GENTLEMEN:--In complying with your request for a copy of my discourse, delivered this morning, it is proper that I should state the circumstances under which it was prepared. When I accepted from the bar the office of delivering a discourse on the life and character of Mr. Tazewell, I said to the meeting that, from the state of my eyes, I could not probably prepare it before the fall; but, having been unexpectedly detained in Norfolk beyond my usual time of leaving it for the country, and fearing from the state of my own health and from the uncertainty of human affairs, that, if I postponed the discourse till the fall, I might be prevented from preparing it then, I determined to do the work, as well as I could, at once, and the result is the discourse of which I read a portion to you this morning. It is hastily written, and written almost wholly from my own mind, and, I may add, for the meridian of Virginia; but I have ventured to send it to you, such as it is, and I indulge the hope that, humble as it is, it may serve to recall, in some slight measure at least, and until some better memorial be prepared, the recollections of a statesman who was long the pride of his native commonwealth, and who stood to most of you in the intimate and endearing relation of a personal friend. I am, gentlemen, with the highest respect, very truly yours, HUGH BLAIR GRIGSBY. TO W.W. SHARP, } JOHN S. MILLSON, } Esquires, TAZEWELL TAYLOR, } Committee of the HARRISON ROBERTSON, } Norfolk Bar. JOHN T. FRANCIS, } No. III. CHARACTERS OF MR. TAZEWELL, BY THE HON. GEORGE LOYALL; BY WILLIAM W. SHARP, ESQ., A PUPIL OF MR. TAZEWELL; BY THE LATE WILLIAM WIRT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES; AND BY THE LATE FRANCIS WALKER GILMER, ESQ., PROFESSOR OF LAW IN THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA. The sketch of Mr. Tazewell by Mr. Loyall appeared under the editorial head of the _Norfolk Argus_, on the 8th of May. It was written in haste, but it shows the impression which Mr. Tazewell made on that able and accomplished gentleman. None had a longer or a fairer view of Mr. Tazewell for forty-five years past than Mr. Loyall, and it was mainly owing to him that Mr. Tazewell was brought forward as a candidate for a seat in the Senate of the United States. [From the _Norfolk Argus_ of May 8, 1860. By the Hon. George Loyall.] DEATH OF EX-GOV. TAZEWELL. On Sunday, 11 o'clock A.M., LITTLETON WALLER TAZEWELL breathed his last. It was in the Providence of God to prolong the life of this venerable and distinguished man beyond the term of four-score years, during which the beams of his genius irradiated the land of his birth. Among the last, if not the very last, of a noble and vigorous stock, to whom Virginia owes so much of her well-deserved fame, the main features of his character, as was said of an illustrious statesman of the last century, had the hardihood of antiquity.