into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to his subjects' obedience,' the more sober part of the audience were struck with horror. Mr. Lyons called out aloud, and with an honest warmth, to the Bench, 'that the gentleman had spoken treason,' and expressed his astonishment, 'that their worships could hear it without emotion, or any mark of dissatisfaction.' At the same instant, too, amongst some gentlemen in the crowd behind me, was a confused murmur of 'treason, treason!' Yet Mr. Henry went on in the same treasonable and licentious strain, without interruption from the Bench, nay, even without receiving the least exterior notice of their disapprobation. One of the jury, too, was so highly pleased with these doctrines, that, as I was afterwards told, he every now and then gave the traitorous declaimer a nod of approbation. After the court was adjourned, he apologized to me for what he had said, alleging that his sole view in engaging in the cause, and in saying what he had, was to render himself popular. You see, then, it is so clear a point in this person's opinion that the ready road to popularity here is to trample under foot the interests of religion, the rights of the church, and the prerogatives of the crown."[56] FOOTNOTES: [33] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 12. [34] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ 316, 317. [35] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vi. 88, 89. [36] _Ibid._ vi. 568, 569. [37] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 508, 509. [38] Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vii. 240, 241. [39] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467, 468. [40] As was alleged in Richard Bland's _Letter to the Clergy_, 17. [41] Perry, _Hist. Coll._ i. 467. [42] _Ibid._ i. 466. [43] _Ibid._ i. 465, 466. [44] Meade, _Old Families of Virginia_, i. 223.