trial.

But tell me, do you remember any instance where tyranny was
destroyed and freedom established on its ruins, among a
people possessing so small a share of virtue and public
spirit? I recollect none, and this, more than the British
arms, makes me fearful of final success without a reform.
But when or how this is to be effected, I have not the means
of judging. I most sincerely wish you health and prosperity.
If you can spare time to drop me a line now and then, it
will be highly obliging to, dear Sir, your affectionate
friend and obedient servant,

P. HENRY.[315]

The next General Assembly, which he thus promised to attend in case he
should be chosen, met at Richmond on the 1st of May, 1780. It hardly
needs to be mentioned that the people of Henry County were proud to
choose him as one of their members in that body; but he seems not to
have taken his seat there until about the 19th of May.[316] From the
moment of his arrival in the House of Delegates, every kind of
responsibility and honor was laid upon him. This was his first
appearance in such an assembly since the proclamation of independence;
and the prestige attaching to his name, as well as his own undimmed
genius for leadership, made him not only the most conspicuous person
in the house, but the nearly absolute director of its business in
every detail of opinion and of procedure on which he should choose to
express himself,--his only rival, in any particular, being Richard
Henry Lee. It helps one now to understand the real reputation he had
among his contemporaries for practical ability, and for a habit of
shrinking from none of the commonplace drudgeries of legislative work,
that during the first few days after his accession to the House he
was placed on the committee of ways and means; on a committee "to
inquire into the present state of the account of the commonwealth
against the United States, and the most speedy and effectual method of
finally settling the same;" on a committee to prepare a bill for the
repeal of a part of the act "for sequestering British property,
enabling those indebted to British subjects to pay off such debts, and
directing the proceedings in suits where such subjects are parties;"
on three several committees respecting the powers and duties of high
sheriffs and of grand juries; and, finally, on a committee to notify
Jefferson of