Grigsby, Esq., proposing to the Society to build a suitable house for the reception of its library and other treasures. This measure is only second in importance to that of obtaining a certain, yearly income; and if the one should be obtained by the legislation of this winter, we shall take steps to obtain the other through voluntary subscriptions. The liberal offer of Mr. Grigsby to be one of a hundred gentlemen to subscribe for such a building $100 each, making $10,000, will be cordially seconded by several members of the committee, and, we feel assured, by a large number of our fellow-citizens. In Baltimore, the citizens subscribed thirty or forty thousand dollars, and erected, as well for their mercantile and city libraries, as for the library of the Maryland Historical Society, a building which does credit to their tase and liberality.

A third object of great importance, is the obtaining from the archives of Great Britain such records and historical reminiscences as properly pertain to the elucidation of our history. This should be viewed as subordinate only to the obtaining a fire proof building in which to place such records; and the obtaining an income for printing what is of sufficient value to be published.

In such a building, and by such publication, there should be preserved and handed down memorials of all that is of interest in Virginia's history, and of all who have added to Virginia's fame. If, in addition, portraits of some of her greatest benefactors should be obtained to decorate the building, it will be a spot that may be visited with interest by her sons, not only in our day, but in after time.

GOVERNOR SPOTSWOOD.

[We have some papers to submit relating to this gentleman, Colonel Alexander Spotswood, sometime Lieut. Governor, under the Earl of Orkney, of our Colony of Virginia, in the reigns of Queen Anne, and King George the First, which we deem it proper to preface with a brief account of him and of his administration, taken from the History of Virginia by Sir William Keith, who was a cotemporary, and, most probably, personally acquainted with him :-all which, we hope, our readers will find agreeable.]

After the death of Governor Nott, in August 1706, the Administration fell into the hands of Edward Jennings, Esq. then President of the Council who had no occasion to hold any Assembly, so that all things remained quiet in Virginia, until the year 1710, that Colonel Alexander Spotswood came over Lieutenant-Governor, under the Earl of Orkney, in the same manner that Mr. Nott had done.

This gentleman, who was born of Scotch parents at Tangier in Africa, and bred in the Army from his infancy, had a most excellent Genius for all Kinds of Business; and was likewise Master of such Application, that he seldom or never failed of succeeding in any thing he undertook. He had been dangerously wounded in the Breast, by the first Fire which the French made on the Confederates at the Battle of Hockstadt, and afterwards served with great Applause, during the Heat of that bloody War, as DeputyQuarter-Master General, under Mr. Cadogan, in the Duke of Marlborough's Army. He was well acquainted with Figures, and so good a Mathematician, that his Skill in Architecture, and in the laying out of Ground to the best. Advantage, is yet to be seen in Virginia, by the Building of an elegant safe Magazine, in the centre of Williamsburgh, and in the considerable Improvements which he made to the Governor's House and Gardens. He was an excellent Judge on the Bench, and knew perfectly well how to reconcile the People's Liberties with the Rights of the Crown, which he always faithfully maintained. He projected a Law for the Regulation of the Indian Trade, whereby an

easy Provision was made of a perpetual Fund for instructing the Indian Children in the Principles of Christianity; and it succeeded wonderfully, until some designing Merchants in London, who conceived their particular Interest to be affected by that Law, procured a Repeal thereof from England, which unhappily put an End to the only practi cable Scheme that had been yet attempted for converting the Indians. This Governor also contrived another Act for improving the Staple of Tobacco, by which the Quality thereof being examined, it was to be allowed or rejected by officers appointed for that Purpose in each County, who were obliged to build Storehouses at all the convenient Landing-places on the several Rivers, where the Planters were likewise obliged to lodge their merchantable Tobacco, and to take the Officers Notes for the Quantity more or less in Weight; which was to be deliver'd to the Bearer, and shipp'd off on Board what Vessel he pleased to direct; by which means any Planter might go to a public Store or Shop, and buy any small Quantity of Goods he pleased with his Tobacco Notes; whereas before, he could not deal without selling at least one Hogshead. But this Law, which had an excellent Effect in the Country while it lasted, proved likewise disagreeable to the private Interest and partial views of particular Men, who found Means to have it repealed.

Colonel Spotswood, who was a perfect Master in all the Branches of the Military Art, kept the Militia of that Colony under exact Discipline; and in the year 1714, he went in Person, and, with indefatigable Labour, made the first certain Discovery of a Passage over the great Mountains; and indeed he was ever employed in some public Design for the Interest and Advantage of Virginia; nevertheless by the factious Arts of some intriguing Men in the Council of their Province, who had neither Ability nor Courage, openly to contend with him, his Interest in England was at length so far undermined, that after he had governed there to the almost universal Content of all the Country, for the Space of thirteen years, without any manner of Complaint, having ever been publickly exhibited against his Administration; he was superseded in the year 1723, by Major Drisdale, who then arrived Governor under the Earl of Orkney: &c.

Governor Spotswood's Speech to the General Assembly, November the 17th, 1714.

[We copy this Speech, and the other historical documents immediately following it, from authentie copies of the originals in the Library of our Virginia Historical Society; being some of the papers preserved by the care of Godfrey Pole, Esq., and presented to the Society, in 1836, by N. J. Winder, Esq., Clerk of the county court of Northampton, with a memorandum in which he states: " These documents (which I have, for convenience of description, arranged into bundles, and numbered from 1 to 12,) were found in the Clerk's office of Northampton County Court amongst a mass of the private papers of Godfrey Pole, who was Clerk of the Committee of Propositions and Grievances, in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, from 1718 to 1727 inclusive; and are deemed worth preserving." He adds that "Mr. P.'s private papers, before mentioned, indicate that he was, for several years both before and after 1720, a lawyer of extensive practice and reputation as well in the General Court, then held at Williamsburg, as in the county courts of Gloucester, York, James City, Warwick, and Elizabeth City. He was also Clerk of Northampton county court, as appears by the Court Records, from the 28th June 1722, until his death which took place some short time previous to the 13th January, 1729-30. This fact accounts for his private papers being found in the office of that county."

The papers we have selected for submission to the reader are not very important, but are yet of some value and interest for the new light which they serve to shed on a portion of our history which has hitherto been considered as particularly obscure.]

GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL AND HOUSE OF BURGESSES.

We now meet under the authority of another Soveraign than when we were last assembled.

The Almighty has been pleased to call to his Mercy our

most Gracious and most Religious Queen; but has vouchsafed immediately to repair that loss to her Subjects, by fulfilling their desires in the next Successor, and by blessing our mother Country with Peace and harmony all on a Sudden, making fears and jealousies to vanish there, and jarrs to cease at the very name of King GEORGE.

A Prince who can so easily influence the minds of his people even before his personal presence among them, seems to be peculiarly cutt out by Providence for Ruling remote Colonys; and thereupon We in these remote parts are particularly obliged with thankful hearts to congratulate his Majesty's Righful and Lawful accession to his Crown.

It is a most sensible pleasure to me that the representation I have now to make of the State of the ffrontiers differs very much from that I laid before you last year. No Murther, no alarms have happened; but, on the contrary, satisfaction has been made for those formerly committed, by delivering some of the Guilty to Justice.

And it is no less pleasing to me than I conceive it may be to you, that I have been able to reduce the Charge of guarding the ffrontiers to less than a third of that of the preceding years; besides I take the security I have provided for the Country to be of such a nature, that if half the pains be used to improve it, which I have taken to settle it, the strength of your barrier may, with time, be encreasing, and the expense decreasing.

For as, on the one hand, I have begun a Settlement of Protestant Strangers, several miles without an inhabitant, more of their Country Folks might be Induced to come over and join them, if they hear these meet with a favourable Reception, (and sure, as they are of the same nation with our present Soveraign, they are as fit to be recommended to your benevolence as the French Refugees of the Manakin Town formerly were.) So, on the other hand,