and dress, and could seldom be induced to join in the chase after the _ignus fatuus_ of fashion. For many years before his death, his wardrobe bespoke a man of another generation. Mr. Ellery commenced business in his profession at his native town, took to himself a wife, soon became eminent and obtained a lucrative practice. He was highly honourable in his course and gained the confidence of his fellow citizens and of the courts. Up to the time of the commencement of British oppression, his days passed peacefully and quietly along and a handsome fortune accumulated around him. When the revolutionary storm began to gather, the mind of Mr. Ellery became roused and a new impetus was given to his physical powers. His townsmen were the first among the colonists who had dared to beard the lion and unicorn. On the 17th of June, 1769, in consequence of the oppressive conduct of her captain, the revenue sloop Liberty, belonging to his Britannic majesty, and then lying at Newport, was forcibly seized by a number of citizens in disguise, who cut away her masts, scuttled her, carried her boats to the upper part of the town, and committed them to the flames under the towering branches of a newly planted liberty tree. This was a hard cut and thrust at the revenue system that contemplated taxing the colonies contrary to the letter of the constitution and charters granted by the laws of England. This act was followed by another on the 9th of June, 1772, in which blood was spilt—that of seizing and burning the British schooner Gaspee. This was made a pretext for more severe measures on the part of the hirelings of the crown, and a disfranchisement of the colony was recommended and urged upon parliament. Already was the revolutionary ball in motion. In the midst of these turmoils, Mr. Ellery was not an idle spectator. He declared for the cause of liberty and the preservation of those rights that had become sacred by age and had the high sanction of the laws of nature, of man, and of God. In 1774, he was warmly in favour of the project of a general Congress, and, in conjunction with Governor Ward, who was a delegate with Mr. Hopkins to that august assembly, approved of a suggestion already made in a letter from General Greene, “that the colonies should declare themselves independent.” The same spirit soon became general in the province.