washington, suggested to the proprietors of The Life of Patrick Henry, the desirableness and utility of the present edition. As that masterly sketch of the heroic deeds and character of the Father of his country, furnishes to the youth of our land the most impressive lessons of patriotism and manly energy, so it was presumed that this graphic delineation of the genius of the "forest-born Demosthenes,” was admirably calculated to elicit in the youthful mind, feelings of emulation which time might develop into action and honourable usefulness. It was not, however, alone for youth, or for the use of the School Libraries of our several states, that this work has assumed its present formit was equally designed for those who would have purchased the former edition, had it been less expensive, who will und under a less commanding appearance, the same as is contained in the octavo edtion-the only alteration being in a more convenient agement of some of the notes.

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