and bequeathing his name to a beautiful county overlooking the waters of the Chesapeake, which it still bears.  He served in the assembly at a memorable period.  The questions of the age were to be settled.  He recorded his name in favor of the bill establishing religious freedom, where it will shine for ever.  He voted for the resolution convoking the meeting at Annapolis, which was the seminal germ of the present federal constitution.  He voted to send delegates to the Federal Convention, which formed the present federal constitution; and in the convention which ratified that instrument in the name of Virginia, he voted for its adoption; and when Norfolk commemorated the installation of the federal constitution by the firing of guns, by the display of flags, by civic, mechanical, and military processions, conspicuous on that great day was the general, who acted as the Chief Priest of the august ceremonies which honored the birth of a nation.  He was always elected to any office to which the people could call him.  His address had the tinge of the soldier, but was most fascinating.  No familiarity could impair its effect.  The bar regarded him with affection and reverence.  All the men about town loved him.  The women almost adored him.  A smile from the General on a gala-day, when mounted on his charger, which he managed well to the last, or the lifting of his three-cornered hat on the sidewalk, was a trophy which the prettiest woman, maid or matron, would treasure away among the spolia opima of her hoard.  His social position was of the highest.  He was known far and wide, and played most becomingly the part of host to distinguished persons from abroad.  Some of our old citizens remember the coaches and four which used to pass down King’s lane to his modest residence at the foot of tide.  One of the acts of his life was characteristic.  He was on a visit to his brother at St. Kitts, when the French fleet lay-to off the island, and levied a sum of money upon the people, which they paid.  The French then levied another sum, which the people of the island were wholly unable to pay.  In this dilemma the people of St. Kitts had recourse to General Mathews, who, dressed in his uniform as an American general officer, went on board the hostile fleet, and induced the admiral to accept an order from him on the American Consul in Paris, for the sum in question.  The fleet then sailed away, and the island was safe.  In due time the order came back protested.  Suit was brought and judgment obtained against him, and the venerable patriot spent his last days in prison bounds for a debt which the British Government ought to have paid with gratitude as well as with money.  In 1802 he was approaching his sixtieth year, but was vigorous and attentive to business.  He was a fine speaker.  His voice was melodious, and its compass exceeded belief.  It could be heard along the line of a whole brigade, and in the clatter of a skirmish.  It is one of the traditions of