to do formerly in the like case to your Lordship's predecessor, who sifted all those matters to the bottom.

I hope your Lordship will pardon all this trouble. God forgive them who have occasioned it. I am only on the defensive. The equity of my judge gives me great boldness,-knowing that I have endeavoured to keep a good conscience, and that whereinsoever I have erred I am ready to submit to your Lordship's judgment, and to correct whatever you think amiss in my conduct. Being, with all sincerity, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most

Obliged and humble servant,

JAMES BLAIR.

No. II.

EXTRACTS FROM A PAMPHLET REPORTING THE PROCEEDINGS OF A JUBILEE AT JAMESTOWN IN COMMEMORATION OF THE SECOND CENTENNARY ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA, MAY 13, 1807.

DUE notice having been given of the intended celebration, the preparations commenced on the 10th. A packet, a sloop and schooner had arrived before the 12th, with bands of musicians and a company of artillery and cannon, and with a number of visitors.

On the 12th, the beach began to assume the appearance of a regular encampment, from the erection of tents for the sale of various articles; and the scene was agreeably diversified by groups of beautiful women who were every moment passing from the main into the island. It was not unusual to see groups of pilgrims stealing away from the throng and bustle of preparation, from the wild revelry of joy and the enthusiasm of satisfied and rapturous exultation, to saunter among the ruins, and converse in fancy among the tombs with the illustrious dead whose virtues and achievements had furnished the motives for their assemblage. It was in the highest degree interesting and edifying to trace the effects produced upon the minds and faces of the spectators by the view of these venerable remains of other times. The eye, in surveying the ruin of the church-steeple garlanded to its summit with irregular festoons of smilax and ivy, carried back the mind to the interesting incidents and events of the first settlers.

A crowd of pilgrims were discovered on their hands and knees within the churchyard, removing the dust and rubbish from the mouldering and mutilated tombs, and exploring with anxious though patient curiosity the almost effaced characters which affection and piety had sketched there in the vain expectation that they would be immortal. Whilst engaged in

these pious and interesting offices, a pleasing melancholy insensibly stole over the mind; the grosser passions of our nature, the dull pursuits of the world, were forgotten, whilst each for a moment by the witchery of fancy imagined himself in the presence of those gallant and venerable spirits that once animated and informed the mortal tenants of those graves.

As it were by general consent, the discovery of the oldest stone became an object of general emulation, and, in the course of the examination, the results, as they seemed to be successful, were triumphantly announced. Not even the searchers of gold-mines, whose mania is so deservedly ridiculed and censured by Smith and our other historians, could have exceeded the zeal and patience with which the pilgrims of 1807 examined every character or fragment that promised to throw light on the character of their fathers and the antiquities of their nation.

Beyond 1682, nothing legible could be traced; but, from the freshness of the marble bearing this date, contrasted with the surrounding masses of mutilated and mouldering decay, it was the general impression that this stone was comparatively young.

Among the group of objects calculated to excite reflection on such an occasion, it was impossible to avoid noticing the growth of a sycamore,* whose germ had been inscrutably deposited between the fissure of two massy tombs, whose growth was gradually but certainly effecting their demolition. In vain did a brawny wreath of the poisoned oak, having first wound itself round the sycamore, grasp the trembling marbles for the purpose of averting their fall. The sycamore was a lever that incessantly propelled them from their centres, and it was obvious that nothing but its death could save them from falling without the line of the base. To a reflecting mind every incident is fruitful. This seemed to be a struggle between life and death; and, what may appear extraordinary, it was the general wish that death should come off victorious in the contest. On the 13th, the dawn was ushered in by a cannon: a second announced the first faint etchings of the sun on the edge of the horizon. During the night, several vessels had arrived, and the eye rested with pleasure on the spectacle of thirty-two sail at anchor in the cove, boats plying incessantly off and on from the shore, groups of beautiful women every moment making their appearance, crowds flocking in and from every part of the adjacent country, and the Powhatan evolving in silent majesty his flood, margined as far as the eye could reach with cultivated plantations and gay villas.

About 11 o'clock, the long-deserted shores of Jamestown witnessed a spectacle equally picturesque and impressive. It was no longer the mournful image and gloomy silence of depopulation. Thirty-two vessels graced the ancient harbour; upward of four hundred ladies embellished the scene, which became every moment more animated by the increasing con

* Platanus Occidentalis.

course of citizens, and upon which the presence of the military, and a band of music of Captain Nestle and his company of artillerists from Norfolk, reflected no small lustre.

At 12 o'clock, in consequence of arrangements previously agreed upon by the joint committees from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Petersburg, and Williamsburg, a procession marched to the ruins of the old church-steeple and the lugubrious group of tombstones contiguous to those ruins. The order of the procession was as follows:

1. Bishop Madison, and the orators of the day.

2. The deputies from Norfolk, Portsmouth, Petersburg, and Williamsburg.

3. The ladies.

4. Band of music.

5. Artillery.

6. A cannon-ball weighing five cwt., supported by eight men.* 7. Citizens at large.

During the procession, several tunes of a solemn nature were struck by the music, and cannons fired at proper intervals. Upon reaching the ruins, the venerable Bishop of Virginia ascended a tombstone, and, in that affect ing, pathetic manner which characterizes all his religious effusions, poured out a prayer strongly expressive of the national gratitude for that peculiar protection which the Deity has been pleased to bestow on the feeble but auspicious germ planted two hundred years ago in the wilderness,-a germ from which a State has sprung up now highly prosperous and flourishing. Here two sentiments equally dear to the human heart, and equally powerful, religion and patriotism,-united their influence; and that influence. was irresistibly felt: pious tears were seen hanging on many a cheek furrowed by age or adorned with youthful bloom.

BISHOP MADISON'S PRAYER.

O GOD! Parent Almighty, who, though unseen, upholdest this ponderous ball, and, breathing through the immensity of space, fillest with stupendous life all which it inhabit; Spirit invisible, God of our forefathers, to thee we raise the voice of praise and thanksgiving; oh, hear us, and deign to accept this our imperfect homage. Thou great and glorious Being, who, according to the plans of thy wisdom, didst first inspire our forefathers with the elevated idea of seeking an asylum for man in this Western world; thou, who badest the terrors of death to retire from their hearts, the remorseless billows of the deep to be at rest, and the horrors of the howling wilderness no longer to alarm, oh, hear, and, on this eventful day, suffer us to pour forth, from the fulness of our souls, the tide of reverential affec. tion, of joy, and of gratitude; suffer us, the descendants and the heirs of

* This ball was originally brought over for the purpose of awing the aborigines.

those mighty men whose footsteps, under thy gracious providence, here were first impressed to approach thy divine Majesty, to declare the wondrous things which thou hast done for us, and to implore thy continued protection.

Assembled in thy sight, we now prostrate ourselves before thee, upon that ground which thou, O God, didst choose whereupon to rest the wearied feet of our progenitors. Twice one hundred times hath this earth, in obedience to thy command, performed its faithful revolution around the fountain of light, since thy providential goodness was here testified by our ancestors with heartfelt songs of gratitude and praise. The stream of time hath swept before thee the generations which since have arisen and passed away; but we, upon whom this day hath fallen, will rejoice in thy presence, and, with a sincere and ardent gratitude, will recall to vivid memory thy former and thy present mercies.

Hallowed be the place where thou didst particularly manifest thy goodness to our forefathers, and where the heavenly plan for spreading wide the blessings of social rights first beamed forth. It was here, O God, it was on this chosen ground, that thou didst first lay the sure foundations of political happiness. Here didst thou say to our forefathers, who, under thy guidance, had defied the perils of an untried ocean, "Here fix your abode; here shall the great work of political salvation commence; here I will strike deep the roots of an everlasting empire, where justice and liberty and peace shall flourish in immortal vigour, to the glory of my name and the happiness of man. Here ye shall sleep; but your sons and your daughters shall possess the land which stretcheth wide before you; shall convert the wilderness and solitary place into fields smiling with plenty; shall, in ages yet to come, exceed the sands upon the sea-shore in number; shall, when two hundred years are accomplished, here resort, here recall to mind your valour and your sufferings, and here, touched with a lively sense of the blessings vouchsafed to them, they shall exalt and adore my name, and acknowledge that the mightiness of my arm and the overshadowing of my Spirit hath done those great and excellent things for them."

Such, O God, was thy will. To thy servants now before thee has been given the high boon of living to see the light of that day, and of acknowledging that thy promises are as steadfast as the everlasting hills. To us has been given the triumph which this day affords. It was thy providence which reared the tender plant that here took root, and which nourished it with the dews of heaven until its branches have cast their shade from ocean to ocean. It was thy providence, gracious Benefactor of man, which awoke in our breasts a just sense of the inappreciable value of our rights, and infused that indomitable spirit which effected a revolution the most important in the annals of time, and which led to the establishment of civil governments throughout this rising empire upon he broad and firm basis of equal laws. It was thy providence which in

spired that wisdom which hath guarded us against the horrors of war, and which, amidst the dread convulsions that agitate the Old World, hath still irradiated this thy chosen land with the blessings of peace. To thee, O God, we ascribe, as is most due, that never-ceasing current of national prosperity which has daily increased, and which, under thy auspices, we trust, will continue to increase, until its waters, spreading throughout every region of the earth, shall gladden, with their salubrious streams, nations which are now the victims of ambition, and thence diffuse peace and good-will among the whole family of mankind.

Continue, gracious Benefactor, thy mercies toward us. Oh, teach us ever to love and to reverence thy name; teach us that the God of virtue can love only virtue; teach us that it is thou only, the first Source of happiness, who can secure it to the human race. Impress upon our hearts an ardent love for thy holy religion may its pure and sublime morality be to us the rule of all duties: may it guard us against the debasing influence of licentiousness and vice, and inspire the people of these United States with those inflexible virtues which republics demand: may the love of our country and obedience to law be the dignified characteristic of citizens may they never forget that, without religion, morality dies; and that, without morality, republics are swept from before thee with the besom of destruction.

Bless all the constituted authorities, and so rule their hearts and strengthen their hands that they may drive from among us all manner of vice.

Give prosperity to the different seminaries of learning; increase true knowledge, and infix upon the hearts of the rising generation a just sense of the duties which they owe to themselves, to their fellow-creatures, and to their God.

Finally, O God, pardon our offences, and deign to hear our imperfect prayer, for the sake of thy Son, our Saviour, Jesus Christ.*

The prayer being over, the citizens repaired to a lawn in front of the principal house on the peninsula, for the purpose of hearing the orations and poems prepared for the day. Mr. B. G. Baldwin, from Winchester, then a student at William and Mary,-afterward Judge Baldwin, of Staunton,-spoke first. He was followed by Mr. John Madison, also a student from the upper country. The speeches were creditable to the

*While we approve the patriotic sentiments of this prayer, we cannot but lament the absence of that without which no prayer can be acceptable to God,--the spirit of penitence, of true Christian humility. It was the fault of the age. Let any cne, after reading this prayer, turn back to the beginning of our work, and read that sent over with our early colonists to be used, not by a Bishop or other minister, but by the officers on guard in behalf of themselves and soldiers: let him compare the two together, and he will see the difference between the theology of 1607 and 1807.