were sincere, he manumitted all of those which belonged to himself.

In 1775, he was a member of the Committee of Public Safety, of Rhode Island, and was again elected a delegate to the General Congress. He was re-elected in 1776, and had the privilege of signing the glorious Declaration of Independence.* He was chosen a delegate to the General Congress for the last time, in 1778, and was one of the committee who drafted the ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION for the government of the States. Notwithstanding he was then over seventy years, he was exceedingly active, and was almost constantly a member of some important committee. He died on the nineteenth of July, 1785, in the seventy-eighth year of his age.†

The life of Mr. Hopkins exhibits a fine example of the rewards of honest, persevering industry. Although his early education was limited, yet he became a distinguished mathematician, and filled almost every public station in the gift of the people, with singular ability. He was a sincere and consistent Christian, and the impress of his profession was upon all his deeds.

*The signature of Mr. Hopkins is remarkable, and appears as if written by one greatly agitated by fear. But fear was no part of Mr. Hopkins' character. The cause of the tremulous appearance of his signature, was a bodily infirmity, called "shaking palsy," with which he had been afflicted many years, and which obliged him to employ an amanuensis to do his writing.

He was twice married; the first time to Sarah Scott, a member of the Society of Friends (whose meetings Mr. Hopkins was a regular attendant upon through life), in 1726; she died in 1753. In 1755 he married a widow, named Anna Smith.

He rendered great assistance to other scientific men, in observing the transit of Venus which occurred in June, 1769. He was one of the prime movers in forming a public library in Providence, in 1750. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society, and was the projector and patron of the Free Schools in Providence.

William Ellery

ILLIAM ELLERY, the colleague of Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode Island, in the Continental Congress of 1776, was born at Newport, on the twenty-second of December, 1727. His father paid particular attention to his early education, and when qualified, he placed him in Harvard College, where he was distinguished as a close student, particularly of the Greek and Latin languages.

He graduated in 1747, at the age of twenty years, with the most honorable commendations of the faculty. He chose the profession of the law as a business, and when he had completed his studies, he commenced practice in Newport, then one of the most flourishing places in the

British American Colonies.

For twenty years, Mr. Ellery practised law successfully, and acquired a fortune. When the troubles of the Revolution began, and, as an active patriot,* he enjoyed the entire confidence of his fellow-citizens-he was called into public service. Rhode Island, although not so much oppressed as Massachusetts and New York at the beginning, was all alive with sympathy; and the burning of the Gaspee,t in Providence Bay, in 1772, and the formal withdrawal of the allegiance of the Province from the British crown, by an act of her legislature, as early as May, 1776, are an evidence of the deep, patriotic feeling with which her people were imbued. She promptly responded to the call for a general Congress, and Stephen Hopkins and William Ellery were sent as delegates.

Mr. Ellery was a very active member of Congress, and on the second day of August, 1776, he signed the Declaration of Independence.

In 1778, Mr. Ellery left Congress for a few weeks, and repaired to Rhode Island, to assist in a plan to drive the British from the island. It proved abortive, and many

* The active patriotism of Mr. Ellery excited the ire of the British, and when Newport was taken possession of by the enemy they burnt Mr. Ellery's house, and nearly all of his property was destroyed.

†The Gaspee, a British armed vessel, was, iu 1772, placed in Providence harbor for the purpose of enforcing the revenue laws. The commander, like another Gesler, demanded the obeisance of every merchant vessel that entered, by lowering their flags. One vessel refused, and the Gaspee gave chase. The merchantman so manoeuvred as to cause the Gaspee to run aground, and before she could be got off, she was boarded at night by the crews of several boats from Providence, and all on board were made prisoners and sent ashore; after which the vessel was set on fire, and burned to the water's edge.

Rhode Island was taken possession of by the British in 1770, on the very day

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of the inhabitants were reduced to great distress. Mr. Ellery exerted his influence in Congress, successfully, for their relief. About the same time he was one of a committee to arrange some difficulties in which Silas Deane, and other commissioners sent to Europe, were involved.* He was also a member of another committee to arrange some difficult matters connected with the admiralty courts. In each capacity, his wisdom and sound discretion made him successful.

In 1782, Mr. Ellery was designated by Congress to communicate to Major General Greene, their estimate of his valuable services in the Southern Campaigns. In 1784, he was one of a committee to whom the definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain was referred. At this time, he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island. In connection with Rufus King, of New York, he made strong efforts in 1785, to have slavery in the United States abolished. was adopted in 1788, and the in operation, he was appointed Newport, which office he retained until his death, which occurred on the fifteenth of February, 1820, in the seventy-third year of his age. As a patriot and a Christian, his name will ever be revered.

After the new constitution new government was put collector for the port of

that Washington crossed the Delaware. The British troops were commanded by Sir Henry Clinton, and the squadron by Sir Peter Parker. Rhode Island remained in possession of the enemy three years.

* Thomas Paine and others charged Mr. Deane with the crime of prostituting his official station to selfish purposes. The investigation proved the falsity of the charge, yet it was apparent that Mr. Deane, in his zeal, had been very injudicious, and therefore he was not again sent abroad.

He was always fond of reading the classics in the Latin and Greek languages. He perused Tully's Offices on the morning of his death, while sitting in a chair. He soon afterward commenced reading Cicero, when his attendants discovered that he was dead, but still holding the book in his hand.

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NE of the most remarkable men of the Revolution, was Roger Sherman. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on the nineteenth of April, 1721. In 1723, the family moved to Stonington, in that State, where they lived until the death of Roger's father, in 1741. Roger was then only nineteen years of age, and the whole care and support of a large family devolved on him. He had been apprenticed to a