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1776. as it is called here," an act of assembly" was made, providing that a committee of five persons should be appointed to prepare a code of laws, adapted to the change of the state government This code was to be submitted to the legislature of the country, and to be ratified or rejected by their suffrage.

In the fall of that year, a statute, or

In the ensuing November, by a resolution of the same legislature, Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, esquires, were appointed a committee to execute the work in question. It was prepared by the three first named gentlemen; the first of

* This is a fact which the publick journals of the state establish beyond.controversy; although the legal process and other publick acts of Virginia modestly waive this precedence, and date the foundation of the commonwealth, on the 4th of July, 1776, the day on which the declaration of the independence of the United States was promulged.

them, now the president of the United States; the second, the president of the supreme court of appeals of Virginia, and the third, the judge of the high court of chancery, at this place.

I have perused this system of state police, with admiration. It is evidently the work of minds of most astonishing greatness; capable, at once, of a grand, profound and comprehensive survey of the present and future interest and glory of the whole state; and of pursuing that interest and glory through all the remote and minute ramifications of the extensive and elaborate detail.

Among other wise and highly patriotick bills which are proposed, there is one, for the more general diffusion of knowledge.. After a preamble, in which the importance of the subject to the republick is most ably and eloquently announced, the bill proposes a simple and beautiful scheme, whereby science (like

justice under the institutions "of our Alfred) would have been "carried to every man's "door." Genius, instead of having to break its way through the thick opposing clouds of native obscurity, indigence and ignorance, was to be sought for through every family in the commonwealth; the sacred spark, wherever it was detected, was to be tenderly cherished, fed, and fanned into a flame; its innate properties and tendencies were to be developed and examined, and then cautiously and judiciously invested with all the auxiliary energy and radiance of which its character was susceptible.

What a plan was here to give stability and solid glory to the republick! If you ask me why it has never been adopted, I answer, that as a foreigner, I can perceive no possible reason for it, except that the comprehensive views and generous patriotism, which produced the bill, have not prevailed throughout

the country, nor presided in the body on whose vote the adoption of the bill depended. I have new reason to remark it, almost every day, that there is throughout Virginia, a most deplorable destitution of publick spirit, of the noble pride and love of country. Unless the body of the people can be awakened from this fatal apathy; unless their thoughts and their feelings can be urged beyond the narrow confines of their own private affairs; unless they can be strongly inspired with the publick zeal, the amor patria of the ancient republicks, the national embellishment, and the national grandeur of this opulent state, must be reserved for very distant ages.

Adieu, my S.......; perhaps you will hear from me again before I leave Richmond.

FROM THE VIRGINIA GAZETTE:

AN APOLOGY

IN REPLY TO A HINT.

THE Letters of the British Spy were furnished to amuse the citizens of the town and country; and not to give pain to any one human being. Accordingly, nothing has been said in censure of the integrity, the philanthropy, the benevolence, charity, or any other moral or religious virtue or grace of any one Virginian, who has been introduced into those letters. Nothing indeed could be justly said on those heads, in censure of either of the gentlemen. It is true, that some letters have been published, which have attempted to annalyze the minds of three or four well known citizens of this state, and in order to designate them

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