missionaries were ordered to quit India, Mr. and Mrs. Judson sailed to the Isle of France, and there they heard of the death of their beloved female friend. They remained there until the following July, when they went to Rangoon, in Burmah, and there began to cultivate the missionary field in earnest. Other missionaries joined them there, but death took them away, and in 1820 Mr. and Mrs. Judson alone remained in the vineyard. Disease, incident to the climate, now began to manifest its power upon Mrs. Judson, and at the close of the Summer of 1821, she went first to Calcutta, then to England, and finally returned to America in September, 1822. After remaining a few weeks with her friends at Bradford, she accepted an invitation to pass the Winter in Baltimore, in the family of her husband's brother. There she wrote an interesting History of the Burman Mission, in a series of letters to Mr. Butterworth, a member of Parliament, in whose family she had tarried while in England. In June, 1823, Mrs. Judson again sailed for the field of missionary labor, with renewed bodily strength and increased earnestness of purpose, and joined her husband in December following. A few days afterward they started for Ava, the capital of Burmah, and had just completed their preparations for missionary effort there, when war between the Burmese and the British government of Bengal, broke out. Mr. Judson was seized, cruelly treated, and kept a prisoner by the Burman government for more than eighteen months, half of the time in triple fetters, and two months in five pair. The labors of Mrs. Judson, during that time, form one of the most wonderful chapters in the record of female hero 370 JOSEPH HOPKINSON. ism. Day after day she made intercessions before government officers for the liberation of her husband and other prisoners, but to no purpose; and every day she walked two miles to carry them food prepared with her own hands. Without her ministrations they must have perished. She had readily learned the language; and finally her appeals, written in elegant Burmese, were given to the Emperor, when no officer dared mention the subject to him. The sagacious monarch, trembling for the fate of his kingdom, (for a victorious English army was marching toward his capital,) saw safety in employing her, and he appointed her his embassadress to General Sir Archibald Campbell, the British leader, to prepare the way for a treaty. She was received by the British commander with all the ceremony of an envoy extraordinary. She managed the affairs of the Emperor with perfect fidelity, and a treaty was made through her influence, for which the proud monarch gave her great praise. She secured the release of her husband and his fellow-prisoners, and they all recommenced their missionary work. When the intense excitement which she had so long experienced, was over, Mrs. Judson felt the reaction with terrible force. This, added to her great sufferings, prostrated her strength, and in the course of a few months, while Mr. Judson was absent at another post of duty, that noble disciple of Jesus fell asleep and entered upon her blessed rest. Her spirit departed on the 24th of October, 1826, when she was almost thirty-seven years of age. A few months afterward her only surviving child died. They both lie buried beneath a spreading hope-tree, near the banks of the Salmon river. She is one of the most beloved in memory of the laborers during the earliest missionary seed time, and she will have her full reward of sheaves at the harvest. THE JOSEPH HOPKINSON. HE author of our spirited national song, Hail Columbia, was highly distinguished for other intellectual achievements. But that production was sufficient to confer upon him the crown of earthly immortality. He was a son of Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and was born in Philadelphia, on the 12th of November, 1770. He was educated in the University of Pennsylvania, and then studied law, first with Judge Wilson, and afterward with William Rawle. He was admitted to the bar, at the close of 1791, and commenced its practice at Easton, on the Delaware. He was beginning to be quite successful there, when he returned to Philadelphia, and there took a high rank in his profession. He was the leading counsel of Dr. Rush in 1. That song was produced almost impromptu, for a special occasion. A young man named Fox, attached to the Philadelphia theatre, chiefly as a singer, was about to have a benefit. At that time [1798] there was a prospect of war between the United States and France, and Fox, anxious to produce some novelty for his benefit, conceived the idea of having an original song that should arous the national spirit. The theatrical poets tried to produce one, but failed. The benefit was to take place on Monday, and on the previous Saturday afternoon, Fox called on Judge Hopkinson (who had known him from a school-boy), and asked him to write a song for him, adapted to the popular air of The President's March. Hopkinson consented, and with the object of awakening a truly American spirit, without offence to either of the violent political parties of the day, he wrote Hail Columbia. It was received by the audience at the theatre with the wildest applause, and was encored again and again. The words flashed all over the land, as soon as the press could conduct them, and were every where electrical in their effect. By common consent, Hail Columbia became, and remains, a national anthem. It is an interesting fact in this connection, that The President's March was composed, in 1789, by a German, named Feyles, leader of the orchestra of the old theatre in John Street, New York; and was first performed there on the occasion of President Washington's first visit at that play-house, by invitation of the managers. This fact was mentioned to the writer, by Mr. Custis, the adopted son of Washington, who was then a lad, and was present on the occasion. his famous suit against William Cobbett, in 1799, and also in the insurgent trials before Judge Chase, in 1800. The legal knowledge, acute logic, and eloquent advocacy which he displayed on those occasions, caused Judge Chase to employ Mr. Hopkinson as his counsel, when, afterward, he was impeached before the Senate of the United States. His efforts in behalf of Judge Chase before that august tribunal, drew forth the warmest voluntary eulogiums from Aaron Burr, and other distinguished men. In 1815, and again in 1817, Mr. Hopkinson was elected a representative of Philadelphia in the Federal Congress, and ranked among the first of the many sound statesmen who graced that body at that interesting period of our political history. His speeches against re-chartering the Bank of the United States, and on the Seminole war and other topics of interest, were regarded as exceedingly able. His constituents would gladly have reëlected him, in 1819, but he preferred the retirement of private life. At the close of his second term in Congress, Mr. Hopkinson made his residence at Bordentown, in New Jersey, and was soon elected to a seat in the legislature of that State. After an absence of three years, he resumed the practice of his profession, in Philadelphia, in which he continued until 1828, when President Adams appointed him a judge of the United States Court, for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. That office had been filled by his father and grandfather; and he performed its duties with dignity and marked ability, until his death. Judge Hopkinson was a member of the convention which met at Harrisburg, in May, 1837, to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania. He was chairman of the judiciary committee in that body, and eloquently sustained a report which he submitted, in a long and brilliant speech. Judge Hopkinson was very publicspirited, and took part in many movements intended for the moral and intellectual advancement of his fellow-citizens. At the time of his death he was one of the vice-presidents of the American Philosophical Society; a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania; and the president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was the chief founder, For more than twenty years he was the intimate and confidential friend of Joseph Bonaparte, who owned, and lived upon, a fine estate at Bordentown. During the ex-king's absence, Judge Hopkinson always managed his affairs; and he was one of the two executors of his will. Judge Hopkinson died at Philadelphia, on the 15th of January, 1842, at the age of a little more than seventy-one years. AN MOSES BROWN. N eminently good man was lost to earth when the spirit of Moses Brown, one of the founders of the Rhode Island College (afterward called Brown University), departed for its home. He was the youngest of four brothers, who were all remarkable for public spirit, generous enterprise, and practical benevolence. He was born at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1738. Having lost his father while he was yet a small boy, he left school at the age of thirteen years, and made his residence with a paternal uncle, an eminent and wealthy merchant of Providence. There he was trained to useful habits and a mercantile profession; and in the bosom of that excellent home he found a treasure in a pretty cousin, the daughter of his patron, whom he married, in 1764. Young Brown had commenced mercantile business on his own account the previous year, in connection with his three brothers. After ten years' close application, he retired from business, chiefly on account of feeble health, and passed much of his time in those intellectual pursuits to which his taste led him. Mr. Brown was a Baptist until 1773 (about the time when he left business), when he became a member of the Society of Friends, and remained a shining light in that connection until his death. He had accumulated wealth by his business, and inherited a large property through his wife. These possessions he used as means for carrying on an active and practical philanthropy during a long life. He manumitted all his slaves, in 1773, and was ever a consistent and zealous opponent of all systems of human servitude. He was a munificent patron of a Friends' Boarding-school at Providence; founded the Rhode Island Abolition Society, and was an active member and supporter of the Rhode Island Peace Society. When Slater, the father of the cotton manufactures in this country, went to Providence, Moses Brown was the first to give him encouragement and substantial friendship; and it was in his carriage that the enterprising Englishman was conveyed to Pawtucket, to commence the preparation of a cotton-mill. Though always in feeble health, Mr. Brown never suffered severe illness. His corre spondence was very extensive, yet he seldom employed any one to write for him. Even his Will, prepared when he was ninety-six years of age, was drawn by his own hand. That eminent servant of goodness died at Providence, on the 6th of September, 1836, in the ninety-eighth year of his age. MORI JOHN RODGERS. [ORE than a year before the American Congress declared war against Great Britain, a naval engagement took place near our coast between vessels of the two nations, being partly, it was alleged, the result of accident. The issue of the engagement was a foreshadow of what occurred during the succeeding few years. The American vessel alluded to was in command of Captain John Rodgers, a gallant American officer, who was born in the present Harford County, Maryland, on the 11th of July, 1771. His passion for the sea was very early manifested, and at the age of thirteen years it was gratified by a voyage. He loved the occupation, prepared himself for it as a profession, and at the age of nineteen years he was intrusted with the command of a ship, which made trading voyages between Baltimore and the north of Europe. Captain Rodgers continued in the merchant service until the organization of the American navy, in 1797, when he entered it as a first lieutenant on board the frigate Constellation, under Commodore Truxton. He commanded the prize crew that took charge of the captured French ship, L'Insurgente, in February, 1798, and in that capacity he behaved with great coolness and ability in times of imminent danger. On his return home, he obtained a furlough, purchased a brig, traded at St. Domingo, and during the terrible massacre of the white people there, in 1804, was instrumental in saving many lives. In the Spring of 1799, Lieutenant Rodgers was promoted to Post-Captain in the navy, and ordered to the command of the Sloop-of-War Maryland. He cruised on the "Surinam Station" until the Autumn of 1800, when he returned home, and the following Spring was sent with dispatches to France. He served gallantly in the war with the Barbary Powers; and in conjunction with Colonel Lear, the American consul-general, he signed a treaty with the Bey of Tripoli, in June, 1805, which put an end to the contest with that State. Captain Rodgers 1. See sketch of Slater. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 373 had command of the flotilla of gun-boats, in the harbor of New York, in 1807, where he remained until 1809, when he put to sea in the frigate Constitution. In 1811 he was in command of the President, cruising off the coasts of Maryland and Virginia. English ships of war were then hovering upon our shores, engaged in the nefarious business of kidnapping seamen from American vessels. With that vessel he compelled the commander of the British Sloop, Little Belt, to be frank and courteous, when he had met her under suspicious circumstances in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. These were the vessels alluded to at the commencement of this memoir. The event created a great sensation, and the two governments fully sustained the conduct of their respective commanders. War was finally declared, and within an hour after receiving his orders from the Secretary of the Navy, Commodore Rodgers sailed from the port of New York, with a small squadron, to cruise on the broad Atlantic. He made successful cruises in the President until 1814, when he was engaged on the Potomac in operations against the British, who burned Washington City in August of that year. He soon afterward participated with gallantry in the defence of Balti more. Commodore Rodgers twice refused the proffered office of the Secretaryship of the Navy, first by President Madison, and then by President Monroe. During almost twenty-one years he was President of the Board of Naval Commissioners, except for about two years, from 1825 to 1827, when he commanded the American squadron in the Mediterranean, having the North Carolina for his flag-ship. There he won the highest respect from the naval officers of all nations, whom he met. In the Summer of 1832 he was prostrated by cholera, but recovered. His constitution, however, was permanently shattered. A voyage to England for the improvement of his health, was of no avail, and he lingered until 1838, when, on the first day of August, he expired at Philadelphia, in the sixtyseventh year of his age. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. HODE ISLAND has produced some of the noblest specimens of the true American, in almost every department of life. Of these, there was never a mind and heart more truly noble in emotion and expression, than that of William Ellery Channing. He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 7th of April, 1780. He was a lovely child in person and disposition-"an open, brave, and generous boy." William Ellery, one of the signers of the Declaration of InEpendence, was his maternal grandfather, and he inherited that statesman's strength of character and honest patriotism. At twelve years of age he was placed in the family of an uncle, at New London, where he prepared for college, and entered Harvard, as a student, in 1794. He bore the highest honors of the institution at his graduation, in 1798, and then went to Virginia, as tutor in the family of David M. Randolph, Esq., of Richmond. Ill health compelled him to return home, and he prepared for the gospel ministry. He was made regent in Harvard University, in 1801, was licensed to preach, in 1802, and was ordained pastor of the Federal Street Unitarian Society, in Boston, in 1803. Then commenced his noble labors in the cause of Christianity, whose doctrines he so eloquently enforced by precept and example. He continued to discharge the duties of pastor, without aid, until 1824, when the great increase of his congregation, and the multiplication of his labors, caused his people, who loved him as a father, to employ a colleague for him. He visited Europe, held communion with some |