In 1776, in November, Messrs. Wythe, Pendleton, and Jefferson were appointed to revise the laws of Virginia, and although much other business devolved upon them, they prepared and reported to the general assembly one hundred and twenty-six bills by the 18th of June, 1779. The new code commenced the revision at the time of the revolution in England, and brought it down to the establishment of the new government. It underwent the revision of Mr. Wythe, was truly republican, and does great honour to the heads, hearts and learning of the committee. In 1777 he was chosen speaker of the House of Delegates; the same year a judge of the High Court of Chancery, and subsequently, under a new organization of the judiciary, sole chancellor. A more impartial judge never graced the bench than George Wythe. Nothing could induce him to swerve from the strictest rules of justice, and as a profound jurist and expounder of the law, he stood pre-eminent. He was elected to the professorship of the law in the college of William and Mary, where he continued with success until his increasing duties compelled him to resign. He was one of the members of the Virginia legislature at the adoption of the Federal Constitution. He put in full practice his principles of liberty by emancipating his slaves, and providing them with the means of support. One of them, who died prematurely, he had not only given a common education, but had taught him Latin and Greek, determined upon a developement of African talent. In his private character Mr. Wythe was amiable, modest, charitable and humane. He sought to improve the society in which he moved, and used great exertions to guard young men against the purlieus of vice. He was industrious, temperate, practically a christian, and above reproach. He died suddenly from the effects of poison on the 8th of June, 1806, universally esteemed, beloved and regretted. It is believed the poison was administered by _George Wythe Sweny_, a grandson of his sister, who expected to arrive sooner by his death at the enjoyment of a part of his estate, but which fortunately was prevented by a codicil made just before his decease. Although the ungrateful wretch could not be reached by the laws of his country, the circumstances were so strong against him that he was stamped by the public mind with the black, the awful, the enduring stigma of a _murderer_. Jefferson in delineating the character of the instructor of his youth, remarks: “No man ever left behind him a character more venerated than George Wythe. His virtue was of the purest kind; his integrity inflexible, and his justice exact; of warm patriotism, and devoted as he was to liberty and the natural and equal rights of men, he might be truly called the Cato of his country, without the avarice of a Roman; for a more disinterested person never lived. Such was GEORGE WYTHE, the honour of his own and a model of future times.” ABRAHAM CLARK.