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"volatile and irritable," was so trained as to become a pattern of pa- 

 tience and perseverance. At the age of thirteen he was sent to the 

 College at Georgetown, where, in the course of two years, by assi- 

 duous study, he became deeply imbued with a love for the ancient 

 classics. Much stress is laid upon the advantages he derived from 

 the instructions of the Rev. Thomas P. Irving, by whom he was pre- 

 pared to enter the junior class at Princeton, at the age of sixteen, 

 where he afterwards graduated with the highest honours. He studied 

 law in his native town with Francis Xavier Martin, now a distin- 

 guished judge in Louisiana, and was admitted to practice at the age 

 of twenty. He was elected at twenty-one to the Senate of the State, 

 and soon became conspicuous for talents, influence, and usefulness. 

 In 1808 he was one of the electors for President and Vice-President, 

 and in 1813 a member of Congress, to which station he was again 

 elected. 



After the year 1817, his sphere of usefulness was limited to his 

 own State, where, at the bar, in the Legislature, in the Convention to 

 amend the Constitution, and upon the bench of the Supreme Court, 

 he was always in action, always strenuous for the right, to the end 

 of his virtuous and patriotic life. 



He died at Raleigh, on the 23d of January last, in the sixty-sixth 

 year of his age, beloved, revered, and lamented. In him, said Mr. 

 Dillingham, there was a rare combination of great talents and great 

 virtues. With genius, learning, and eloquence, he united sound judg- 

 ment, practical good sense, and untiring industry. He was a ripe 

 scholar, a sound lawyer, an able statesman, an accomplished gentle- 

 man, and a Christian in the best sense of the word. 



A conversation took place on the subject of the recent action 

 of the Comptrollers of the Public Schools, in regard to mount- 

 ing the transit instrument at the High School, in which Mr. 

 Walker, Professor Hart, Mr. Smith, and Dr. Hays, partici- 

 pated. 



