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body is composed of competent, faithful, and honest men. But, where the members of the legislature are incompetent, unfaithful or dishonest, they are most certainly as unsafe persons to be entrusted with general as with special legislation. Many reasons are assigned for this horror of special legislation; but, we fear, that the real reason is one, which lies deeper than any fancied practical abuses; and which results from an imperfect and mistaken view of the nature of our government. Many, probably most persons take it for granted, or seem to consider, that our government, though constituted by ourselves, is yet something out of us, something independent of our control, something which we have the power to form and set in motion, and which is then to run on and do its work, without much, if any, aid or coöperation on our part, and in reference to which, our duty is accomplished, when the machine is once under way. But this is all a mistake. Ours is not, strictly speaking, a government; it is merely an agreed form, through and by means of which, we live and act, as members of the same social community; in which we are continually called to exercise what may be called the social will, precisely as in our character of individuals, we cannot avoid the constant exercise of our individual wills; and we are as much responsible for the exercise of the social will, or, in other words, for the performance of the duty of self-government, in our character of members of society, as we are for the exercise of our individual will, in the government of ourselves as individuals. We can do no more, at present, than allude to this subject; but we feel persuaded, that if every citizen could be made to realize the duty, the importance, and the responsibility of self-government, there would be ability, faithfulness, and honesty, combined with unceasing watchfulness, in our legislative councils; and we should hear very little of the danger of private or special legislation.

ART. VI. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF JAMES WARREN, JEDEDIAH FOSTER, AND NATHANIEL PEASELEE SARGEANT.

As we approach the period, in these sketches, when we must refer to men who were known and are remembered by living witnesses, it becomes even more difficult to do justice to the subject, than in the case of those whose personal histories had been much more nearly forgotten in the lapse of time; for, while more is known of the one than of the other, years have not altogether obliterated events or impressions with which the memory of most of the leading men of the last half century is associated in our political, to say nothing of our legal, history. The most, therefore, that can be promised, is but a detail of chronological events, which may hereafter serve as a guide to the inquirer into the judicial history of the commonwealth.

Although he never acted as judge of the superior court, and, as is believed, declined the appointment, it does not seem proper altogether to omit, in this connexion, the name of JAMES WARREN, who was appointed to that place in 1776.

He was a native of Plymouth, and a descendant in regular line from Richard Warren, one of the noble little pilgrim band who came over in the Mayflower. He was born in 1726, and was graduated at Cambridge in 1745.

His taste did not lead him to the pursuit of either of the learned professions, and he became a merchant of eminence and wealth. At a comparatively early period in life, he was appointed sheriff of the county of Plymouth, which office he held until the revolution, although through all the struggles preliminary to that contest, he took a decided stand, as he did during the revolution, on the side of the colonies. As early as 1766, he was chosen a member of

the general court; and, among other measures which were deemed of great importance at the time, he is said to have originated the scheme of establishing committees of correspondence in the various towns in the province, whereby, perhaps, more than by any other means, the spirit of union and resistance to the mother country was kept alive and active.

In 1770, he was elected speaker of the house of representatives, in the place of Mr. Hancock, who had been negatived by the governor.

In 1775, he was a member of the provincial congress; and, upon the death of Gen. Joseph Warren, was chosen president of that body.

He held also the office of paymaster of the American army, while it lay at Cambridge; in which office he enjoyed the confidence of the public, and the friendship and esteem of general Washington.

Upon the assembling of a new house of representatives, in July, 1775, pursuant to the recommendation of the continental and provincial congresses, he was elected speaker of the house at its first organization.

The following year, he was appointed a judge of the supreme court, which office he declined; and when, in 1780, he was elected lieutenant governor of the commonwealth, he also declined that place, and retired to private life. He, however, had, in the mean time, acted as a member of the navy board, the duties of which were both arduous and responsible, having derived his appointment from the continental congress.

After the war, he lived for some time at Milton, occupying the seat which had belonged to governor Hutchinson; but afterwards removed to his native place, where he died at the ripe age of 82, in 1808.

He was scarcely less indebted for his fame to his wife, than to his own well-earned honors. She was the distin

guished historian of the American revolution, and in every way worthy of being allied to the eminent and eloquent James Otis, whose sister she was. She survived her husband, and died at the age of 87, in the year 1814.

JEDEDIAH FOSTER was appointed a judge of the superior court, March 20, 1776. He was a native of Andover, and was born in 1726. He was graduated at Cambridge in 1744, but did not pursue the study of any profession. He established himself in mercantile life in Brookfield, where he married a daughter of the distinguished general Dwight, who held an important command in the Louisburg expedition in 1745, and was also many years a judge of the court of common pleas in the counties of Hampshire and Berkshire.

He held several military commissions, among which was that of major of a regiment in the "French war" in 1751. Upon the organization of the Massachusetts troops, at the commencement of the revolution, he was appointed a colonel of one of the regiments. In 1775, he was appointed a judge of the court of common pleas for the county of Worcester, and, at the same time, judge of probate for the same county, but held the offices only about a year, when he was promoted to a seat upon the bench of the superior court.

Judge Foster was early distinguished as a friend of popular rights, and became a prominent leader in the events in Massachusetts preceding and during the revolution.

His election to the council under the charter, in 1774, was negatived by governor Gage, but he was elected to represent Brookfield in the first and second continental congresses, and in that relation filled some of the most important places within their appointment. He acted as a member of many of the leading committees of those bodies, was one of those who were entrusted with the duty of countersigning the bills issued as money by the congress, and in

company with Walter Spooner and James Sullivan, he visited the fortresses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1775, to inquire into the expediency and feasibility of maintaining them by the American troops. This commission was created by the Massachusetts congress, and the report made by the commissioners to that body, in June of that year, evinced the faithfulness and ability with which they executed the trust committed to them.

In the following October, he received his commission as judge of the court of common pleas, and in September, 1776, was made a judge of the superior court. These appointments withdrew him, somewhat, from the arena of military and political life, but he was a leading member of the convention which met for forming a constitution for the state in March, 1779, and was one of the committee raised by that body for drafting the proposed constitution.

He held the office of judge of the superior court until his death, in October, 1779.

Although not educated as a lawyer, judge Foster seems to have commended himself to public favor and confidence in his judicial character. He possessed a great share of that experience which is derived from an active and diversified life, which, added to naturally strong powers of mind and a good education, fitted him for the various important offices which he was called to fill.

He left two sons, one of whom, Theodore, settled in Providence, and at one time represented Rhode Island in the United States senate. The other, Dwight, settled at Brookfield, and, at different periods, held the offices of sheriff of the county, representative in congress, judge of the court of common pleas, and a member of the senate of the United States.

NATHANIEL PEASELEE SARGEANT was long distinguished as a lawyer and a judge; but, like most of that profession,