either of his mind or information. Opportunity was not, indeed, wholly wanting; because Mr. John Campbell was there, who had married Mrs. Spotswood, the sister of Col. Dandridge. He was a man of science, and often introduced conversation on scientific subjects. Mr. Henry had, a little before, broken up his store, or rather it had broken him up ; but his misfortunes were not to be traced, either in his countenance or conduct."

This cheerfulness of spirit, under a reverse of fortune so severe, is certainly a very striking proof of the manliness of his character. It is not, indeed, easy to conceive that a mind like Mr. Henry's could finally sink under any pressure of adversity. Such a mind, although it may not immediately perceive whither to direct its efforts, must always possess a consciousness of power sufficient to buoy it above despondency. But, be this as it may, of Mr. Henry it was certainly true, as Doctor Johnson has observed of Swift, that "he was not one of those who, having lost one part of life in idleness, are tempted to throw away the remainder in despair."

It seems to be matter of surprise, that even yet, amidst all these various struggles for subsistence, the powers of his mind had not so far developed themselves as to suggest to any friend the pursuit for which he was formed. He seems to have been a plant of slow growth, but, like other plants of that nature, formed for duration and fitted to endure the buffetings of the rudest storm.

It was now, when all other experiments had failed, that, as a last effort, he determined, of his own accord, to make a trial of the law. No one expected him to succeed in any eminent degree. His unfortunate habits were, by no means, suited to so laborious a profession and even if it were not

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too late in life for him to hope to master its learning, the situation of his affairs forbade an extensive course of reading. In addition to these obstacles, the business of the profession, in that quarter, was already in hands from which it was not easily to be taken; for (to mention no others) judge Lyons, the late president of the court of appeals, was then at the bar of Hanover and the adjacent counties, with an unrivalled reputation for legal learning; and Mr. John Lewis, a man, also, of very respectable legal attainments, occupied the whole field of forensic eloquence. Mr. Henry himself seems to have hoped for nothing more from the profession than a scanty subsistence for himself and his family, and his preparation was suited to these humble expectations; for to the study of a profession, which is said to require the lucubrations of twenty years, Mr. Henry devoted not more than six weeks.* On this preparation, however, he obtained a license to practise the law. How he passed with two of the examiners, I have no intelligence; but he himself used to relate his interview with the third. This was no other than Mr. John Randolph, who was afterward the king's attorney-general for the colony; a gentleman of the most courtly elegance of person and manners, a polished wit, and a profound lawyer. At first, he was so much shocked by Mr. Henry's very ungainly figure and address, that he refused to examine him: understanding, however, that he had already obtained two signatures, he entered, with manifest reluctance, on the business. A very short time was sufficient to satisfy him of the erroneous conclusion which he had drawn from the exterior of

* So say Mr. Jefferson and Judge Winston. Mr. Pope says nine months. Col. Meredith and Capt. Dabney, six or eight months. Judge Tyler, one month; and he adds, "This I had from his own lips. In this time, he read Coke upon Littleton, and the Virginia laws."

the candidate. With evident marks of increasing surprise (produced no doubt by the peculiar texture and strength of Mr. Henry's style, and the boldness and originality of his combinations) he continued the examination for several hours interrogating the candidate, not on the principles of municipal law, in which he no doubt soon discovered his deficiency, but on the laws of nature and of nations, on the policy of the feudal system, and on general history, which last he found to be his strong hold. During the very short portion of the examination which was devoted to the common law, Mr. Randolph dissented, or affected to dissent, from one of Mr. Henry's answers, and called upon him to assign the reasons of his opinion. This produced an argument; and Mr. Randolph now played off on him the same arts which he himself had so often practised on his country customers; drawing him out by questions, endeavouring to puzzle him by subtleties, assailing him with declamation, and watching continually the defensive operations of his mind. After a considerable discussion, he said, "you defend your opinions well, Sir; but now to the law and to the testimony." Hereupon he carried him to his office, and opening the authorities, said to him, "behold the force of natural reason; you have never seen these books, nor this principle of the law; yet you are right and I am wrong; and from the lesson which you have given me (you must excuse me for saying it) I will never trust to appearances again. Mr. Henry, if your industry be only half equal to your genius, I augur that you will do well, and become an ornament and an honour to your profession." It was always Mr. Henry's belief that Mr. Randolph had affected this difference of opinion, merely to afford him the pleasure of a triumph, and to make some atonement for the wound which his first repulse had inflicted.

Be this as it may, the interview was followed by the most marked and permanent respect on the part of Mr. Randolph, and the most sincere good will and gratitude, on that of Mr. Henry.*

It was at the age of four and twenty that Mr. Henry obtained his license. Of the science of law, he knew almost nothing of the practical part he was so wholly ignorant, that he was not only unable to draw a declaration or a plea, but incapable, it is said, of the most common or simple business of his profession, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a notice, or making a motion in court. It is not at all wonderful therefore, that such a novice, opposed as he was by veterans, covered with the whole armour of the law, should linger in the back ground for three years.†

During this time, the wants and distresses of his family

*This account of Mr. Henry's examination is given by Judge Tyler, who states it as coming from Mr. Henry himself. It was written before I had received the following statement from Mr. Jefferson; and although there is some difference in the circumstances, it has not been thought important enough to make an alteration of the text necessary. This is Mr. Jefferson's statement. "In the spring of 1760, he came to Williamsburg to obtain a license as a lawyer, and he called on me at college. He told me he had been reading law only six weeks. Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph, men of great facility of temper, signed his license with as much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Robert C. Nicholas refused also at first; but, on repeated importunities and promises of future reading, he signed. These facts I had afterward from the gentlemen themselves; the two Randolphs acknowledging he was very ignorant of the law, but that they perceived him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt that he would soon qualify himself."

"He was not distinguished at the bar for near four years." Judge Winston: yet Mr. Burk intimates that he took the lead in his profession at once. 3d vol. 301.

were extreme. The profits of his practice could not have supplied them even with the necessaries of life; and he seems to have spent the greatest part of his time, both of his study of the law and the practice of the first two or three years, with his father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who then kept the tavern at Hanover court-house. Whenever Mr. Shelton was from home, Mr. Henry supplied his place in the tavern, received the guests, and attended to their entertainment. All this was very natural in Mr. Henry's situation, and seems to have been purely the voluntary movement of his naturally kind and obliging disposition. Hence, however, a story has arisen, that in the early part of his life, he was a bar-keeper by profession. The fact seems not to have been so: but if it had been, it would certainly have redounded much more to his honour than to his discredit; for as Mr. Henry owed no part of his distinction either to birth or fortune, but wholly to himself, the deeper the obscurity and poverty from which he emerged, the stronger is the evidence which it bears to his powers, and the greater glory does it shed around him.

About the time of Mr. Henry's coming to the bar, a controversy arose in Virginia, which gradually produced a very strong excitement, and called to it, at length, the attention of the whole state.

This was the famous controversy between the clergy on the one hand, and the legislatnre of the people of the colony on the other, touching the stipend claimed by the former; and as this was the occasion on which Mr. Henry's genius first broke forth, those who take an interest in his life, will not be displeased by a particular account of the nature and grounds of the dispute. It will be borne in mind, that the church of England was at this period the established church of Virginia; and by an act of assembly passed so far back