"_Peter's acts of charity were so secret and unbounded, that none but they who were the objects of it could compute the sums, which he annually distributed_"--that "_his alms flowed, like a fruitful river_"--that "_he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, comforted the fatherless, and the widows in their affliction, and his bounty visited the prisoner. So that Almighty God, in giving riches to this man, seems to have scattered blessings all abroad among the people_"--that the building "_erected by him at an immense charge, for the convenience and ornament of the town, is incomparably the greatest benefaction ever yet known to our Western shoar_"--that this act of munificence, however great, "_is but the first fruits of his generosity, a pledge of what his heart, always devising liberal things, would have done for us, had his life been spared_." To all this good Master Lovell adds the assertion--"_I am well assured from those, who were acquainted with his purposes, that he had many more blessings in store for us, had Heaven prolonged his days_." These statements, publicly pronounced, one hundred and eight years ago, have never been gainsayed, nor even qualified. They must therefore be viewed, in the light of an ancient deposition, read before the grand inquest of the whole people, before whom Peter Faneuil was tried, shortly after his decease, according to the fashion of the Egyptians, while dealing with their departed kings. I, by no means, approve of Peter's conduct, in jostling the Government, out of the excise, on a few casks of brandy; but, in full view of all these public and private charities, there seems to be something about it, like the gallantry of Robin Hood, whose agrarian philosophy taught him to rob the rich, and feed the poor. And, when the trial comes on, in the Higher Court, about the duties upon these four hogsheads of brandy; and Peter Baynton is summoned to testify; and, upon his evidence, Peter Faneuil is convicted; most truly, do I believe, that some good natured angel, will slyly draw, over the record, a corner of that broad mantle of gold and tissue--that mantle of charity--whose warp and woof were formed of private alms and public benefactions, and which good Peter Faneuil spent so many of his hours, in weaving, in this lower world. If Peter Faneuil was otherwise an offender, I am sorry for it; having a passion for rarities, I should like to behold the _tabula immaculata_--the unsullied sheet of one human being! I am not aware of anything, in the life of Peter Faneuil, which that mantle will not abundantly cover.