14 



lieve, his invention, was tirst introduced to notice in this country un- 

 der his auspices. His works were at that time among the curiosities 

 of that busy and beautiful region, and the grounds about them more 

 picturesque and tastefully ordered than any I have seen since. He 

 afterwards removed to Philadelphia, and continued here till he died. 



He was an ingenious, public spirited, and useful man, fond of sci- 

 ence, well read in it, and sometimes a contributor of his observations 

 and thoughts for the ditierent scientific journals. 1 have before me 

 "An essay on Organic Remains as connected with an ancien! Tropical 

 Region of the Earth," which he addressed to this Society in 1843; and 

 which was published soon after. Besides this, I remember a plan of 

 his for bringing about a representation of the minorities in our politi- 

 cal systems, which he explained and enforced in a pamphlet soon 

 after. It was the first matured scheme of the sort, that gained public , 

 attention among us; but it involved objections of detail, which pre- 

 vented its finding general favour. The principle it sought to illus- 

 trate has however been recognised in some of the later enactments of 

 our legislature. In 184S, he made a collection of all the documents, 

 that were connected with the imprisonment of his father and others 

 of the same sect by the revolutionary authorities of 1776. It is in- 

 teresting, as showing the perilous energy with which those almost 

 self constituted tribunals, executed their patriotic fimctions against all 

 who were suspected of lavouring the crown, and as showing also the 

 calm and placid, but galling pertinacity, with which men disciplined in 

 the school of conscience can oppose without resisting, and suffer with- 

 out submitting. The protests and representations and petitions and 

 appeals of the prisoners make up a volume. 



A more extended inquiry than I am able to make would probabl)'" 

 bring to view others of his writings. His mind was active, and his 

 range of thought embraced many subjects. He was a member of our 

 Society from the year 1814 till 3d March, 1853, when he died at the 

 age of 77. 



John Price Wetherill. During the war of the Revolution, a num- 

 ber of the Society of Friends, the parent society of Pennsylvania, were 

 so far led away by patriotic fervour as to bear arms in the cause of 

 the colonies. They lost their heritage, of course; but retaining most 

 of the conscientious peculiarities of the sect, they formed a new com- 

 munity, which, as time and change narrowed its boundaries, became 

 more and more sedulous to keep their outline well defined. Among 

 the last of these, of the second or third generation of "free Quakers," 

 was our friend the late curator, the grandson of a revolutionary 



