the Governor and Council, shall at all times have the care of the peace of this Province, and Territories thereof, and that nothing be, by any persons, attempted to the subversion of this frame of government.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Governor, and Council, for the time being, shall, at all times, settle and order the situation of all cities, and market towns, modelling therein all public buildings, streets, and market places, and shall appoint all public landing places, of the towns of this Province and Territories: And if any man's property shall be judged by the Governor, and Council, to be commodious for such landing place, in the said towns, and that the same be by them appointed as such, that the owner shall have such reasonable satisfaction given him for the same as the Governor and Council shall see meet, to be paid by the said respective towns.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Governor and Conncil shall, at all times, have power to inspect the management of the public treasury, and punish those who shall convert any part thereof to any other use than what hath been agreed upon by the Governor, Council, and Assembly.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Governor and Council shall erect and order all public houses, and encourage and reward the authors of useful sciences, and laudable inventions in the said Province,

and Territories thereof.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Governor, and Council, shall from time to time have the care of the management of all public affairs, relating to the peace, safety, justice, treasury, trade, and improvement of the Province, and Territories, and to the good education of youth, and sobriety of the man

ners of the inhabitants therein, as aforesaid.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the representatives of the freemen, when met in Assembly, shall have power to prepare and propose to the Governor and Council, all such bills as they, or the major part of them, shall at any time see needful to be passed into laws within the said Province and Territo

ries.

Provided always, That nothing herein contained shall debar the Governor and Council from recommending to the Assembly, all such bills as they shall think fit to be passed into laws; and that the Council and Assembly may, upon occasion, confer together in committees, when desired, all which said proposed and prepared bills or such of them as the Governor, with the advice of the Council, shall in open Assembly, declare his assent unto, shall be the laws of this Province, and Territories thereof, and published accordingly, with this style, "By the Governor, with the assent and approbation of the Freemen in General Assembly met;" a true transcript or duplicate thereof shall be transmitted to the king's privy council, for the time being according to the late king's

letters patent.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Assembly shall sit upon their own adjournments, and committees, and continue in order to prepare and propose bills, redress grievances, and impeach criminals, or such persons as they shall think fit to be there impeached until the Governor and Council for the time being, shall dismiss them; which Assembly shall, notwithstanding such dismiss, be capable of assembling together, upon summons of the Governor and Council, at any time during that year, two thirds of which Assembly, in all cases, shall make a quorum.

And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all elections of representatives for Council, and Assembly, and all questions to be determined by them, shall be by the major part of votes.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That as oft as any days of the month mentioned in any article of this act, shall fall on the first day of the week, ocmmonly called the Lord's Day, the business appoint

ed for that day, shall be deferred till the next day, unless in cases of emergency.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any alien, who is or shall be a purchaser of lands, or who doth or shall inhabit in this province, or Territories thereof, shall decease at any time before he can well be denizised, his right and interest therein shall notwithstanding descend to his wife and children, or other his relations, be he testate or intestate, according to the laws of this Province and Territories thereof, in such cases provided, in as free and ample manner, to all intents and purposes, as if the said alien had been denizised.

And that the people may be accommodated with such food and sustenance as God in his providence hath freely afforded, Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the inhabitants of this Province, and Territories thereof, shall have liberty to fish, and hunt, upon the lands they in all waters in the said lands, and in all rivers and rivuhold, or all other lands therein, not inclosed, and to fish lets, in and belonging to this Province, and Territories thereof, with liberty to draw his or their fish upon any man's lands, so as it be not to the detriment or annoyance of the owner thereof, except such lands as do lie upon inland rivulets, that are not boatable, or which hereafter may be erected into manors.

all inhabitants of this Province, and Territories, whether Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That purchasers or others, and every one of them, shall have full and quiet enjoyment of their respective lands and tenements, to which they have any lawful or equitable claim, saving only such rents and services for the same, as are, or customarily ought to be, reserved to the lord or lords of the fee thereof, respectively.

Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no act, law, or ordinance whatsoever, shall, at any time hereafter, be made or done, by the Governor of this Province, and Territories thereunto belonging, or by the Freemen in Council or Assembly, to alter, change, or diminish the form and effect of this act, or any part or clause thereof, contrary to the true intent ard meaning thereof, without the consent of the Governor, for the time being, and six parts of seven of the said Freemen, in Council and Assembly met. This act to continue and be in force, until the said Proprietary shall signify his pleasure to the contrary, by some inrtrument, under his hand and seal, in that behalf.

Provided always, and it is hereby enacted, That neither this act, nor any other act or acts whatsoever, shall preclude or debar the inhabitants of this Province, and Territories, from claiming, having, and enjoying, any of the rights, privileges, and immunities, which the said Proprietary, for himself, his heirs and assigns, did formerly grant, or which of right belong unto them the said whatsoever, any thing herein contained to the contrary inhabitants, by virtue of any law, charter, or grants notwithstanding.

The law for ratifying and confirming the Acts and Proceedings of the Assembly, in 1696; passed by William Markham, May, 1697.

Whereas divers persons within this government have expressed their dissatisfaction, both with the proceeding, and dissolution of the Council, and Assembly, in October 1696, insisting that their charteral rights were given away thereby, and that all the laws passed the last Assembly are void, and of no force, with such like objections, that are made use of to obstruct the proceedbring the government into confusion: Now forasmuch as ings of this Assembly, as also to amuse the people, and it is sufficiently apparent, that by the act passed at the said last Assembly, intituled, The Frame of the Govern ment of the Province of Pennsylvania, and the Territories thereunto belonging, provision is made against such dissolution of Council and Assembly, as is complained of; and that our charteral rights are so far from being taken away, or given away, that they are effec

tually asserted, with sufficient salvos, to preserve the people's just rights and claims to all and every the privileges and immunities, granted them by any charter, or other grant from the proprietary, in case he should disapprove of the said Frame of Government.

Therefore for removing and preventing all further doubts, scruples, and disputes, concerning the meeting, sitting, and proceedings of this present General Assembly, Be it enacted and declared, and it is declared and enacted by the Governor, and representatives of the freemen of the said Province, and Territories, in Council and Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That the Governor, and Freemen, of the said Province, and Territories, met at Philadelphia, on the tenth day of the Third Month, 1697, and now sitting in General Assembly, are the Council and Assembly of the said Province of Pennsylvania, and Territories thereunto belonging, and shall be, and are hereby declared, enacted, and adjudged so to be, to all intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever, as if this General Assembly had been elected according to the rotation of liberties, before Colonel Fletcher came to the administration of this government, and as if this present Council and Assembly had consisted of the numbers, and had met on the days in the said charter, and former act of settlement, limited and appointed.

And it is further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said Frame of Government, and all other the acts and laws made and passed at the said last Assembly, held here in October, and November, 1696, as also all other laws formerly enacted, and now in force, and not by this General Assembly altered or repealed, are hereby declared and enacted to stand and remain in full force, and be reputed, observed, adjudged and taken as the laws of this government, any law, charter, or usage to the contrary, in any wise notwithstanding.

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF JOHN BLAIR LINN-By Charles B. Brown, Esq. John Blair Linn was descended from ancestors who originally came from the British islands. They appear to have been emigrants at an early period, and to have given their descendants as just a claim to the title of American, as the nature of things will allow any civilized inhabitant of the United States to acquire.

His name bears testimony to the paternal and maternal stock from which he sprung. His great-grandfather, William Linn, was an emigrant from Ireland, who settled land in the wilderness of Pennsylvania, and whose eldest son, William, was the father of a numerous family. The father of John Blair Linn received a careful education, which his family enabled him to complete at the college at Princeton. He was trained to the ministry, in the Presbyterian church, and married, at an early age, Rebecca Blair, third daughter of the Rev. John Blair. Her brother and uncle were likewise clergymen, and the family were eminently distinguished by their knowledge and piety.

are only to be found in his own narrative compared with with the observations of others. In the present case, Mr. Linn's modesty prevented him from being his own historian, and peculiar circumstances occasioned his early life to pass over without much observation from others. We cannot any longer profit by his own recollections: the hand is now cold, and the tongue silent, which were best qualified to gratify the curiosity of love or veneration. We only know that he acquired the rudiments of knowledge at an age somewhat earlier than is customary. He was initiated into the Latin language while yet a child, and evinced very early a strong attachment to books. On his father's removal to New York, when John was only nine years old, he enjoyed new opportunities of improvement; under several respectable teachers. The happiest period of his life, however, in his own opinion, consisted of two or three years which he spent at a place of education at Flatbush, in Long island. He was in his thirteenth year when he left this seminary for New York, where, as Columbia College, his education was completed.

Fortunate is that man who has spent any part of his early years at a country school. In youth, every object possesses the charms of novelty; care and disease have as yet made no inroads on the heart, nor stained that pure and bright medium, through which the external world makes its way to the fancy. The noise, the filth, the dull sights and unwholesome exhalations of a city are, in consequence of this enchantment, ever new and delightful to the youthful heart; but how much is this pleasure heightened, when the objects presented to view, and by which we are surrounded, are in themselves agreeable! There is something in the refreshing smells, the green, the quiet, the boundless prospects of the country, congenial to the temper of human beings at all ages; but these possess ineffable charms at that age, when the joints are firm and elastic, when the pulse beats cheerily, and no dark omens or melancholy retrospects invade the imagination. To roam through a blackberries, to bathe in the clear running brook, are wood with gay companions, to search the thicket for pleasures which fill the memory with delicious images, and are frequently called up to afford a little respite to the heart from the evils of our subsequent experience.

Dr. Linn was indebted to nature for a healthful rather than a robust constitution. He was a stranger to disease till after he had reached manhood, and of that constitu tional vivacity which mere health confers, he possessed a very large share. His fancy was alive to the beauties of nature, and he experienced none of those little vexations and crosses, which some lads are doomed to suffer, through the malice of school-fellows, the tyranny of ushers, and the avarice of housekeepers. Hence, in the latter part of his life, no recollections were so agreeable as those of the time he passed at Flatbush, when he revelled in the full enjoyment of health, and its attendant cheerfulness. They formed a vivid contrast to that joyless and dreary state to which disease afterwards reduced him.

The ensuing four years were active and important ones. The moral and intellectual dispositions, which men may possibly bring into the world with them, be come fixed and settled, and receive their final di

He was near fourteen years of age when he returned Their eldest son, John Blair Linn, was born in Ship-home and went to college. He now entered on a scene pensburg, in Pennsylvania, March 14, 1777, at no great widely different, in all respects, from that to which he distance from the spot at which his father first drew had been previously accustomed: a new system of schobreath, and where his great-grandfather first established lastic discipline, a new circle of associates, the sensahis residence in the new world. The humble dwelling tions and views incident to persons on the eve of manhood. which was first erected in the forest, still existed, at a small distance from that town, and continued for a considerable time after this, to be inhabited by his greatgrand-father, who lived upwards of a hundred years. It is impossible for his survivors to recount the earli-rection at this age. When the appetites are vigor est incidents of his life; to trace the first indications of future character and genius; or enumerate the little adventures and connexions of his childhood. The juvenile stages of our moral and intellectual progress, which are in all cases entertaining and instructive, are so, in a particular manner, when they relate to eminent persons. The authentic memorials of any man's life and character,

ous, the senses keen, and the conduct regulated by temper and passion, rather than by prudence and experience, we are most alive to all impressions, and ge nerally take that path which we pursue for the rest of our days. It was during this period that Mr. Linn's taste was formed; and though his moral and professional views underwent considerable changes afterwards, the

literary inclinations which he now imbibed, or unfolded, course, whether qualified or not, destined to a liberal continued to adhere to him for the rest of his life. profession, and the law is generally preferred, because His genius now evinced a powerful tendency to poe-it affords the best means of building up a name or a fortry and criticism. What are called the fine writers of the age, and especially the poets, became his darling study. In a youthful breast, the glow of admiration is soon followed by the zeal to imitate; and he not only composed several pieces, both in prose and verse, but procured the publication of some of them in a distinct volume, before his seventeenth year. These performances possess no small merit, if we may judge of them by comparison with the youth and inexperience of the writer. They manifest considerable reading, a remarkably improved taste, and talents which only wanted the discipline and knowledge of age to make them illustrious.

In a city where there is an established theatre, a young man, smitten with a passion for letters, can scarcely fail of becoming an assiduous frequenter of its exhibitions. Plays form a large portion of the fashionable literature of a refined nation. The highest powers of invention are displayed in the walks of dramatic poetry; and what the youug enthusiast devours in his closet, he hastens with unspeakable eagerness to behold invested with the charms of life and action on the stage. At that period some performers of merit had been recently imported from Europe, the theatre was, in an eminent degree, a popular amusement, and Mr. Linn was at that age when the enchantment of such exhibitions is greatest. The theatre, accordingly became his chief passion.

To austere and scrupulous minds the theatre is highly obnoxious, not only as hurtful in itself, but as seducing unwary youth into collateral vices and undue expenses. On this account, such establishments are certainly liable to much censure. Whether reasonably or not, mankind have always annexed some disrepute to the profession of an actor, and hence no one will give himself to that profession, who cherishes in himself any lively regard for reputation. The odium with which any profession is loaded, even though originally groundless, has an unfortunate tendency to create an excuse for itself in the principles and manners of those who adopt it. To make men vicious, little more is necessary than to treat them as if they were so.

tune. Mr. Linn was probably influenced in his choice of this path, more because it was honourable and lucrative, than because it was particularly suited to gratify any favourite taste. He does not appear, therefore, to have applied with much assiduity or zeal to his new pursuit: his favourite authors continued to engage most of his attention; and his attachment to poetry acquired new force, by the contrast which the splendid visions of Shakspeare and Tasso bore to the naked abstractions and tormenting subtleties of Blackstone and Coke.

He was placed under the direction of Alexander Hamilton, who was a friend of his father, and who took upon himself, with ardour, the care of perfecting the studies and promoting the fortunes of the son. Instead, however, of becoming enamoured of the glory, excellence, or usefulness that environ the names of Murray and of Erskine, Mr. Linn regarded the legal science every day with new indifference or disgust, which, at the end of the first year, induced him to relinquish the profession altogether.

Before this event took place, he had ventured to produce a dramatic composition, called Bourville Castle, on the stage. This performance was one of the many dramatic works he had previously concerted, but the only one which was ever performed on the stage. Its success was such as had been sufficient to have fixed the literary destiny of some minds. But his dramatic career was scarcely commenced, when it was entirely relinquished. His passion for theatrical amusements yielded place to affections of a more serious and beneficial nature; and those religious impressions, by which, from his earliest infancy, his mind had been occasionally visited, about this time assumed a permanent dominion over him. After much deliberation, he determined to devote his future life to service in the church.

Such a decision, in a youthful and ardent mind, could only flow from deep convictions of duty. The heavy obligations which every clergyman incurs, the extraor dinary claims which are made upon him, not only as a teacher of virtue and religion, but as a living example of their influence, form, to a conscientious mind, the most arduous circumstances of this profession. Consi dered as a calling, by which a subsistence is to be obtained, and a family reared, its disadvantages are very numerous. He is entirely precluded from any collateral and lucrative application of his time or talents, not only by the constant pressure of his clerical duties, but by the general sense of decorum; while the stipend he receives from the church is in many cases inadequate to decent subsistence, and in no case does it more than an

The example of Mr. Linn, however, may lead us to distinguish between that admiration for the drama, which leads some persons to the theatre, and those dissolute and idle habits, by which the attendance of others is produced, and which evince a taste for the life and manners of the actor, rather than a passion for excellent acting. The moral conduct of this youth was at all times irreproachable; and the impression made upon his fancy, by the great masters of the drama, seems to have contributed to his security from low tastes and vicious pleasures, rather than to have laid him open to their in-swer the current necessities and demands of a family. fluence.

The clergyman deprives himself of all means of provid ing for the establishment of his children in trade or in marriage, or even for the period of age or infirmity in himself, by embracing a profession which, in many ca ses, appears to have a tendency to impair his health, and to shorten the duration of his life.

When his academical career was finished, he was 18 years of age; and it being necessary to adopt some profession, his choice, and that of his family, fell upon the law. The law leads more directly and effectually to honour, power and profit, in America, than any of what are termed the liberal professions. As we are strangers In Mr. Linn's case, these sacrifices were greater than to all hereditary distinctions, the road to eminence is ordinary. There were many circumstances to inspire open to all; and while the practice of the law is ex- his generous mind with unusual and commendable solitremely lucrative, it tends to bring forth talents and in-citude for the acquisition of fortune, and his new endustry into public notice, and to recommend men to offices of profit and honour. A young man who, though meanly descended, shows some marks of genius, and has received some degree of education beyond that of mere reading and writing his native tongue, seldom thinks of pursuing any mechanical trade, and if he has some ambition, he is generally educated to the bar. He is thus placed in the direct road of that profit and ho-tance. nour, which waits on political popularity, and may put in his claim, with more success than the followers of any other calling, for a seat in the national councils, and for any official station. The children of persons who are raised fabove others, by their riches or station, are, of

gagements were incompatible with those pursuits, which had hitherto formed his chief passion, and engrossed the greater portion of his time. Such, however, was the strength of his mind, and the force of his religious impressions, that not only the prospects of power and riches, but the more bewitching promises of dramatic popularity, were renounced with little hesitation or reluc

New York was, in some respects, an eligible place for prosecuting theological as well as legal studies, but Mr. Linn weighed its disadvantages and benefits with too impartial a hand to allow himself to remain there.Along with his former habits and pursuits, he perceived