hannock, where he fortified himself. His force was about five hundred men, including negroes. In this position he was attacked by a body of troops, under the command of brigadier general Lewis, and compelled to abandon the island, leaving behind a great part of his baggage.

Tired at length of a war which yielded only disgrace and disappointment, lord Dunmore, after despatching the miserable remnant of his followers to Florida and the West Indies, sailed from Virginia, and arrived with lord William Campbell and sir Peter Parker off Staten island on the 14th of August 1776.

CHAPTER XIIL.

HAVING given a detail of the military and civil events in Virginia, until the establishment of the present republican form of government, it may not be uninteresting to close the colonial history with a brief survey of the genius and literature of our country at this period. And here the slightest observation will convince us, that the opinion entertained by the British, and publicly expressed in parliament, respecting the ignorance of the colonists, was equally illiberal and unfounded.

The depth and boldness of our politicab essays, and the masterly eloquence displayed in our councils, refutes the calumny. Few assem blies could boast of more wisdom, and none of more virtue, than the first general congress of the colonies. Of this august body, the Virginia representation formed, in weight of talents and integrity of principle, a very important part.

Virginia fostered in her bosom the most enlightened statesmen and the most illustrious heroes. She gave a leader to our armies and an orator of the highest order to our councils. The celebrated Patrick Henry was among the earliest and ablest supporters of the revolution. He possessed a mind fraught with wisdom and a patriotism steady as the beam of heaven. We have already seen him at the head of a band of volunteers directing his march against the palace of Dunmore, whose seat he was so soon to occupy, and on the ruin of whose power his own and his country's glory was shortly to be built. But when declaiming in the great councils of the nation, our admiration rises at the extent of his knowledge and the resistless force of his eloquence. He combined in a happy degree the power of reasoning with the more attractive accomplishments of the orator. Without the aid of extensive learning, or the influence which family and fortune bestow, he possessed a control over the passions and opinions of his audience, which his own eloquence alone could describe. To a clear understanding and a correct

taste, he united a bold imagination and mysteri ous power of expression which argument could not resist nor obstinacy withstand. As early as the year 1765, Mr. Henry was a member of the assembly of Virginia, in which body he introduced some resolutions that breathed a spirit of liberty and showed the zeal and patriotism of his youthful mind. In the year 1774 he was ehosen a deputy from Virginia to the first congress, and formed one of the committee who drew up the petition to the king.ko mokroba atis

As, already observed, Mr. Henry was active in opposing the tyranny of lord Dunmore, and marched in person with the volunteers of Hanover to demand restitution of the powder carried off from the magazine. He was afterwards appointed colonel of the first Virginia regiment, but thinking himself not well treated by the committee of safety, he shortly after resigned his commission, and withdrew from public service. His country, however, knew his worth too well to allow him a long retirement. In the

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year 1776 he was elected by the convention first governor of Virginia under the new constitution, and continued in that high office for several successive years. In the year 1778 he received an anonymous letter, designed to alienate: his affections from his friend general Washington. This letter he enclosed to the general to put him on his guard against the insidious attacks of his enemies. In June 1788, he was a member of the Virginia convention, in which he opposed the adoption of the federal constitution with all the power of his eloquence. Almost the whole weight of opposition devolved on him, and the difficulty of the task only served to unfold the astonishing resources of his mind. He opposed the constitution on the ground, that changes were dangerous to liberty, and that the proposed plan was a consolidation in which the rights of the states would be lost in the powers of the general government. To reply to the arguments of a Madison, a Randolph and a Marshall, required no ordinary share of understanding and eloquence. Although opposed to its adoption,

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