Page:Sketches of the life and character of Patrick Henry.djvu/54

 30 SKETCHES OF THE

nal ambition^ of which there is no proof, to suppose that he was meditating the subversion of a government against which the voice of serious complaint had not yet been heard. Besides, Mr. Henry^s standing in so- ciety was at this period so humble, as to have rendered the meditation of such a purpose, on his part, presump- tuous in the extreme; and equally inconsistent both with his unassuming modesty, and that natural good sense and accurate judgment, which are on all hands, assigned to him.

Immediately on the decision of this cause, he was retained in all the cases, within the range of his prac- tice, which depended on the same question. But no other case was ever brought to trial. They were all, throughout the colony, dismissed by the plaintiffs; nor was any appeal ever prosecuted in the case of Mr. Maury. The reason assigned for this by Mr. Camm, is, that the legislature had voted money to support the ap- peal on the part of the defendants, and that the clergy were not rich enough to contend against the whole wealth and strength of the colony.^

The clergy took their revenge in an angiy pamphlet from the pen of Mr. Camm, in which a very con-

been able, however, to find any resolution of the legislature, to this effect, earlier than the 7th of April, 1767 : whereas Mr. Maury's case was decided in Hanover, on the 1st December, 1763. The following is extracted from the journal of the day, first mentioned.
 * Mr. Camm is right as to the interference of the legislature. I have not

" On a motion made,

" Resolved, that the committee of con-espondence be directed to write to the agent, to defend the parish collectors from all appeals from judgments here given, in suits broug-ht by the clergy, for recovering their salaries, pay- able on or before the last day of May, 1759 ; and that this house will engage to defray the expense thereof"

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