"I would have given 500 guineas for a single vote!" The young man had thus achieved at the age of 29 the reputation of being the greatest orator and political thinker of a land filled with celebrated public speakers and statesmen. His voice had aroused the storm; his genius had comprehended the exigencies of the crisis, and set the ball in motion. He had suddenly become a "power in the state;" and the sceptre, departing from the hands of the wealthy planters, was wielded by the county court lawyer. The mouthpiece of resistance, the authoritative representative of the masses as distinguished from the aristocracy, and soon to be the advocate of revolution, Patrick Henry thenceforth occupied a post of strength from which his most powerful enemies were unable to drive him. From the pursuits of his profession, to which he returned, he was soon again recalled to the stage of public events. The stamp act had been repealed, but the policy of laying burdens upon the colonies had not been abandoned. In 1767 the act levying duties upon tea, glass,' paper, and other articles, threw the country into renewed ferment. To curb the malcontents of the northern provinces, two British regiments and some vessels of war were sent to Boston. Events ripened slowly but surely. In the spring session of 1769 the leading advocates of resistance in the house of burgesses, of whom Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and the Lees were the most active and determined, offered a series of resolutions which caused the dissolution of the body by Lord Botetourt. Henry and his friends immediately assembled at the old Raleigh tavern in Williamsburg, and drew up articles of association against the use of British merchandise, which were generally signed by the burgesses. Here terminated for a time the struggle, and Henry returned to his profession, though he continued a member of the burgesses. In this year he was admitted to the bar of the general court, where his appear ance was respectable, but not distinguished. He was not a good "case lawyer," from defective study; but in jury trials, where his wonderful powers of oratory could be brought to bear upon the passions of men, he far exceeded all his contemporaries. The effect which he produced upon juries is said to have been almost indescribable. He exercised a species of magnetic fascination over them, which took their reason captive and decided the result without reference to the merits of the case.. For 4 years Henry continued to occupy a seat in the house of burgesses, and to practise his profession. Then the struggle between Great Britain and the colonies commenced in earnest. It was plain that both sides were greatly embittered, and there is every reason to believe that Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and other advocates of uncompromising resistance, desired to take advantage of the public sentiment, and precipitate the rupture. Early in the session of 1773, Henry, Jefferson, the two Lees, and Dabney Carr met in the Ra

leigh tavern and originated that great machine, the "committee of correspondence, for the dissemination of intelligence between the colonies." The burgesses promptly acted upon the suggestion, and were as promptly dissolved by Lord Dunmore, who had succeeded Botetourt. They were, every one, reelected by the people, and resumed their seats in the spring of 1774. The committee of correspondence had been duly organized, and "the plan thus proposed," says Mr. Irving, "by their "noble, patriotic sister colony of Virginia,' was promptly adopted by the people of Massachusetts, and soon met with general concurrence." Massachusetts had already made her courageous stand against parliament. The tea of the East India company had been thrown overboard in Boston harbor, and a collision between England and the colonies was now in the highest degree probable. The most determined patriots were therefore summoned to the public councils in Virginia. The Boston port bill, closing Boston harbor on June 1, speedily arrived. The leaders of the burgesses again met in secret consultation, and the result was a resolution that the 1st of June should be set apart as "a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer" throughout the province. The burgesses passed the resolution, and Dunmore duly dissolved them. They retired to the Raleigh tavern as before; but public feeling was too deeply aroused to content itself with protests or "articles of association." The day of petitions and memorials had passed away; the time for definite action had arrived. The meeting at the Raleigh in May, 1774, resulted in two resolves of the utmost importance. The first was that the different counties should be recommended to elect deputies to assemble at Williamsburg, Aug. 1, to consult for the good of the colony. The second was that the committee of correspondence should propose immediately to all the colonies a general congress, to meet annually, and deliberate upon the common welfare; "the first recommendation of a general congress," says Mr. Irving, "by any public assembly." The deputies accordingly assembled on Aug. 1, subscribed a new and more thorough non-importation agreement, and appointed delegates to a general congress, to meet at Philadelphia in September. Among these delegates was Patrick Henry, and his voice was the first to break the silence of the august assembly. His fame had preceded him. He was recognized and greeted as the great champion of constitutional liberty-the man who, more than any other, had aroused public sentiment in, and directed the councils of, the great province of Virginia. His extraordinary eloquence astonished all listeners. It was

Shakespeare and Garrick combined." When he took his seat, there was no longer a doubt in any mind that he was the greatest orator of America, and one of the greatest of any land or age. In the routine of actual business Henry was surpassed by many of his associates. Here, as throughout life, his constitutional indolence

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interposed. But it may justly be doubted whether, by confining the exercise of his genius to vital principles and great occasions, he did not achieve more splendid results for his country. A petition to the king, and an address and memorial to the inhabitants of Great Britain, were the chief results of the congress, which adjourned in October. Henry returned home with his brother delegates, and, when asked who was the greatest man in congress," replied that Mr. Rutledge of South Carolina was the greatest orator, but Col. George Washington the greatest man-an instance of his powers of penetrating into the depths of human character. With the spring of the next year, 1775, all things advanced rapidly toward the dividing line between peace and war. In March the second convention met at old St. John's church in Richmond, and here again Henry assumed a position very far in advance of his associates. He rose and moved that the militia should be organized, and the "colony be immediately put in a state of defence." The resolutions met with strong opposition, as had been the case with his stamp act resolutions 10 years before in the house of burgesses. The leading and greatest patriots warmly opposed them as precipitate and ill advised. Henry's speech in reply was one of extraordinary eloquence and power. With the vision of a prophet almost, he exclaimed: "There is no retreat but in submission and slavery. Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston. The next breeze that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. . . I know not what course others may take; but as for me-give me liberty or give me death!" The resolutions were passed without a dissenting voice, and the convention rose. Ere long arrived the news of the battles of Lexington and Concord. The contest was not to be long delayed on the soil of Virginia. In compliance with general orders from England, Lord Dunmore on the night of April 20 removed clandestinely from the magazine in Williamsburg all the powder of the colony. The alarm spread rapidly throughout the province, and the people flew to arms. Seven hundred men assembled at Fredericsburg, but, receiving an assurance that the powder would be restored, were disbanded. Patrick Henry saw the favorable moment thus about to pass. He determined to act boldly. Summoning the militia of Hanover, he placed himself at their head, despatched a troop to arrest the king's receiver-general, and marched upon Williamsburg. Lord Dunmore's agent met him on the way, and paid £330 for the powder; and on his return home, Henry found himself and his friends denounced in a public proclamation as "deluded" arousers of sedition. But the whole province, indeed all the land, was equally deluded. The defiance had been given by Henry; the authority of the king, in the person of his representative, menaced with an armed force. There was no

choice thenceforth but between submission and open resistance. In June, Lord Dunmore fled with his family from Williamsburg on board the Fowey man-of-war, and in July a convention met at Richmond which organized a committee of safety, consisting of 11 gentlemen, endowed with almost dictatorial powers. Two regiments were directed to be immediately raised, and Patrick Henry was elected colonel of the first and commander of all forces to be enrolled; William Woodford, colonel of the second. Lord Dunmore at this time was ravaging the shores of the Chesapeake and threatening Norfolk, and the committee of safety were compelled to act promptly. They detached Col. Woodford at the head of the greater portion of the forces against the enemy, and the result was the battle of Great Bridge, in which the raw Virginia recruits drove back the best trained English grenadiers and gained a victory, sending Dunmore back to his ships. The action of the committee in passing over Henry was however violently inveighed against by his friends, and the venerable Edmund Pendleton, the president, was especially assailed. The censure seems to have been wholly unjust. The right of the committee to assign a separate command to Col. Woodford was formally stated in Henry's commission, and Woodford's military experience determined the action of the committee in selecting him for this critical undertaking. The ardent feelings of Henry and his disappointment doubtless betrayed him into resigning his commission, which he speedily did, though between Pendleton_and himself there was never any quarrel. He was a delegate to the convention which met in May, 1776, and instructed the Virginia deputies to the general congress to propose to that body to "declare the united colonies free and independent states." In the same year he was elected the first republican governor of Virginia, by a majority of 15 over his competitor Thomas Nelson. From this time Henry's career was rather that of the statesman and minister of public affairs, than the ardent, imposing, almost dazzling orator of revolution.

From the forum he passed to the closet, with equal advantage to his country. He filled the office of governor by successive reëlections until 1779, when he was no longer eligible. During this trying period he was eminently serviceable in sustaining public spirit and seconding the efforts of the great leaders of the revolution. He returned to the legislative body, where he served throughout the war, at the termination of which he was again elected governor, and served until the autumn of 1786, when he resigned. In 1788 he was a member of the convention to ratify the federal constitution, an instrument against whose adoption the aged statesman fought with all the strength and eloquence of his youth. Although this opposition afterward abated in a measure, he remained fearful to the end of his life that the final result would be the destruction of the rights of the sovereign states. In 1794 he re

and deep furrows at the corners, was set in an expression of unyielding resolution. When he spoke, however, a wonderful change passed over him. His person rose erect, his head, instead of stooping, was held proudly aloft, and the whole man seemed to undergo a transformation. The power which he possessed of expressing feeling by a simple movement of feature was extraordinary. The stern face would relax and grow soft, pensive, and gentle; or a withering rage would burn in the fiery eyes; or eyes, mouth, and voice would convey to the listener emotions of the tenderest pathos. In private life he was kindly, good-humored, and agreeable. He possessed a dry humor which was very attractive. He indulged in none of the vices of high living then prevalent; temperate, frugal, rarely drinking any thing but water, he presented a strong contrast to his contemporaries. His reading was not extensive, but serious and solid. Livy was his favorite historian; but his reading was chiefly confined to the Bible. He was a devout Christian, and when governor had printed and circulated at his own expense Soame Jenyn's "View of Christianity," and Butler's "Analogy." Sherlock's sermons he read every Sunday evening to his family, after which all joined in sacred music, while he accompanied them upon the violin. All the accounts of his personal bearing represent it as simple, plain, and cordial. There was an honest good feeling in his manner which induced the commonest persons to approach him with confidence. By this class he was almost idolized; and throughout his whole career he retained their unbounded admiration, attachment, and respect. Indeed, it is as the "tribune of the people" that Henry's name will descend to the remotest posterity. It was always as the representative of the masses that he presented himself. He never desired to be other than this. "Stick to the people, old fellow," said a rough neighbor; "if you take the back track, we are gone." He never took the back track. He was raised among the plain, brave, honest class whom he represented, and never wished to desert them. As in his fiery youth there was something chivalric and nobly honest, so in his old age there was a patriarchal simplicity and absence of every thing which detracted from the majestic proportions. Having performed the great mission for which Providence designed him, he disappeared at nearly the same moment with his friend George Washington, leaving his fame where it will be safe, with the people of America.-The life of Patrick Henry has been written by William Wirt (8vo., 1817), and by A. H. Everett, in Sparks's "American Biography."

HENRY, PHILIP, an English nonconformist divine, born in Whitehall, London, Aug. 24, 1631, died June 24, 1696. He was educated at Westminster school and at Christchurch, Oxford, was ordained to the ministry at Worthenbury, Flintshire, in 1657, was one of the 2,000 clergymen who left the church of England in

1662 in consequence of the act of uniformity, and lived in seclusion till in 1687 he was permitted again to preach by the declaration of King James in favor of liberty of conscience. From that time he held public religious services near his residence at Broad Oak, which were attended by throngs from distant places, and also preached frequently in various parts of the country. Many of his sermons and expositions have been published since his death. His biography, by his son Matthew Henry (London, 1698), has passed through many editions. MATTHEW, an English biblical commentator and nonconformist divine, son of the preceding, born at Broad Oak, Flintshire, Oct. 18, 1662, died in Nantwich, June 22, 1714. From childhood he was remarkable for the activity of his mind. He could read the Bible in his 3d year, and the Greek Testament in his 9th. In 1685 he entered Gray's Inn as a student of law, though without any view to pursuing the legal profession, his inclination being for the ministry. His first efforts at public preaching were received with the highest favor, and he was soon invited to Chester, where, being ordained in 1687, he drew around him a large congregation, to which he ministered for 25 years. During this period he more than once went through the entire Bible in a course of expository lectures, which he continued at Hackney, whither he removed in 1712. He thus gradually completed his celebrated "Exposition" of the Bible, a large portion of which was uttered in his public lectures, while many of the quaint and striking sayings and pithy remarks which give such a charm to its pages were the familiar extempore observations of his father at family worship, noted down by Matthew in his boyhood. The first collective edition was published in 1710 (5 vols. fol., London), and it has been many times reprinted. Mr. Henry's other works include "Life and Death of Rev. Philip Henry" (8vo., 1698); "Method of Prayer" (8vo., 1710); "Treatise on Baptism;"" Communicant's Companion" (12mo., 1731). A collection of his miscellaneous works, in 1 vol. 8vo., appeared in London in 1830.

HENRY, ROBERT, LL.D., president of the college of South Carolina, born in Charleston, S. C., Dec. 6, 1792, died in Columbia, Feb. 6, 1856. He was educated in the vicinity of London and at the university of Edinburgh, where he was graduated in 1814. He chose the ministry as his profession, and after a short residence on the continent returned to Charleston, and became pastor there of the French Protestant church, preaching alternately in French and English. In 1818 he was elected professor of logic and moral philosophy in the South Carolina college; in 1824 the department of metaphysics was assigned him, to which that of belles-lettres was subsequently joined; in 1833 he became president pro tempore, and in 1842 was unanimously elected permanent president of the college. He resigned this office in 1845, and from that time held the professorship of the Greek language and literature. He was