a short time before he was called by his country to deliberate in her national council. When the Boston port bill was proclaimed, Mr. Stone surmounted the barriers of diffidence and rushed promptly to the rescue. His example had a salutary influence upon those around him. All knew that something must be radically wrong, that some portentous danger hung over the colonies when Thomas Stone was roused to public action. The influence of such men as him, in times of peril, is of the highest value. The man who is always or often a declaimer in popular meetings, must possess Demosthenean or Ciceronian powers to command attention for a long time. The cool, the reflecting, the calculating, the timid and the wavering, are operated upon as by magic, where they see such a man as was Mr. Stone go boldly forward and advocate, what to them seems a cause of doubtful expediency. On the 8th of December, 1774, he was elected a member of the Continental Congress, and took his seat in that body on the 15th of the ensuing May. The meeting of that convention of sages had been deeply solemn and imposing the preceding year, but at that time an increased responsibility rested upon the members. The cry of blood from the heights of Lexington was ringing in their ears; the fury of the revolutionary storm was increasing; the clash of arms and mortal combat had already commenced; the vials of British wrath were unsealed, and the fabric of civil government was falling before a foreign military force. To meet such a crisis, it required the wisdom of Solomon, the patriotism of Cincinnatus, the acuteness of Locke, the eloquence of Cicero, the caution of Tacitus, the learning of Atticus and the energy of Virginius. All these qualities were combined in the Continental Congress to a degree before unknown. Mr. Stone commenced his duties with vigour and prosecuted them with zeal. He was at first trammelled by the instructions of the provincial assembly of Maryland, that body being extremely anxious that peace should be restored without recourse to arms. But the increasing oppressions of the crown eventually removed this injunction and enabled him and his colleagues to join cheerfully in all measures calculated to promote the cause of independence. He was continued in Congress until 1777, when he declined a re-election. He had been a faithful labourer in the committee rooms, and an influential member in the house. He had bestowed much thought and time upon the articles of confederation, and felt bound to remain in the public service until they were fully formed and adopted. That important work completed, he retired from the halls of Congress, carrying with him the esteem and respect of that body, the approbation of a good conscience, and the unlimited gratitude of his constituents.