manners, courteous in his deportment, correct in his habits, and constant in his friendships.

(He enjoyed through life a great share of the public confidence; and although his early education was limited, his natural good sense, and accurate observations, enabled him to discharge the duties of the several offices with which he was intrusted, with credit to himself and benefit to the pub- . lic.

Few men rose more rapidly and worthily in the scale of society, or bore their new honours with more modesty and propriety.

Such was William Whipple, whose name, united with the great charter of our freedom, will perish only with the records of the republic.

WILLARD, SAMUEL, vice-president of Harvard college, was one of the most celebrated divines of New-England. He was graduated at Harvard college in 1659. He was ordained a minister at Groton, but afterwards was settled as colleague with Mr. Thacher, the first minister of the old South Church in Boston, April 10, 1678. After the resignation of president Mather, he as vice-president took the superintendence of Harvard college, and presided over that institution till his death, September 12, 1707, at the age of sixty-eight years.

Mr. Willard-possessed very superior powers of mind. His imagination was rich though not luxuriant; his perception was rapid and correct; and in argument he was profound and clear. His learning also was very considerable. In controversy he was a champion, defending the cause of truth with courage, and with enlightened and affectionate

zeal.

No divine, except Dr. Cotton Mather, in this country, prepared more works for the press; and

they were all calculated to do honour to the author, and edify pious people.

Mr. Willard's largest work, and the first folio volume, on divinity, printed in this country, was published in 1726, entitled, A Body of Divinity, in two hundred and fifty expository Lectures on the Assembly's shorter Catechism. It is considered as a work of great merit.

WILLIAMS, ROGER, the father of Providence Plantation, was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at the university of Oxford. After having been for some time a minister in the church of England, his non-conformity induced him to seek religious liberty in America. He arrived at Boston, February 5, 1631. In April, he was chosen an assistant to Mr. Skelton in the ministry at Salem, and after his death was the sole minister of the church.

In 1635, in consequence of his peculiar sentiments and puritanic zeal, the sentence of banishment was passed upon him. He went to Seekhonck, now called Rehoboth. He afterwards fixed upon Mooshausick, which he named Providence, in acknowledgment of God's goodness to him. He purchased the land of the Indians, and while he enjoyed liberty of conscience himself, he granted it to others. Having embraced the sentiments of the baptists, he was baptized in March, 1639, by one of his brethren; and he then baptized ten others.

As the founder of one of the provinces, and a writer in favour of civil and religious freedom, he was more bold, just, and liberal, than any other who appeared in that generation.

Many would smile at seeing the name of Roger Williams enrolled with the legislators of ancient times, or with the statesmen of modern Europe, or with such a man as Penn, whose steps were more majestic upon the theatre of the great world; but this man was equal to conducting the affairs of this infant colony as well as if a complete system of legislation was formed; and, as a mediator between the aboriginies and the colonists, if he were the instrument of preserving the peace, of teaching the Indians some of the arts of life, and of illuminating the minds of the heathen with the light of christianity, he is certainly worthy of more credit, than some mighty hunters of the earth, or those sages whose maxims have made men fierce and revengeful, and caused human blood to flow in

streams.

/ He died in April, 1683, at the age of eighty-four years.

His memory is deserving of lasting honour for the correctness of his opinions respecting liberty of conscience, and for the generous toleration which he established. So superior was he to the meanness of revenge, and such was his magnanimity, that he exerted all his influence with the Indians in favour of Massachusetts, and ever evinced the greatest friendship for the colony from which he had been driven.

His talents were of a superior order. In the religious doctrines, which he embraced, he seems to have been remarkably consistent. The scriptures he read in the originals. He published a key to the language of the Indians of New-England, octavo, 1643; Truth and Peace, 1644. In this book are disclosed sentiments which have been admired in the writings of Milton and Furneaux. His ideas of toleration he carried further than Mr. Locke, but not beyond the generality of dissenters in England.

{WARREN, JOSEPH, a major-general in the American army, and a distinguished patriot, was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in the year 1741. At the age of fifteen he entered Harvard college, and received the honours of that seminary in 1759, and 1762. On leaving college he directed his attention to the study of medicine, and in a few years became one of the most eminent physicians in Boston. But he lived at a period, when greater objects claimed his attention, than those which related particularly to his profession. The calls of a distracted country were paramount to every consideration of his own interests; and he entered the vortex of politics, never to return to the peaceful course of professional labour. /

The change in public opinion had been gradually preparing the minds of most men for a revolution. This was not openly avowed; amelioration of treatment for the present, and assurances of kindness in future, were all that the colonies asked from Great Britain; but these they did not receive.

The mother country mistook the spirit of her children, and used threats when kindness would have been the best policy. When Britain declared her right to direct, govern, and tax us in any form, and at all times, the colonies reasoned, remonstrated, and entreated for a while; and when these means did not answer, they defied and resisted. The political writers of the province had been active and busy, but they were generally screened by fictitious names, or sent their productions anonymously into the world; but the time had arrived when speakers of nerve and boldness were wanted to raise their voices against oppression in every shape. Warren possessed first-rate qualities for an orator, and had early declared in the strongest terms his political sentiments, which were somewhat in advance of public opinion; for he held as tyranny all taxation, which could be imposed by the British parliament upon the colonies.

His first object was to enlighten the people; and then he felt sure of engaging their feelings in the general cause. He knew when once they began, it would be impossible to tread back-independence only would satisfy the country./

(He embraced every opportunity to assert and defend the most bold and undisguised principles of liberty, and defying in their very teeth the agents of the crown..

Twice he was elected to deliver the oration on the 5th of March, in commemoration of the massacre; and his orations are among the most distinguished productions by that splendid list of speakers who addressed their fellow citizens on this subject, so interesting to them all. These occasions gave the orators a fine field for remark, and a fair opportunity for effect. The great orators of antiquity in their speeches attempted only to rouse the people to retain what they possessed. Invective, entreaty, and pride had their effect in assisting these mighty masters to influence the people. They were ashamed to lose what their fathers left them, won by their blood, and so long preserved by their wisdom, their virtues, and their courage. Our statesmen had a harder task to perform, for they were compelled to call on the people to gain what they had never enjoyed an independent rank and standing among the nations of the world.

From the year 1768, he was a principal member of a secret meeting or caucus in Boston, which had great influence on the concerns of the country. With all his boldness, and decision, and zeal, he was circumspect and wise.

His next oration was delivered March 6, 1775. It was at his own solicitation that he was appointed to this duty a second time. This fact is illustrative of his character, and worthy of remembrance.

Some of the British officers of the army then in Boston had publicly declared that it should be at the price of the life of any man to speak of the