matters that will be under your consideration, with all con. venient speed, will not be taken amiss: the people expect that effectual and decisive measures will be taken to rid them of an implacable enemy, that are now roaming at large in the very bowels of our country, and I have no doubt of your answering their expectations; the mode of doing this may indeed be difficult; but it not being my province to point it out, I shall leave it to your wisdom, in full confidence, that every thing that is necessary for quieting the minds, and dispelling the fears, of our constituents, will be done."

It will scarcely be believed, that almost fifty years after these events had taken place, in a work assuming the character of impartial history, this very paragraph is quoted, and attributed to unmanly fears. If by fear, be meant the compulsory retreat of an unprotected legislature before the bands of the ferocious Tarleton, then, indeed, were Mr. Harrison and all the delegates cowards; but if by fear, be meant a request, "to despatch with all convenient speed those measures, which the people expected, to rid them from an implacable enemy," then is it, as it appears to us, a perversion of language and of motives which cannot be excused. The descendants indeed of the patriots of Virginia have just reason to complain that their merits have been depreciated, and their conduct misrepresented with a view to bring more strongly into the light, a man, certainly inferior to many of them in useful talents, and in active duty, and by no means superior in patriotism or disinterestedness.

In the year 1782, on the resignation of Mr. Nelson, Mr. Harrison was elected governor of Virginia, and became one of the most popular officers that ever filled the executive. chair. His services during the period, were many and great ;

the fluctuations of public opinion, the situation of the continental army, the state of public currency, the efforts of intriguing men, and the natural revulsion of affairs, which accompanied the return of peace, called forth all the vigour and steadiness of his character. To enter, however, upon the detail of his measures, would be to write the history of Virginia during his administration, a task inconsistent equally with the character and limits of this sketch. Every personal anecdote, however, is interesting of such a man, and we shall conclude this period of his life, by an extract from the writings of an intelligent traveller, who thus describes a visit which he paid to him in the year 1782.

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"After dinner I went to pay a visit to Mr. Harrison, then governor of the state. I found him in a homely, but spacious enough house, which was fitted up for him. As the assembly was then sitting, there was nothing to distinguish him from other citizens. One of his brothers, who is colonel of artillery, and one of his sons, who acts as his secretary, were with him. The conversation was free and agreeable, which he was even desirous of prolonging; for on my rising in half an hour, lest I might interrupt him, he assured me that the business of the day was at an end, and desired me to resume my seat. We talked much of the first congress 'in America, in which he sat for two years, and which, as I have already said, was composed of every person distinguished for virtue and capacity on the continent. This subject led us naturally to that which is the most favourite topic, amongst the Americans, the origin and commencement of the present revolution. It is a circumstance peculiar to Virginia, that the inhabitants of that country were certainly in the best situation of all the colonists under the English government. The Virginians were planters, rather than merchants, and

the objects of their culture were rather valuable than the result of industry. They possessed, almost exclusively, the privileged article of tobacco, which the English came in quest of, into the very heart of the country, bringing, in exchange, every article of utility, and even of luxury. They had a particular regard and predilection for Virginia, and favoured accordingly the peculiar disposition of that country, where cupidity and indolence go hand in hand, and serve only as the boundaries to each other. It was undoubtedly no easy matter, therefore, to persuade this people to take up arms, because the town of Boston did not choose to pay a duty upon tea, and was in open rupture with England. To produce this effect, it was necessary to substitute activity for indolence, and foresight for indifference. That idea was to be awakened at which every man, educated in the principles of the English constitution, shudders, the idea of a servile submission to a tax to which he has not himself consented. The precise case, however, relative to them, had not yet occurred, though every enlightened mind foresaw that such was the object, and would be the inevitable consequence of the early measures of the government: but how were the people to be convinced of this? By what other motive could they be brought to adopt decisive measures, if not by the confidence they reposed in their leaders? Mr. Harrison informed me, that when he was on the point of setting out with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Lee, to attend the first congress at Philadelphia, a number of respectable, but uninformed inhabitants, waited upon, and addressed them as follows: 'You assert that there is a fixed intention to invade our rights and privileges; we own that we do not see this clearly, but since you assure us that it is so, we believe the fact. We are about to take a very dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are

ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt. Mr. Harrison added, that he found himself greatly relieved by a speech made by lord North soon after, in which he could not refrain from avowing, in the clearest manner, the plan of the British government. This speech was printed in the public papers, and all America rang with its contents. Returning afterwards to Virginia, he saw the same persons. who had thus addressed him on his departure, who now confessed that he had not deceived them, and that henceforward they were resolutely determined upon war. These particular détails cannot but be useful to such Europeans as are desirous of forming a just idea of those great events, in which they took so deep an interest; for they would be much deceived in imagining that all the thirteen states of America were invariably animated by the same spirit, and affected by the game sentiments. But they would commit a still greater error, did they imagine, that these people resemble each other in their forms of government, their manners, and opinions. One must be in the country itself; one must be acquainted with the language, and take a pleasure in conversing, and in listening, to be qualified to form, and that slowly, a proper opinion and a decisive judgment. After this reflection, the reader will not be surprised at the pleasure I took in conversing with Mr. Harrison. Besides that, I was particularly happy to form an acquaintance with a man of so estimable character in every respect, and whose best eulogium it is to say, that he is the intimate friend of Dr. Franklin. He pressed me to dine with him next day, and to pass another day at Richmond; but as there was nothing to excite curiosity in that town, and I was desirous of stopping at Westover before I returned to Williamsburg, where I was anxious to arrive, we set out the twenty-seventh,

at eight in the morning, under the escort of colonel Harrison, who accompanied us to a road from which it was impossible to go astray."

After having been twice re-elected governor, Mr. Harrison became ineligible by the provisions of the constitution, and in 1785 returned to private life. He was immediately announced as a candidate for his own county, without solicitation, and without his knowledge; but in this instance, and in this only, he failed of success. A political rival artfully made use of a measure which he had adopted while governor, that of obliging the county militia to level the embankments raised at the seige of Yorktown; and by working upon the feelings of the populace, succeeded in exciting against him a momentary unpopularity. He did not hesitate as to the course he should pursue. The election in the neighbouring county of Surrey, occurred a fortnight after that of Charles city, where he had been rejected. He left Berkeley, crossed over into Surrey, and after residing there a few days, was returned with his son Carter, by an almost unanimous vote, to the same legislature. This completely frustrated the plans of his opponent, whose opposition had arisen from a wish to be placed in the speaker's chair, a situation which he knew there was little chance of obtaining when Mr. Harrison was a member of the house. The unfairness of the scheme induced Mr. Harrison to exert an influence he would otherwise have willingly omitted, and being nominated as presiding officer, he was immediately elected. The people of his own county convinced of their hasty error, and mortified at the result, before the succeeding annual election solicited his return, and from that period he represented them without an interval until his death.