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Col. Tudor was Vice-president of the Society of Cincinnati of Massachusetts, in 1816, and was the last orator of that institution, in 1791. He acted as Judge Advocate in the trials of officers engaged in the war of the Revolution. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, in whose collections appears an extended memoir. He died July 8, 1819.

Mr. Tudor was, by the war of the Revolution, separated from the lady to whom his affections were engaged, and whom he afterwards married. For the benefit of a better air, she resided some time on Noddle's Island, in the family of Mr. Williams. One of his boyish acquisitions was now of use to him. He was, in his youth, an excellent swimmer. When a boy, being on a visit on board of an English ship of the line in the harbor, the conversation turned upon swimming; and he proposed to jump from the taffrail rail over the stern,— which, in ships of the old model, was a considerable height,— if any one would do the same. A sailor offered himself. The boy took the leap, but the man was afraid to follow. He now profited by a knowledge of this art. To have attempted visiting the island in a boat, would have exposed him to certain capture by the enemy; but, tying his clothes in a bundle on his head, he used to swim from the opposite shore of Chelsea to the island, make his visit, and return to the continent in the same manner.

In the elegant and spirited oration of Col. William Tudor, delivered at the Old Brick, we find a passage specially worthy of perpetual record: "In 1764 the plan for raising a revenue from this country was resolved on by the British ministry, and their obsequious Parliament were instructed to pass an act for that purpose. Not content with having for a century directed the entire commerce of America, and centred its profits in their own island, thereby deriving from the colonies every substantial advantage which the situation and trans-marine distance of the country could afford them; not content with appointing the principal officers in the different governments, while the king had a negative upon every law that was enacted; not content with our supporting the whole charge of our municipal establishments, although their own creatures held the chief posts therein; not content with layin gexternal duties upon our mutilated and shackled commerce, they, by this statute, attempted to rob us of even the curtailed property, the hard-earned peculium which still remained to us, to create a revenue for the support of a fleet and army; in reality, to overawe and

secure our subjection,- not (as they insidiously pretended) to protect our trade, or defend our frontiers; the first of which they annoyed, and the latter deserted.

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"After repealing this imperious edict, not because it was unjust in principle, but inexpedient in exercise,— they proceeded to declare, by a public act of the whole legislature, that we had no property but what was at their disposal, and that Americans, in future, were to hold their privileges and lives solely on the tenure of the good will and pleasure of a British Parliament. Acts soon followed correspondent to this righteous determination, which not quadrating with American ideas of right, justice and reason, a fleet and army were sent to give them that force which laws receive when promulgated from the mouths of cannon, or at the points of bayonets. We then first saw our harbor crowded with hostile ships, our streets with soldiers, soldiers accustomed to consider military prowess as the standard of excellence; and, vain of the splendid pomp attendant on regular armies, they contemptuously looked down on our peaceful orders of citizens. Conceiving themselves more powerful, they assumed a superiority which they did not feel; and whom they could not but envy, they affected to despise. Perhaps, knowing they were sent, and believing they were able, to subdue us,— they thought it was no longer necessary to observe any measures with slaves. Hence that arrogance in the carriage of the officers; hence that licentiousness and brutality in the common soldiers, which at length broke out with insufferable violence, and proceeding to personal insults and outrageous assaults on the inhabitants, soon roused them to resentment, and produced the catastrophe which we now commemorate. The immediate horrors of that distressful night have been so often and so strikingly painted, that I shall not again wring your feeling bosoms with the affecting recital. To the faithful pen of history I leave them to be represented, as the horrid prelude to those more extensive tragedies which, under the direction of a most obstinate and sanguinary prince, have since been acted in every corner of America where his armies have been able to penetrate."

Judge Tudor, when on a tour in Europe, about the year 1800, after his arrival at London, was presented at court by our ambassador, Rufus King. On the mention of his name, King George smiled, and observed, in his rapid manner, "Tudor! what-one of us?" Having been told that he had just come from France, he eagerly made many inquiries respecting the state of that country, the situation of Paris, and the

opinions of the inhabitants. These court presentations are generally a mere matter of form; but foreigners, introduced by their ambassadors, are received apart by the king, and before the subjects of the country. The king's curiosity continued the interview so long, that Lord Galloway, the lord in waiting, who had a great amount of duty to perform, grew impatient, and said, "His Majesty seems to be so deeply engaged with his cousin, that he forgets what a number of persons are in waiting to be presented." The king, in this audience, exhibited all the courtesy and inquisitive good sense which always distinguished him.

When at Paris, in 1807, the Empress Josephine had it in charge to amuse the courtiers during the absence of Napoleon. She gave entertainments at the palace, which were called cercles. The first singers and actors were called to perform a few select pieces on these evenings, and a light but most exquisite supper was given to the guests. After Mr. Tudor and the ladies of his family had been presented, they were invited several times to these cercles, and also to similar entertainments from the other branches of the imperial family. A trifling circumstance will here show how minute the French are in their attentions. In the absence of Napoleon, gentlemen were presented to Cambaceres, and afterwards invited to his table. From very abstemious and simple habits in early life, he became one of the most luxurious and ostentatious of the imperial court. He was remarkable for the expense and excellence of his table. Mr. Tudor was invited to dine with him; and, as he did not speak French, though he understood it, a gentleman was placed by him who spoke English perfectly. In the course of the dinner, he was offered a piece of plum-pudding, which he declined. He was told that it had been prepared purposely for him, thinking it was a national dish. Of course, he could not refuse to take a piece. Though he was fonder of the simple dishes of his own country than the costly and scientific preparations of French cookery, he was always willing to admit that this dinner of the arch-chancellor could not be surpassed.

JONATHAN MASON.

MARCH 5, 1780. ON THE BOSTON MASSACRE.

JONATHAN MASON was born in Boston, Aug. 30, 1752, a son of Dea. Jonathan Mason of the Old South Church; entered the Latin School in 1763, graduated at Princeton College in 1774, a student at law under John Adams, and an attorney in 1777. Mr. Mason was one of the ninety-six attestators of the Boston Massacre, and confirms a fact regarding Hutchinson, related in the History of Massachusetts:

"Jonathan Mason, of lawful age, testifies and says, that on the evening of the 5th of March, 1770, about ten o'clock, being in Kingstreet, Boston, standing near His Honor the lieutenant-governor, he heard him say to an officer at the head of the king's troops, who, it was said, was Capt. Preston, 'Sir, you are sensible you had no right to fire, unless you had orders from a magistrate.' To which Capt. Preston replied, 'Sir, we were insulted,' or words to that purpose; upon which Capt. Preston desired His Honor to go with him to the guard-house, which His Honor declined, and repaired to the councilchamber.

"Boston, March 21, 1770."

On the Monday after the memorable 5th March, 1780, Mr. Mason delivered a spirited oration in the Old Brick Church, when a collection was taken for the unhappy Monk, still languishing from the cruel wounds received at the Massacre. "The living history of our own times will carry conviction to the latest posterity," says Jonathan Mason in his eloquent performance, "that no state, that no community, I may say, that no family, nay, even that no individual,— can possibly flourish and be happy, without some portion of the sacred fire of patriotism. It was this that raised America from being the haunt of the savage, and the dwelling-place of the beast, to her present state of civilization and opulence; it was this that hath supported her under the severest trials; it was this that taught her sons to fight, to conquer and to die, in support of freedom and its blessings. And what is it, but this ardent love of liberty, that has induced you, my fellow-citizens, to attend on this solemn occasion, again to encourage the streams of sensibility, and to listen with so much attention and candor to one

of the youngest of your fellow-citizens, whose youth and inability plead powerfully against him, while the annual tribute is paid to the memory of those departed citizens who fell the first sacrifices to arbitrary power? Check not such generous feelings. They are the fruits of virtue and humanity; and, while the obligations you remain under to those unhappy men lead you to shed the sympathetic tear, to dwell with pleasure upon their memories, and execrate the causes of their death, remember that you can never repay them. Ever bear it in your minds, that so implicit was the confidence you willingly placed in that country that owed to you her affection, that, notwithstanding the introduction of that inhuman weapon of tyrants into the very heart of your peaceful villages, you still would fain rely on their deceitful assertions, and paint the deformed monster to your imaginations as the minister of peace and protection. Men born in the bosom of liberty, living in the exercise of the social affections in their full vigor, having once fixed them upon particular objects, they are not hastily eradicated. Unaccustomed to sport with and wantonly sacrifice these sensible overflowings of the heart, to run the career of passion and blinded lust, to be familiar with vice and sneer at virtue, to surprise innocence by deceitful cunning, and assume the shade of friendship to conceal the greater enmity, you could not at once realize the fixed, the deliberate intention of those from whom you expected freedom to load you with slavery and chains; and not till insult repeated upon insult, not till oppression stalked at noonday through every avenue in your cities, nay, not till the blood of your peaceful brethren flowed through your streets,— was the envenomed serpent to be discovered in the bushes; not till a general trespass had been made upon the keenest feelings of human nature, and the widowed mother was summoned to entomb the cold remains of her affectionate son, the virtuous bosom to resign its tender partner, and social circles their nearest friends, could you possibly convince yourselves that you and Britain were to be friends no more. Thrice happy day! the consequences of which have taught the sons of America that a proper exercise of public spirit and the love of virtue hath been able to surprise and baffle the most formidable and most powerful tyranny on earth."

Jonathan Mason was an eminent counsellor at law, and a member of the State Legislature. In 1798 he was of the Governor's Council; in 1800 he was elected to the United States Senate, and in 1819 to the House in Congress, when he voted for the Missouri Compromise. In

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