he was of almost every other-I mean General Washington. He knew the value of time, and made it a point of conscience never to waste it by a want of punctuality in any appointment or engagement whatever. He always kept his word to other people, and, as far as he could, required them to keep theirs to him. I remember a little anecdote they tell of him which may serve to illustrate this trait in his character. When he visited Boston in 1789, as President of the United States, and was about to leave that town in his progress, the officers of a company of horse waited on him and requested that they might be allowed to see him over to Charlestown, on his way the offer was accepted and the time of departure named-" to-morrow morning, 8 o'clock." The morning came, and the hour arrived; but the escort had not yet appeared. The dignitaries assembled to take leave were in the fidgets; but Washington, calm and composed, looked at his watch, and seeing that the time was fairly out, bade the gentlemen farewell, mounted his horse, with his immediate attendants, and set off on his way. A few minutes afterwards, the escort arrived, and found him gone. They were of course greatly confused, and ashamed of themselves, and hardly knew what to do. They hastened after him, however, at a round rate, and, by dint of extraordinary spurring, happily managed to overtake him before he reached the Bridge. It was a good lesson he thus gave them; and we are told they remembered it as long as they lived. So, we see, a Virginian may be a punctual man. W. S.

The following Lines were first published in a New York paper, about twenty years ago; and since that time have occasionally re-appeared in other prints. They were written, however, (as we happen to know,) by a gentleman of this State, and may, therefore, very properly, be recorded here.

THE LIGHT OF THE SCENE.

The Light of the Scene is Woman's Eye,
More bright than the Sun by far,
Fair as the Moon in her summer sky,

And pure as the Evening Star.

Oh! were it not for this lovely light,

Our earth would be strangely dark;
But there it beams to bless our sight,

Like the bow that cheered the ark.

Put out the light of the radiant Sun,
The Moon would but look more fair;
Put out the Moon-that shining one-

The Stars would still sparkle there.
But put out the light of Woman's Eye,
And Death would soon spread his pall
O'er all that we love beneath the sky,
And Darkness bury us all.

FLATTERY.

"Flattery corrupts both the giver and the receiver: aud adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings."-Edmund Burke.

SUPERSTITION.

"Few people, even of the strongest minds, are altogether exempt from some little taint of that weakness, called superstition. Many people have more of it than they care to let others know they have, and some more of it than they know themselves."-Lord Hervey.

We thank our correspondent J. M. for his Copies of Old Letters, some of which we shall publish in due time.

We are much indebted to the Hon. H. C. M. for the Extracts from the Records of the Virginia Company, in the Library of Congress, which he has so obligingly sent us; and regret that we cannot insert them at We shall preserve them, however, for future use.

once.

We copy the following account of a Passage in the early History of Virginia, as we find it published in the Virginia Gazette, of April 21st, 1774; where it is introduced with a short preface addressed to the Printer, in these words:

TO THE PRINTER.

SIR,-At a time when a Company of Monopolisers, Contractors, and Preemptors (to speak in the Language of the Grand Assembly) are soliciting the Crown for a Grant of a very considerable and valuable Part of this Colony to be erected into a separate Government, I flatter myself the following Extract from a Manuscript Collection of Annals, relative to Virginia, cannot be disagreeable to your Readers, especially to the Members of our Legislature, to whose serious and attentive Consideration the important Transaction therein related is humbly submitted by the Compiler.

An Event happened this Year (1642) which at first gave great Uneasiness to the Colony, but in the End proved advantageous to them, as it removed all their Apprehensions of being reduced to a Proprietary Government, and fixed the Constitution upon a firm and permanent Basis.

The Colony had now remained seventeen Years under the immediate Government of the Crown, that is, from the Dissolution

of the Company in the last Year of James I. to the Year 1642. During this Period they had enjoyed a Felicity unknown to them under the Company's Government, which had been extremely severe and arbitrary. Several Attempts were made to restore the Company's Power and Authority, but they were constantly defeated by the Vigilance of the Grand Assembly, who were determined never more to submit to a Proprietary Government.

In the Year 1639 the Grand Assembly appointed George Sandis, Esq; their Agent to the English Court, with particular Instructions to oppose the Re-establishment of the Company, and to give them the earliest Intelligence of their Machinations; but this Gentleman, forgetting his Duty to his Constituents, presented a Petition to the House of Commons, in the Name of the Adventurers and Planters in Virginia, for restoring the Letters Patent of Incorporation to the Treasurer and Company, with all the Rights, Powers, and Privileges, contained in their old Charter, except that the Right of nominating and appointing the Governour was to be reserved to the Crown.

When the Grand Assembly were informed of this Petition, they immediately passed a solemn Declaration and Protestation against the Company, in the Form of an Act, in which they disclaim their Agent's Conduct, declare he had mistaken his Instructions, and that it never was the Meaning or Intent of the Assembly, or Inhabitants of the Colony, to give Way for the introducing the said Company, or any other.

They say, that having maturely considered the Reasons for and against restoring the Company, and looking back into the Condition of the Times under the Company, and comparing it with the present State of the Colony under his Majesty's Government, we find the late Company in their Government intolerable, the present comparatively happy, and that the old Corporation cannot with any Possibility be again introduced without the absolute Ruin and Dissolution of the Colony.

That the Colony laboured under intolerable Calamities, by the many illegal Proceedings and barbarous Treatments inflicted up

on divers of his Majesty's Subjects in the Time of the said Company's Government.

That the whole Trade of the Colony, to the great Grievance and Complaint of the Inhabitants, was monopolised by the Company, insomuch that when any Person desired to go for England he had not Liberty to carry with him the Fruits of his own Labour for his Comfort and Support, but was forced to bring it to the Magazine of the Company, and there to exchange it for unprofitable and useless Wares.

That our present Happiness is exemplified by the Freedom of ANNUAL Assemblies, warranted to us by his Majesty's gracious Instructions, by legal Trials by Juries in all criminal and civil Causes, by his Majesty's Royal Encouragement upon all Occasions to address him by our humble Petitions, which so much distinguisheth our Happiness from that of the former Times that private Letters to Friends were rarely admitted a Passage.

That the old Corporation cannot be introduced without proving the Illegality of the King's Proceedings against them, so that all Grants since, upon such a Foundation, must be void; and if, as they pretend, the King had no Right to grant, our Lands held by immediate Grant from his Majesty must be void, and our Possessions must give Place to their Claim, which is an invincible Argument of Ruin and Desolation to the Colony, as we must be outed of our Possessions if their Pretence take Place. And though it is alleged by them that the Charter of Orders from the Treasurer and Company (Anno 1618) gives us Claim and Right to be Members of the Corporation quatenus Planters, yet it appears by the Charter that Planters and Adventurers who are Members of the Company are considered by themselves, and distinguished in Privileges, from Planters and Adventurers not being Members; and, as the King's Grantees, we find ourselves condemned in the said Charter, one Clause of it pronouncing in these Words, "We do ordain that all such Persons as of their "own voluntary Will and Authority shall remove into Virginia, "without any Grant from us, in a great and general Quarter