A good bust of Flaxman was executed by Baily some few years before our artist's death.

FROM the American Revolution of 1776 we may date the commencement of that struggle which has agitated and still agitates Europe and the two Americas. By whatever words the character of this struggle may be expressed,-whether under the name of popular rights against exclusive privileges, or self-government or the government of the people, against absolute government or the government of a few, or by any other terms more or less appropriate, the contest is still going on, openly and actively in those called fre governments, silently and languidly in those where the sovereign power is opposed to the extension or introduction of the new doctrines. The contest is between progress (not here considered whether as right or wrong) and standing still; between change, without which there cannot be improvement, and a desire to resist all change, which can hardly end in keeping things stationary, but almost necessarily leads to a backward movement. The contest is not only for the practical application of principles in government,

which are vigorously maintained by the one party, and either not denied or faintly opposed by the arguments of the other; but also for the free expression and publication of all opinions on all subjects affecting the moral and political condition of society.

There is no individual, either in America or in Europe, who by his actions and opinions has had a greater influence on this contest than THOMAS JEFFERSON. During a long and laborious life, both in official situations, which gave him opportunities that his activity never let slip, and in private life, in his extensive correspondence and intercourse with persons of all countries, he constantly, perseveringly, and honestly maintained what he conceived to be the principle of pure republican institutions. In the ardour of youth, his zeal and energy mainly contributed to animate his countrymen to declare their independence on a foreign power. In his maturer age, when a member of the General Administration, he struggled, and he struggled at one time almost alone, against a monarchical and aristocratical faction, to maintain the great principles of the Revolution, and develop the doctrines of a pure unmixed popular government. His influence gave to these doctrines a consistency, and a form, and a distinctness, which the mass of the nation could easily seize and retain. He thus became the head of a party in the United States, which, whether always rightly appealing to his doctrines or not for the vindication of their acts, still regards him as the father of their school, and the expounder of their principles. By his plain and unaffected manners, and the freedom with which he expressed his opinions on all subjects, he gave a practical example of that republican simplicity which he cultivated, and of that free inquiry which he urged upon all. Such a man must always have many friends and many enemies. From his friends and

admirers he has received, perhaps, not more praise than those who believe in the truth of his doctrines and the purity of his conduct are bound to bestow; by his enemies, both at home and abroad, he has been blackened by every term of abuse that bigotry, malice, and falsehood can invent.

Thomas Jefferson was born April 2, 1743, at Shadwell, now in the county of Albemarle, in Virginia. He was educated at the College of William and Mary, at Williamsburg, then the capital of the colony, where, under Dr. Small, a native of Scotland, who was then Professor of Mathematics in the college, he studied mathematics, ethics, and other branches of knowledge. His education, owing to the care of this excellent instructor and his own industry, must have been of a superior kind. In addition to his general acquirements, he made himself well acquainted with the best Greek and Latin writers, and to the end of his long life retained his ability to read them. Mr. Jefferson studied law under Mr. Wythe, then a lawyer of eminence. He made his first appearance at the bar of the General Court in 1767, at the age of twenty-four, about two years after the misunderstanding between Great Britain and the Colonies had commenced. He practised for seven or eight years in the General Court, and was gradually rising to the first rank as an accurate and able lawyer, when he was called away to more important duties by the political events that preceded the American Revolution. In 1769 he was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for the county of Albemarle. In the session of this spring the House unanimously came to resolutions in opposition to those which had been lately passed in England by both Houses of Parliament on the affairs of Massachusetts. This measure, which was accompanied with the declaration that the right of laying taxes in Virginia was exclusively vested in

its own legislature, and others of a like tendency, induced the Governor, Lord Botetourt, abruptly to dissolve the Assembly. The next day the members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and entered into articles of agreement, by which they bound themselves not to import or purchase certain specified kinds of British merchandise, till the act of parliament for raising a revenue in America was repealed; and they recommended this agreement to be adopted by their constituents. Eighty-eight members signed the agreement, among whom were George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others, who afterwards took a distinguished part in public affairs.

In 1773, on the meeting of the Virginia Assembly in the spring, Mr. Jefferson was an active member in organising the Standing Committee of Correspondence and Inquiry, the main objects of which were to procure early intelligence of the proceedings of the British Parliament, and to maintain a constant communication among all the Colonies. On the dissolution of the Assembly, in May, 1774, by the Governor, Lord Dunmore, eighty-nine members met at the Raleigh Tavern, and, among other things, recommended the Committee of Correspondence to communicate with the Committees in the other colonies "on the expediency of appointing deputies for the several colonies of British America, to meet in General Congress, at such place annually as should be thought most convenient," to consult on their common interests. It was also forthwith agreed that the members who might be elected under the writs at that time issuing in the colony of Virginia should meet in Convention at Williamsburg on the 1st of August following, in order to appoint delegates to the Congress, if such General Congress should be approved by the other colonies. The Convention did meet, and thus formed the first popular assembly in