his father, through his long and useful life, to enjoy his friendship, and a great consolation to his family that it had

survived him."

Mr. Dickinson thus replied:

“MY DEAR FRIEND,-On my return from Kent thy letter of the 8th was received.

"The information mentioned in it was true, and I was compelled to make the application by reverence for the memory of thy beloved father, and by affection for his relict and children, who will always be precious to my heart as long as it shall continue sensible of anything relating to this world.

"I am, with sincerity, thy friend,

"JOHN DICKINSON.* "WILMINGTON, the 12th of the fourth month, 1802. "JOHN READ, Jr., Esquire, Philadelphia."

* When I was a mere boy, Mr. Dickinson was my father's guest for a few days, during the trial of a suit in which I think he was defendant, my father being his counsel. I have a vivid impression of the man,— tall and spare, his hair white as snow, his garb uniting with the severe simplicity of his sect a neatness and elegance peculiarly in keeping with it; and his manners, beautiful emanations of the great Christian principle of love, with the gentleness and affectionateness which, whatever be the cause, the Friends, or at least individuals of them, exhibit more than others, combining the politeness of a man of the world, familiar with society in its most polished forms and with conventional canons of behavior. Truly he lives in my memory as the realization of my beau ideal of a gentleman.

APPENDICES TO CHAPTER VII.

A.

NOTICE OF KENSEY JOHNS.

KENSEY JOHNS was born at West River, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, on the 14th day of June, A.D. 1759. His ancestor migrated from Wales to that province soon after its settlement, and was the founder of one of those families who, transmitting their estates for many generations from father to son, gave to the gentry of Maryland an enviable superiority in intelligence and refinement, and an element of stability to her political institutions.

Mr. Johns was admitted to the bar of Delaware, and after a practice of twelve years appointed an associate judge of the Supreme Court, which place he filled until, upon the decease of Chief Justice Read, in 1798, he succeeded him. Judge Johns presided for thirty-eight years in the Supreme Court, to the satisfaction of the public, deciding, with his colleagues, questions difficult and important, and term after term disposing of business great in amount, from the peculiar circumstances of the period immediately succeeding the Revolution, and such as would appall the lawyer in these days of diminished practice. On the death of Chancellor Ridgley, Mr. Johns succeeded him, and held the chancellorship until the change of constitution in 1832. During this long period the bar of Delaware was distinguished by ability, knowledge, and eloquence. If asked what characterized Mr. Johns as a judge, I should answer, unbending impartiality, and as a man, sagacity and discretion, which led him to right conclusions in his own affairs, and made him an admirable adviser for others. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and rendered her service in her vestries and in her diocesan and general conventions.

With faculties unimpaired almost to the last, in his ninetieth year this venerable man, surrounded by his family, was gathered to his fathers, in the confidence of a certain faith and in the comfort of a reasonable religious and holy hope.

Judge Johns said to me (27th August, 1844), "I was, as I have often told you, a student in your grandfather's office, having entered it in 1780. His 'Coke-Littleton' was in the old black-letter. When I had read it once, I asked, 'What shall I read next?' 'Read it,' said he, ' again.' I read it the second time and asked, 'What next?' 'Read it the third time,' said he; and, perceiving some manifestations of repugnance upon my part, he added, 'for this is the well whence you must draw your knowledge of the law.' Having omitted from a very long deed on parchment, which I had drawn by Mr. Read's direction, for

one of his clients, a few words, which might have been easily supplied by insertion, and which did not affect the instrument, be handed it to me, merely saying, 'Write it over again,' which I was obliged to do, at the cost of at least two days of hard labor. But," added Judge Johns, "be made a lawyer and a man of me."

A fellow-student with Judge Johns was Ross Thompson, a youth wild and heedless. My father told me that Ross, whenever in the course of his studies he encountered a difficulty, walked into the office (adjoining the one occupied by the students of Mr. Read) where be usually sat, and obtained the solution he ought first to have tried to work out for himself. Mr. Read, after bearing for a long time, with his accustomed equanimity, this annoyance, one day when Ross came, book in hand, to put a question, took him by the arm, led him to the office of the students and to each of the cases of books around it, which he opened, and having pointed to their contents, bowed with great politeness to him and left the room. Ross, added my father, felt the rebuke, took the hint so significantly given him, and ventured no more such questions.

B.

PORTRAITS OF GEORGE READ.

THERE are two portraits extant of George Read. One of these is in possession of his grandson, William T. Read, and all that is known of its history appears by the following letter, the writer of which, now deceased, was a son of George Ross, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

This picture seems to have been taken when Mr. Read had attained middle age. The attitude is graceful, the features fine and very intellectual, the eyes hazel, and the expression one of mingled benevolence and melancholy. Good judges have pronounced it a fine picture, in the style of Gilbert Stewart, and his sons and surviving friends considered it a good likeness.

"LANCASTER (PENNA.), January 18th, 1828. "DEAR SIR,-Your letter of the 22d December last was delivered to me by Mr. Barr, to whom you intrusted it. Mr. McCrone misapprehended me. I did not inform him that I had in my possession the portrait, but told him such a picture had been in one of the public inns of this place, and to inform some one of George Read's family, if they desired, I could procure it. I discovered that a Mr. Armstrong, of this city, possessed the picture. He, at my instance, called on me with the portrait and agreed to sell it for ten dollars, which sum, after receiving your letter, without chaffering about the price, I paid him, and he sent to me the picture, and I have since received your letter covering ten dollars.

"Mr. Leonard Eicholtz, at whose house the picture was found, remembered seeing it about ten years ago, when he was [first] in pos

session of the house he now lives in, which belonged to his late father. It was found in a garret, among some old and useless furniture. He thought it of so little consequence to him that he made use of it to hang over a hole cut in one of his chimneys for the introduction of a stovepipe, to conceal it. Some time after it was discovered by his brother, a limner and portrait-painter, and kept by him in his study, he believes, to improve him in his profession, and which he pronounced to be a fine painting. He likewise discovered, after he had brushed up the picture, the name 'George Read' and the word 'Baltimore.'* (By a close inspection you may see them on the left side, near the lower part of the picture.) Mr. Eicholtz, not knowing who the picture represented, or where the person represented was to be found, [after his brother left Lancaster] placed it where first discovered. About eighteen months after, Mr. Armstrong happened to see and was much pleased with it as a fine painting, and regretting that it should occupy so degrading a situation, requested Mr. Eicholtz to let him have the picture, to which Mr. E., he being an acquaintance for whom he had a particular regard, consented, parting with it gratuitously. Hearing accidentally that this portrait was in Mr. A.'s possession, last summer I requested him, by my son, to call on me with it, as I thought it the picture of a near family connection of mine. He came as requested, and I observed the words 'George Read,'' Baltimore,' and he sold me the picture as I have stated. Mr. Eicholtz regrets that he had not the pleasure of restoring this picture to the family of George Read, though he is grati fied in having been instrumental in preserving it, and that it is now where it should be. With respect to your further queries, by whom,' and when and where,' and 'for whom painted,' I cannot give any

account.

"I hope you will excuse any inaccuracies in this letter, and attribute them to my age and forgetfulness, being now in my seventy-sixth year. "I am, devotedly, yours and the family's obedient servant,

"GEORGE Ross. "TO WILLIAM T. READ, Esquire, Centre Hall, near New Castle, Delaware."

The other portrait, in the possession of the daughter of the late Mr. William Read, of Philadelphia, was painted by Robert Edge Pine. It was considered by Mr. Read's family to have an expression of sternness not his. His daughter, Mrs. Pearce, when she first saw this picture, exclaimed, "Take away that Saracen's head!" The following letter contains a sufficient account of this portrait:

"New Castle, May 30th, 1792.

MADAM, My son will wait upon you and advise as to the finishing of my portrait, if necessary, and then receive it. I have transmitted Mr. Pine's receipt for the fifty dollars paid in 1785, and have given directions for the payment of the remaining six, equal to twenty-seven shillings sterling. I was guilty of great omission in not seeing you before I left Philadelphia, in the beginning of this month, as I had seen

* On a letter he is represented as holding.

the young ladies, your daughters, on an evening visit to Mrs. Trist, who reminded me of the portrait being still with you, and of your intention to go to Europe; and I then said I would wait on you ere I departed, but a scene of hurry in the conclusion of the public business soon ensued, and this promise escaped my memory. I wish you and your family a safe and pleasing voyage, and I am, with esteem,

"Your very humble servant,

"Mrs. M. PINE, Philadelphia."

"GEORGE READ.

I am indebted to "Putnam's New Monthly Magazine," of October, 1855, vol. vi., for the following account of Pine:

"A few octogenarians in Philadelphia used to speak of a diminutive family, the head of which manifested the sensitive temperament, if not the highest capabilities, of artistic genius. This was Robert Edge Pine [a native of England]. He was considered a superior colorist, and was favorably introduced into society there, by his acknowledged sympathy for the American cause, and by a grand project, such as was afterwards executed by Trumbull,-that of a series of paintings, illustrative of the American Revolution, to embrace original portraits of the leaders, both civil and military, in that achievement, including the statesmen who were chiefly instrumental in framing the Constitution and organizing the government under it. He brought letters of introduction to the father of the late Judge Hopkinson, whose portrait he executed, the vivid tints and resemblance to the original of which still attest to his descendants the ability of the painter. In the intervals of his business as a teacher of drawing and portrait-painter, he collected from time to time a large number of heads of distinguished persons. Of these the heads of General Gates, Charles Carroll, Baron Steuben, and Washington are the best known and most highly prized. Pine remained three weeks at Mount Vernon, and his portrait bequeaths some features of Washington with great accuracy. Artists find in it certain merits not discernible in those of later date. It has the permanent interest of a representation from life by a painter of established reputation, yet its tone is cold and its effect unimpressive beside the more bold and glowing creation of Stewart's pencil. It has repose and dignity. In his letter to Washington, asking his co-operation in the design he meditated, Pine says, 'I have been some time at Annapolis, painting the portraits of patriot legislators, patriot heroes, and beauties, in order to adorn my large pictures;' and he seems to have commenced his enterprise with sanguine hopes of one day accomplishing his object, which it was, however, reserved for a native artist to complete. That his appeal to Washington was not neglected is, however, evident from an encouraging allusion to Pine and his scheme in the correspondence of the former. Mr. Pine,' he says, has met a favorable reception in this country, and may, I conceive, command as much business as he pleases. He is now preparing materials for the historical representation of the most important events of the war. Pine's picture of Washington is in the possession of the Hopkinson family of Philadelphia. The fac simile of Washington's letter proves that it was taken in 1785. A duplicate was purchased in Montreal, in 1817, by the late Henry Brevoort, of New York."