draining their energies, instead of imparting to them no inconsiderable portion of their vitality, and instantly the axe of judicial reform was seized by these sapient legislators for its amputation. Against this fratricidal attempt, Mr. Clay raised his powerful arm. He had witnessed with feelings of unfeigned regret, this rash attempt to lay violent hands on that system with which was associated every thing valuable and venerable in jurisprudence. That system which might justly be styled the legal Thesaurus of the world, founded by the hand of social exigency amid fearful convulsions, and reared by the united efforts of the most eminent jurisconsulats the world ever saw, he endeavored to shield against the ruthless assaults of this legislative vandalism. He was aware that the popular opinion considered this system as unnecessarily voluminous――an immense mixture of superfluities, prolixities, and absurdities, unadapted to, and unneeded by, our institutions. These erroneous apprehensions and long existing prejudices, he combated and corrected. He demonstrated its utility by a lucid exposition of the beauty, symmetry, and simplicity of its fundamental principles, and its necessity, by depicting in most glowing colors the disastrous consequences which would inevitably follow its destruction. Fearing, however, that the resolution would pass, he met its supporters in the spirit of compromise, and moved so to amend it, that the prohibition should extend to those decisions only, that had been given since the fourth day of July, 1776. His reasons for permitting those to remain, which were given previous to that period, were as convincing as they were sensible. He argued that up to the time of the declaration of independence, the laws of the one nation were those of the other, and that therefore the adoption of the primary resolution would be in effect abolishing our own laws. He is said to have given on this occasion, one of the most splendid specimens of elocution ever witnessed. A gentleman who was present describes it as a perfect model. ‘Every muscle of the orator’s face was at work; his whole body seemed agitated, as if each part was instinct with a separate life; and his small white hand, with its blue veins apparently distended almost to bursting, moved gracefully, but with all the energy of rapid and vehement gesture. The appearance of the speaker seemed that of a pure intellect, wrought up to its mightiest energies, and brightly glowing through the thin and transparent veil of flesh that enrobed it.’ His control over his auditory was most absolute and astonishing――now bathing them in tears, and now convulsing them with laughter, causing them to alternate between hope and fear, love and hate, at his bidding. When he concluded, scarcely a vestige of opposition remained, and the amended resolution was adopted almost by acclamation. While the prominence, which this and similar efforts gave Mr.