5 Page 30. In the memoir of the life, and eulogy on the character, of the late Judge Waties, of South Carolina, by Chancellor Dessausure, we have a work of great interest, not only to lawyers, but to all persons who take pleasure in seeing eminent merit, justly and usefully pourtrayed. The Chancellor (page 15) quotes the opinion of Judge Waties in the case of the administrator of Byrne v. the administrator of Stewart, from the 3d vol. of (his own,) Dessausure's Equity Reports, p. 475.

'The power and the duty of the Court to declare an act void, which violates any right of the citizen secured to him by the constitution, have been admitted on both sides, and I feel so strong a sense of this duty, that if the violation complained of was manifest, I should not only declare the act void—but in doing so, I should think I rendered a more important service to my country than I could by discharging the ordinary duties of a Judge for many years.

'It is the peculiar and characteristic excellence of the free governments of America, that the legislative power is not supreme-but that it is limited and controled by written constitutions, to which the Judges who are sworn to defend them, are authorised to give a transcendant operation over all laws that may be made in derogation of them.

"This Judicial check affords a security here for civil liberty, which belongs to no other governments in the world; and if the Judges would everywhere faithfully exercise it, the liberties of the American nation may be rendered perpetual.'

This opinion was delivered in 1794–1796, it is said in the memoir, though from the report of the case it would seem to be in 1812. In 1803 the same subject came into judgment in the important case of Marbury v. Madison, reported in the 1 Cranch. In this case, the opinion of the Court is given in the words of Chief Justice MARSHALL, of whose rank as a man, and as a Judge, it would be assuming too much, for the writer of these notes to attempt to speak in the manner in which this illustrious person should be spoken of. The following is an extract from this luminous exposition of constitutional law.

'This original and supreme will' (of the people) 'organizes the government, and assigns, to different departments, their respective powers. It may either stop here; or establish certain limits not to be transcended by those departments.

"The government of the United States is of the latter description. The powers of the legislature are defined, and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limit

ation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained? The distinction, between a government with limited and unlimited powers, is abolished, if those limits do not confine the persons on whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibited and acts allowed, are of equal obligation. It is a proposition too plain to be contested, that the constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it; or, that the legislature may alter the constitution by an ordinary act.

'Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.

'If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act contrary to the constitution is not law; if the latter part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts, on the part of the people, to limit a power, in its own nature illimitable.

'Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions, contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.

'It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each. 'So if a law be in opposition to the constitution; if both the law and the constitution apply to a particular case, so that the court must either decide that case conformably to the law, disregarding the constitution; or, conformably to the constitution, disregarding the law; the court must determine, which of these conflicting rules governs the case. This is of the very essence of judicial duty.'

6 Page 41. How does it happen that the history of our own country is not made a distinct and prominent part of liberal education, and even of that which is most common and general? What proportion of those who are called on, at the age of twentyone, to exercise their civil powers, and to perform their duties, have had the means of knowing, what these powers and duties are? If a young man were desirous of informing himself of the origin, and character of the colonial governments; how the principles and sentiments grew up, which fitted the people of the colonies to desire, and to claim as a right, Representative Government; and how this acquisition has been

used; and how this self-governed community differs from others, which have been considered as such, and to what dangers civil and reli.gious liberty are exposed, to what professorship, or to what books, is he to be referred? We have sometimes a glimpse of this sort of information, as in the tenth of Chancellor KENT's admirable lectures. Some public men, to whom the welfare of this country is confided, must qualify themselves for their stations by instinct; and young citizens must choose what party they will belong to, the first time they are called on to vote. They are much in the same state as though they were required, at twentyone, without any preparation, to choose their faith arnong all the christian sects. From this defect of education, some of our public men necessarily fall within that class of persons, who are described in the fourth volume of Dr Franklin's works, page 401.

In the American Republic we have set up an imaginary being called 'THE PEOPLE.' This being is wise, infallible, sacred. When the master spirits, of the time, use this phrase, they mean themselves, and so many voters, as will be sufficient to put them, in power. The rest are the minority, that is, nobody. In our written constitutions, 'The people' means the whole body of citizens. Their will can be known

in no other way, than by taking that, in which a majority of them agree, to be the will of all; but the minority do not cease to be citizens, nor a part of the people; nor are the majority always the wiser part of the two, but very often much the contrary.

Why should not the moral law, applicable to self-governing communities, be taught to the young, while they are qualifying themselves to become citizens, and before they can become partizans ?—Ought not those who are to be part of the people, (in the constitutional sense) to be instructed, that the majority may do very indiscreet and destructive acts; and may even pull down their own temple of liberty on their own heads?-May they not be cautioned against flattery, and against delusion, proceeding from the designing, and the self-deceived?-may they not be warned of the approach of those miseries, which have overtaken similar communities, from like causes? No; such things would be intolerable. One kind of patriotism would be strangled in its cradle. That such wholesome truths cannot be taught, is one of the melancholy signs of the future fate of our country.

7 Page 42. The Pilgrim Society of Plymouth has attracted much public notice. There is appended to the Discourse of the Hon. Mr Webster, delivered on the completion of the second century, a note

in which the successive celebrations are enumerated, commencing with the year 1769. To the names there mentioned is to be added that of the Hon. EDWARD EVERETT, who delivered a discourse in the year 1824. It is not recollected that any intermediate discourse has been published.

For the information of those who may take an interest in the Pilgrims, and their descendants; and especially, for the sake of the young, (by whom the memory of the Pilgrims ought to be duly honored and cherished,) the following remarks on the Pilgrim Society are presented. For many years before the revolutionary war there was an association under the name of 'The Old Colony Club,' who celebrated the landing. It was composed of many eminent men, whose names appear among the distinguished for public services, and for individual worth. The celebration became more and more an object of general notice, and in the year 1820 the Pilgrim Society was formed, designed to include all who were descended from the Pilgrims, and such others, as were, or might be, disposed to render due honor to their memory. The principal offices have been filled,

Hon. WILLIAM DAVIS, (who died while V. P.)
Dr Z. BARTLETT, now in office.

BENJAMIN M. WATSON, Esq. Rec. Sec.
Corresponding Secretary, vacant by death of S. DAVIS.
ISAAC L. HEDGE, Esq. Treasurer.

Dr JAMES THACHER, Librarian,

(Author of the Military Journal during the revolutionary war; and of the New Dispensatory, and from whom another work is expected.) There is a large board of trustees residing in different parts of the State. The Society erected a building of stone with money contributed by members, and others. It is 75 feet by 35. It has a basement room, in which the Society dine on their anniversaries; and a hall over it, in which the annual meetings are held;—and which is used for assemblies in the evening of anniversaries.

There are collected here, many memorials of the Pilgrims, and some volumes, and manuscripts, of the earliest days; and among other things the sword of Miles Standish. It has been the intention, and

the desire of the Society, that all the relics, and pictures, which are now dispersed in many families, (many of them at a distance from the original scene,) should be collected here, with an accurate account of each article, which in no very distant time it may be very difficult, if not impossible to obtain. There are many articles which are now known to have been in the use of those who came over in the Mayflower. They would not change their ownership by being confided to the care of the Society;-but if they were made the property of the Society, by gift, accompanied by proper historical accounts of them, they would be more likely to be preserved, and to gratify the honorable pride of descendants, than if left to take their chance in the succession of families. There are in the possession of Miss Hannah White, of Plymouth, the chair of English oak which was used by Mrs (Edward) Winslow, on board the Mayflower, with the iron staples, in its frame, by which it was fastened to the cabin floor. This lady has also a bag formed, by the aggregation of beads, (a sort of industry in fashion at the present day) by Mrs Winslow, to beguile the tediousness of the voyage; and a ring of gold, which contains the hair of Edward Winslow, and which has suffered no apparent change in the lapse of two centuries. The ornamental cane of John Alden, who was the first that stepped upon the rock, unless Mary Chilton preceded him, (see Memorial, page 377,) is in the possession of his descendant, Alden Bradford, Esq. In the Hon. Nahum Mitchell's history of Bridgewater, he mentions that he has the original deed, in the hand writing of Miles Standish, by which Ousamequin conveyed to Miles Standish and others, the land which is now Bridgewater. 7 vol. Mass. His. Col. 2d series, p. 139.

Mr Pelham Winslow is said to have the original commission of Oliver Cromwell to Edward Winslow and others, to execute an important enterprise against the Spaniards. He was the chief among three, and died in this service. 2d Belk. A. B. p. 306.

There are many other relics in the possession of descendants at Plymouth and Kingston, and elsewhere; the proper place of deposit of all which, seems to be 'Pilgrim Hall.'

The filial, affectionate, and patriotic feeling of the Plymouth gentlemen, has not been so well sustained by the descendants of the passengers in the Mayflower, and by others, who feel a reverence for their fame, as might have been expected. The Society have not been able to finish the building of 'Pilgrim Hall; and they have incurred a debt of considerable amount. It is to be hoped, that the public sentiment will relieve them from the embarrassment. The accession