In the review of the life of Elbridge Gerry the pure patriot finds much to admire and nothing to condemn, unless a man is to be condemned for an honest difference of opinion and for keeping aloof from high toned party spirit, which, for the sake of liberty, God forbid. His examples of devotedness to the good of his country, his untiring industry, his prudence, his discretion, his intelligence, and his moral virtues, are all worthy of imitation and shed a lustre upon his character. In private life he was highly esteemed and fulfilled its duties with the strictest fidelity. He was emphatically a useful man in every sphere in which he moved. No perils retarded him from the faithful performance of what he deemed duty. His purposes were deliberately formed and boldly executed. He was an honour to his country, to the cause of freedom, and to enlightened liberal legislation. He was truly a worthy and an honest man. WILLIAM PACA. Every man is not designed by creative wisdom to become a Demosthenes or a Cicero; but every man of common sense has the power to be good and to render himself useful. If all were alike gifted with splendid talents, the monotony would become painful, and variety, the very spice of life, would lose its original flavour. If _all_ our statesmen were eloquent orators and were affected by the mania of speech-making, as sensibly as most of our public speakers are at the present day, we should be constantly, as we are now frequently, overwhelmed with talk and have but little work finished. No one admires eloquence more than the writer, but the speedy accomplishment of business is of higher importance. Like our bodies that end in a narrow cell, the speeches of our legislators, although based upon the purest motives, dictated by the most enlightened understanding, decked with the beauties of intelligence, strengthened by the soundest logic and embellished with the richest flowers of rhetoric, receive their final fate from the approving _Aye_—or the emphatic _No_. I indulge no desire to extinguish these brilliant lights, or to snuff them too closely. The volume of their flame, often so large as to emit smoke, might safely be diminished and their wicks cut shorter. Brevity is the soul of wit, prudent despatch, the life of business. In the committee-room every man can be useful—the responsibilities of a vote bear equally upon each at the time and place he is called to act. Let the importance of no man be undervalued by himself or his compeers because he is not born with a trumpet tongue. If his head is clear and his heart right, _he can do good_.