Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/111

 gentleman of the house of representatives, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects; you have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are accord- ingly dissolved/'

But the dissolution of the house of burgesses, did not change the materials of which it had been composed. The same members were re-elected without a single excep- tion, and the same determined spirit of resistance con- tinued to diffuse itself from the legislature over the- colony which they represented, and to animate by sympathy the neighbouring colonies. This house had the merit of origi- nating that powerful engine of resistance, corresponding committees between the legislatures of the different colonies.* The measure was brought foi-ward by Mr. Dabney Carr, a new member from the county of Louisa, in a committee of the whole house, on the 12 th of March;, 1773; and the resolutions, as adopted, now stood upon the journals of the day, in the following terms:

" Whereas the minds of his majesty's faithful sub- jects in this colony have been much disturbed, by various rumours, and reports of proceedings, tending to deprive them of their ancient, legal, and constitutional rights.

" And whereas the affairs of this colony are frequently connected with those of Great Britain, as well as the neighbouring colonies, which renders a communication of sentiments necessary; in order, therefore, to remove the uneasiness, and to quiet the minds of the people, as well as for the other good purposes above mentioned:

were so nearly coeval in the two states, as to render it impossible that either could have borrowed it from the other. The messengers, who bore the propositions fropi the two states, are said to have crossed each other on the way. This is Mr. Jefferson's account of it; and Mrs. Warren, in her very interesting history of the revolution, admits, that the measure was original on the part of Virginia. See the note to page 110, of her first volume
 * The state of Massachusetts is entitled to equal honour: the measures

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