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conduct. In this respect I did not violate, I acted agreeably to the constitution. Whereas, by impeaching me on this article, you who so vote become the transgressors, and violate that constitution you pretend to be so tenacious of protecting.' The charge contained in another article, he thus rebuts: 'Consider in what a perplexed situation I then was, sitting as president, called upon to do the duties of the office, opposed by one who undertook to officiate in my stead. But thanks to our excellent constitution, there was a means of silencing this upstart, by the exercise of another power lodged in the breast of the president-I mean that of fining members for disorderly behaviour. I had recourse to this expedient. I was not afraid of doing my duty. I expected I should have been supported by you. I fined Mr. Hobart, therefore, for the gross misbehavior of preventing the president from doing that duty, for the not doing of which he is here impeached. am not sorry I did so; it is a matter of exultation to me. After thus fining the secretary, he (to his honour be it spoken,) informed the Society he would pay his fine. Notwithstanding this declaration, a member, (Mr. M.,) without addressing himself as is usual to the president, said, 'he moved that the Society do remit Mr. Hobart's fine.' Upon this a question of remission was called for. This question I refused to put. I told the Society that I could not, and would not put that question. This declaration of mine gave offence. I will justify it. The power of fining is discretionary with the president-I as president exerted this power. Ifined the secretary as a reprehension for his conduct. I conceived his conduct was reprehensible, and agreeably to the constitution, not contrary to it, I fined him nine-pence.' In answer to the fourth charge, he justifies himself on the score of wounded gentlemanly feelings. When gentlemen,' says he, 'censured the committee, who wrote the letter to Mr. Wagner, I, not as president, but as a private member and chairman of that committee, denied the charge. They repeated the censure, when I spoke as president, in pre

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cisely these words: 'The committee denies it.' Sure any member must be sensible that such a denial was admissible, and certainly, gentlemen, you will admit that because I was president, I was not therefore debarred from defending my conduct as a committee man. If this should be so judged, what member, possessed of common sense, would accept of the presidentship? I, as an individual, would contemn the office. Since, although charges against such were unfounded, as in the present instance, they would yet appear valid, because uncontradicted.'

He concludes his spirited defence in these indignant words: Upon the whole, gentlemen, you the members of this Society, are to decide whether I am guilty of misbehavior in the execution of the presidentship, as charged in the impeachment, or whether I am not. Consider well -lay your hand on your heart and decide justly. I ask no lenity-I wish a just decision. I covet nobody's vote-nay, I wish none to vote not guilty,' without being clearly of opinion that I am innocent. Your suffrages will exist on the journal—they will remain as a stigma or an honour. To each independent voter on this impeachment, this defence is submitted by their friend and fellow-member, AQUILA M. BOLTON.'

'On

The minutes of the meeting, 'Thursday, July 28th, 1790,' contain the eventful result of this high trial. motion that the articles of impeachment be taken up, the president left the chair, and Mr. Westcott being placed therein, the articles of impeachment were read, and after defence made, the question taken upon each stood thus: on the first third, and fifth, guilty on the sccond and fourth, not guilty. The sentence was The sentence was one of disgrace, viz. 'That Aquila M. Bolton, president of the Ciceronian Society, for the offences of which he has now been convicted, be reprimanded by the president pro tem., which was done accordingly.' But the indignity touched too keenly this high-spirited youth, to permit him to remain in office. Mr Bolton,' the minutes go on to say, 'then

informed the Society, that in consequence of this condemnation, which he could but think was extremely unjust, and by which he thought all reciprocity of good offices between the president and members was ended, he conceived he was not bound to continue in an office for which he had now imbibed an aversion, and therefore he peremptorily abdicated the office of president of this Society.'

Now whether this were a case of tyranny successfully resisted, or of a firmness too independent to be popular, cannot at the present day be very clearly arrived at. Montesquieu says, 'Wo to the character of a prince who falls under a successful rebellion.' And here unquestionably the secretary has the history in his own hands; yet even from his enemies' showing, Bolton played well the hero's part, and seems to have had hard measure dealt to him, especially when at the ensuing meeting, he moved a ' declaration of a bil of rights to be entered on the minutes, immediately after the determination of the impeachment;' a motion which the Society thought proper indefinitely to postpone the consideration of. Whether this individual be living or dead, the editor knows not, nor even whether he grew up to man's estate; most probably not, since he certainly displayed in this youthful contest, talent, that in life could not have been hid, and traits of character that must have made such talent not only respected, but feared.

How far the part which young Hobart took in this matter, in which he stood forth as 'the Hampden' of their liberties, endeared him to the Society, can only be surmised. It is certain, however, that after a short interval, he became the popular candidate for the highest office, and was accordingly placed in the presidential chair. An extract from the minutes of that date may serve to show, from the subjects selected for debate, that the 'amor patriæ' was still burning fiercely in the bosoms of members.

Saturday, 2nd October, 1790.

'Society met. Mr. Purnal presented an essay on oratory.

Mr. Morgan delivered an oration 'On the advantage of a strict adherence to truth.' The Society then proceeded to debate the question, Whether Brutus was to be justified in ordering his two sons to be put to death:' the question being taken, it was determined in the affirmative. The Society then proceeded to the election of president, when upon casting up the votes, it appeared that John Henry Hobart was duly elected. Mr. O. Wilson proposed the following as the subject of debate for the next meeting (whether suggested by the result of the election is not said)'Was Brutus justifiable in killing Cæsar?"

The secretary thus becoming president, we have no more rough minutes to refer to; so that whether the second Brutus received an equally lenient verdict with his great ancestor, and whether any comparison was drawn between the tyranny of Cæsar and that of Bolton, or between Hobart and the last of the Romans,' must now be left to conjecture. The whole history, however, marks it to have been one of exciting interest, and shows how the talents of the man may be called forth by the discussions of the boy.

As young Hobart removed in the course of the following winter to the College at Princeton, where higher duties and a more manly competition awaited him, we hear but little after this of the Ciceronian Society.' His resignation of the presidency, which was thus rendered necessary, was at least under more agreeable circumstances than his great predecessor's. The following letter from a fellow member, is the only further record in relation to its interests.

My dear friend,

'Philadelphia, April 5th, 1791.

I have nothing to plead in excuse for not having answered your last acceptable favour, except the want of a convenient opportunity. My friend, Mr. W. Langdon, will now hand you this. I frequently think ofyou, my dear fellow, with pleasure, when I consider how advantageously you are employing your time in the pur

suit of those studies which will not only be honourable to yourself, but beneficial to mankind. And I sometimes have the vanity to suppose that you also, in a leisure moment, think of me; and that you will participate in a degree with me in the pleasure I have in informing you, that although the success I meet with in prosecuting my studies, cannot equal yours, on account of the difference in our capacities and inclination for study; yet that I make a progress at present much more satisfactory to myself, than in the former part of my reading. I wish, my dear Hobart, you would fix on the profession of the law: I can without flattery say, that I think you admirably calculated for it, both from genius and an apt method of delivering your sentiments, one of the greatest essentials to the advocate. Although I am delighted to hear of your success, yet I wish you may not injure your health by too close a confinement. The vacation, I suppose, will soon commence, which will be a relaxation to your mind, and to which I look forward with pleasure, under a hope that I may once more enjoy your agreeable converse. I have just time (as my friend waits,) to inform you that I am no longer a member of the Ciceronian Society. I found its business to interfere with my studies so much, as to oblige me to resign my seat, and request the privileges of an honorary member. Do write soon, and believe me to be, in haste, your sincere friend, JAMES MILNOR.'

It is worthy of note, that this advocate for the law, himself in middle age, became the apologist for a holier cause; and that thus these companions in boyhood, widely separated, met again after many years, in the relation of bishop and pastor, in a city to which both were then strangers, and in a sacred profession to which at that time the attention of neither was turned. The last notice of the Ciceronian Society appears in a letter of Mr. Hobart in 1794, tendering his resignation as a member, on the ground of his second removal to Princeton, and concluding with these words: Be assured that my conviction of the improvement to be derived from the Society remains as strong as ever, and that for those members with whom I have a personal acquaintance, I feel that regard which a knowledge of their merit will ever excite."