American service. He was in the field, brave in the highest degree; and with all his faults and oddities, was beloved by his officers and soldiers. He was devoid of prudence, and used to call it a rascally virtue. His partiality to dogs was too remarkable not to be mentioned in his character. Two or three of these animals followed him generally wherever he went. When Congress confirmed the sentence of the court martial, suspending him for twelve months, he pointed to his dog and exclaimed, "O that I were that animal, that I might not call man my brother. Two virtues he possessed in an eminent degree, viz. sincerity and veracity. He was never known to deceive or désert a friend; and he was a stranger to equivocation, even where his safety or character were at stake.

We shall conclude this article with the following extract from his last will and testament, which will afford our readers some tolerable idea of general Lee's religious opinions. "I desire most earnestly (says he) that I may not be buried in any church, or church-yard, or within a mile of any presbyterian or anabaptist meeting-house; for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company, when living, that I do not choose to continue it when dead. I recommend my soul to the creator of all worlds, and of all creatures, who must, from his visible attributes, be indifferent to their modes of worship or creeds, whether Christians, Mahometans, or Jews; whether instilled by education, or taken up by reflection; whether more or less absurd; as a weak mortal can no more be answerable for his persuasions, notions, or even scepticism in religion, than for the color of his skin."

*ར་ས*

LAY, (BENJAMIN) an Englishman by birth, was brought up to the sea, and sailed some years in the VOL. III, No. 20.

Aa

West India' tråde.

About the year 1710, he mar

ried, and settled in Barbadoes; but the wretched situation of the poor negroes in that island so preyed upon his benevolent temper, that he thought it his duty to bear an open testimony against the conduct of their masters, in all companies, by which means he became so unpopular, that he left the island in disgust, and settled in the then province of Pennsylvania. He fixed his home at Abington, ten miles from Philadelphia, from whence he made frequent excursions to the city, and to different parts of the country.

At the time of his arrival in Pennsylvania, he found many of his brethren, the people called Quak ers, had fallen so far from their original principles, as to keep negro slaves. He remonstrated with them, both publicly and privately, against the practice; but frequently with so much indiscreet zeal, as to give great offence. He often disturbed their public meetings, by interrupting or opposing their preachers for which he was once carried out of a meeting-house, by two or three friends. Upon this occasion, he submitted with patience, to what he deemed a species of persecution. He lay down at the door of the meeting-house, in a shower of rain, till divine worship was ended; nor could he be prevailed to rise till the whole congregation had passed over him in their way to their respective homes.

To shew his indignation against the practice of slave keeping, he once carried a bladder filled with blood into a meeting, and in the presence of a whole congregation, thrust a sword into it which he had concealed under his coat, exclaiming at the same time, "Thus shall God shed the blood of those persons, who enslave their fellow creatures." The ter ror of this extravagant and unexpected act produced swoonings, in several of the women of the congregation.

He once went into the house of a friend in Philadelphia, and found him seated at breakfast, with his family around him. Being asked to sit down and breakfast with them, he said, "Dost thou keep slaves in thy house?" Upon being answered in the affirmitive, he said, "Then I will not partake with thee, of the fruits of thy unrighteousness."

- He took great pains to convince a farmer and his wife, in Chester County, of the iniquity of keeping negro slaves, but to no purpose. They not only kept their slaves, but defended the practice. One day he went into their house, and after a short discourse upon the inhumanity of separating children from their parents, a circumstance, which frequently occurred in the slave trade, he seized the only child of the family, (a little girl about three years of age) and pretended to run away with her. The child cried bitterly, "I will be good, I will be good," and the parents shewed signs of being alarmed. Upon observing this scene, Mr. Lay said, very emphatically, "You see and feel now a little of the distress you occasion every day, by the inhuman practice of slave keeping."

But Mr. Lay did not limit his pious testimony against the vice of slave keeping only. He was also opposed to every species of extravagance. Upon the introduction of tea, as an article of diet, into Pennsylvania, his wife brought home a small quantity of it, with a set of cups and saucers. Mr. Lav took them from her, brought them to the city, and, from the balcony of the court-house, scattered the tea, and broke the cups and saucers, in the presence of some hundred spectators, delivering, at the same time, a striking lecture upon the folly of preferring that unwholesome herb, with its expensive appurtenances, to the simple and wholesome diet of our country.

In 1737, he wrote a small treatise on negro slavery, which he brought to Dr, Franklin, to be print

ed. Upon looking it over, the Doctor told him that it was not paged; and that there appeared to be no order nor arrangement in it. "It is no matter, (said Mr. Lay) print any part thou pleasest first." This book contained many pious sentiments, and strong expressions against negro-slavery; but even the address and skill of Dr, Franklin, were not sufficient to connect its different parts together, so as to ren der it an agreeable or useful work. This book is in the library of the city of Philadelphia.

Mr. Lay was extremely attentive to young people. He took great pleasure in visiting schools, where he often preached to the youths; upon which occasions, he frequently carried religious books along with him, in a basket, and distributed them as prizes amongst the scholars.

He was fond of reading; and in the print we have of him, which is to be seen in many houses of Philadelphia, he is drawn reading, in the mouth of a cave, from the circumstance of his frequenting such a retirement, for the sake of privacy and meditation. The book he appeared most fond of was "Tryon on Happiness," and this he generally car, ried with him in all his excursions.

He was a severe enemy to idleness, insomuch, that when he could not employ himself out of doors, or when he was tired of reading, he used to spend his time in spinning. His common sitting-room was hung with skains of thread, spun entirely by himself, and all his clothes were of his own manufactory.

He was kind and compassionate to the poor; but had no pity on common beggars, as he used to say, "there was no man or woman, who was able to go abroad to beg, who could not earn four-pence a day, and that that sum was enough to keep any person above want or dependance, in this country.

He was extremely temperate in his diet, living chiefly upon vegetables, and his drink was pure was

ter.

From a desire of imitating our Saviour in every thing, he once attempted to fast for forty days; but this experiment had nearly cost him his life. He was obliged to desist from it, long before the expira tion of the forty days: but the fasting, it was said, so much debilitated his body, as to accelerate his death, which happened at his own house in Abingdon, in the year 1760, and in the eightieth year of his age.

In reviewing the history of this extraordinary man, we cannot help absolving him of his weaknesses, when we contemplate his many active virtues. He was the pioneer of that war, which has since been carried on so successfully against the slavery and commerce of the negroes. Perhaps the turbulence and severity of his temper were necessary to rouse the torpor of the human mind, at the period in which he lived, to this interesting subject. The meekness and gentleness of Anthony Benezet, who completed what Mr. Lay began, would, probably, have been as insufficient for the work performed by Mr. Lay, as the humble piety of De Renty, or of Thomas a Kempis, would have been to have accomplished the works of the zealous Luther, or the intrepid John Knox, in the sixteenth century.

LEDYARD, (JOHN) The celebrated American traveller, was a native either of the East end of LongIsland or Connecticut, which of the two we are not certain. His father having died whilst he was yet a child, the care of his education devolved on his grandfather, John Ledyard, Esq. who gave him a grammatical education at Hartford. When he was about eighteen years of age, his grandfather died, in consequence of which, he was left to follow the bent of his own inclination. Possessed of a heart breathing a good will to mankind, he now turned his attention