Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/42

 18 SKETCHES OF THE

flicted. Be this as it may, the interview was followed by the most marked and permanent respect on the part of Mr. Randolph, and the most sincere good will and gratitude, on that of Mr. Henry.*

It was at the age of four and twenty that Mr. Heniy obtained his license. Of the science of law, he knew almost nothing: of the practical part he was so wholly ignorant, that he was not only unable to draw a declara- tion or a plea, but incapable it is said, of the most com- mon and simple business of his profession, even of the mode of ordering a suit, giving a notice, or making a motion in court. It is not at all wonderful therefore, that such a novice, opposed as he was by veterans, covered with the whole armour of the law, should linger in the back ground, for three years.f

During this time, the wants and distresses of his fami- ly were extreme. The profits of his practice could not have supplied them even with the necessaries of life: and he seems to have spent the greatest part of his time,

��* This account of Mr. Henry's examination is given by judg-e Tyler, who states it as coming from Mr. Henry himself. It was written before I had received the following statement from Mr. Jefferson ; and although there is some difference in the circumstances, it has not been thought important enough to make an alteration of the text necessary. This is Mr. Jefferson's statement. " In the spring of 1760, he came to Wilhamsburg to obtain a Ticense a.s a lawyer, and he called on me at college. He told me he had been reading law only six weeks. Two of the examiners, however, Peyton and John Randolph, men of great facility of temper, signed his hcense with as much reluctance as their dispositions would permit them to show. Mr. Wythe absolutely refused. Robert C. Nicholas refiised also at first ; but on repeated importunities and promises of future reading, he signed. These facts 1 had afterwards from the gentlemen themselves ; the two Randolphs acknowledging he was very ignorant of the law, but that they perceived him to be a young man of genius, and did not doubt that he would soon qualify himself."

f " He was not distinguished at the bar for near four years." Judge Winston : yet Mr. Burk intimates that he took the lead in his profession, ai once. 3d vol. 301.

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