It is four feet in diameter at the lip, and three inches thick at the heaviest part. Its tone is destroyed by a crack, which extends from the lip to the crown, passing directly through the names of the persons who cast it. An attempt was made to restore the tone by sawing the crack wider, but without success; the melody of the "glory-breathed tone" that thrilled the hearts of the people on the birth-day of the nation could not be reawakened. The history of this bell is interesting. In 1752, a bell for the State House was imported from England. On the first trial-ringing, after its arrival, it was cracked. It was recast by Pass and Stow, of Philadelphia, in 1753, under the direction of Isaac Norris, Esq., the then speaker of the Colonial Assembly. And that is the bell, "the greatest in English America," which now hangs in the old State House steeple and claims our reverence. ** Upon fillets around its crown, cast there twenty-three years before the Continental Congress met in the State House, are the words of Holy Writ, "_Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof_." *** How prophetic! Beneath that very bell the representatives of the thirteen colonies "proclaimed liberty." Ay, and when the debates were ended, and the result was announced, on the 4th of July, 1776, the iron tongue of that very bell first "proclaimed liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof," by ringing out the joyful annunciation for more than two hours, its glorious melody floating clear and musical as the voice of an angel * Watson says that Captain Hopkins, of the navy, read the Declaration on that occasion, but testimony appears to predominate in favor of the claims of John Nixon to that honor. ** When the British army approached Philadelphia, in 1777, this bell, was taken down and carried to a place of safety. Already the ancient steeple, on account of decay, had been taken down, and a simple belfry put in its place. The present steeple is quite modern. *** Leviticus, xxv., 10. [[[Independence not Early nor generally Desired, except by a Few.--Patrick Henry's Prediction.]]] {273}above the discordant chorus of booming cannon, the roll of drums, and the mingled acclamations of the people.= ```"That old bell is still seen by the patriot's eye, ```And he blesses it ever, when journeying by; ```Long years have pass'd o'er it, and yet every soul ```Will thrill, in the night, to its wonderful roll; ```For it speaks in its belfry, when kiss'd by the blast, ```Like a glory-breathed tone from the mystical past. ```Long years' shall roll o'er it, and yet every chime ```Shall unceasingly tell of an era sublime; ```Oh yes! if the flame on our altars should pale, ````Let its voice but be heard, and the freemen shall start, ```To rekindle the fire, while he sees on the gale ````All the stars and the stripes of the flag of his heart." `````William Ross Wallace.=