generally been induced or matured by confinement in damp or unwholesome situations. Mr. Dorr was imprisoned, in all, twenty months. During his exile, and previous to his arrest in Providence, he was constantly and anxiously engaged in physical and intellectual exercises; and, again, during his long harassing trial at Newport, in consequence of the illness of his principal advocate, he was obliged to labor incessantly in conjunction with his remaining counsel, in the management of his defence. The whole case was a novel one. He was compelled to take his trial among strangers, before a court whose every word and act evinced hostility towards him, and the most implacable of his enemies stood around, thirsting for his blood - they knew not why. Under all these embarrassing and heart-rending circumstances, he labored day and night in conducting his defence, and reporting the trial; and as soon as that judicial farce was over, he was immediately thrust into a filthy dungeon, whose damp, sepulchral atmosphere was pregnant with death. As a stream suddenly dammed up soon recoils upon itself, so the confinement of Mr. Dorr shocked and deranged his system; and although he was somewhat relieved for a time, by being allowed to walk in the corridor, yet the bad air of his prison cell, and the want of cheerful exercise, continued to exert their morbid influence upon him during the whole period of his incarceration, and at the moment of his liberation it was evident that his protracted imprisonment had wrought fearful changes in his physical system. The muscles had lost their tone, the hepatic and chylopoietic viscera had become seriously deranged, and a Chronic Pemphigus supervened, under which he finally sank. There are few individuals who can long endure solitary imprisonment. In general, it is equivalent to a lingering death. The stillness of the grave creeps over the isolated victim encased within cold stone walls, and life goes out by solitary extinction. Mr. Dorr's bodily organization, his social and domestic habits, were illy adapted to such a condition, and if his confinement had been continued much longer he would doubtless have expired in prison. Although he was severely indisposed at the time of his liberation, yet his friends indulged the fond hope that when he came to be released from that dark and noisome cell, and allowed to breathe pure air and take proper exercise, he might regain his health; but they were disappointed. Notwithstanding every reasonable effort was made to improve his condition, he continued steadily to decline. By confinement his system had suffered irreparable morbid changes, and no human means could stay their progress. He bore his severe sufferings with his characteristic fortitude, and at last calmly sunk beneath the weight of his infirmities. He died in the city of Providence, Dec. 27, 1854, aged forty-nine years. Being of Episcopal parentage, he was early initiated as a member of that church, and he continued steadfast in that faith to his last hour. At his request, a few days before his death, the Rev. Mr. Waterman, rector of St. Stephen's Church in Providence, gave him the sacrament. He died as he had lived, with an abiding confidence in the truths of Christianity. Let those who are disposed to impugn his motives and asperse his character, first cleanse their own garments and cast the beams out of their own eyes, and then, if they can, they may proceed to point out the dark spots in his character. The selfish, unthinking multitude may not recognize in him any unusual degree of moral fidelity; it is by close examination and deep reflection that his character is best understood. As no one but an artist can judge so correctly of the beauty of a piece of sculpture or painting, so none but those possessed of high moral attainments themselves can fully appreciate the prominent traits in the character of Mr. Dorr. But when that time does come, as come it must, when the prejudice against him, with all its bitterness and hatred, shall have fully passed away, mankind will see in him one of the most extraordinary examples of virtuous fidelity which the history of the world affords. 25* APPENDIX. CHARTER OF 1643, GRANTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF PARLIAMENT. The following is the first charter to the people of Rhode Island, incorporating them "by the name of the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay in New England," granted under the authority of the Parliament of England, in 1643, giving them "full power and authority to govern and rule themselves," &c. WHEREAS by an Ordinance of ye Lords and Comons now assembled in Parliament bearing date the 2d day of November Anno Dom. 1643. Robert Earlle of Warwick is constituted & ordained Governor in Chief & Lord high Admiral of all thos Islands and other Plantations inhabited and planted by or belonging to any of his Majesties ye King of England subjects (or wch hereafter may be inhabited and planted by or belonging to them) wthin ye bounds and upon ye Coasts of America, And whereas ye said Lords & Comons have thought fitt and thereby ordained, yt Phillipp Earle of Pembroke, Edward Earle of Manchester, William Vicont Say and Seale, Phillipp Lord Whorton, John Lord Roberts, members of ye house of Peers, Sir Gilbert Garard, barrenet, Sir Arthur Helsrigge, Barrenet, Sir Henry Vaune Junior Knight, Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, |