It has been the subject of deep regret that one possessing such colossal powers should have been so unwilling to exert them.  There is but one instance in history of a really great man seeking an obscurity which he could not win,—­the case of Chief Justice Wilmot, of England.  But Mr. Tazewell had the right to judge and decide for himself, and that he preferred private to public life is rather to be lamented than complained of.  Nor must it be supposed that this preference was the effect of indolence.  On the contrary, he was, in his way, a laborious man, and it may be that the leisure of his latter years may have been productive of important fruits in literature and science to those who have survived him.

We will not, and need not, dwell upon the private relations of Mr. Tazewell, in all of which he had no superior; and although for many years he has been a stranger upon our streets, yet we feel that even in a social point of view we have sustained a loss which cannot be repaired.  There is great sadness in our city, which pervades all its ranks, and which even those who never saw him deeply feel.  We add no more than to offer our unaffected sympathy to his family.

DESCRIPTION OF MR. TAZEWELL, BY THE LATE WILLIAM WIRT, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

This sketch of Mr. Tazewell is taken from the twenty-fourth number of the OLD BACHELOR, a name given to a series of papers written in imitation of The Spectator, The Rambler, and their successors, and designed to improve the morals and elevate the taste of the community.  They appeared in the Richmond Enquirer during the years 1813-14, and were republished in duodecimo in the latter year.  Mr. Tazewell is represented as a youth of twenty-two, under the name of Sidney; Gen. Taylor under that of Herbert; the late Judge Parker under that of Alfred; the late Francis W. Gilmer under that of Galen I believe; and I suspect Mr. Wirt himself is the Old Bachelor of the piece.  But, for various reasons, I shall only present Mr. Tazewell as he appears in the character of Sidney.  As Mr. Wirt was Clerk of the House of Delegates for three years of the time during which Mr. Tazewell was a member of the body, he must have known personally Mr. Tazewell in his twenty-second or third year; and although the sketch was written fourteen or fifteen years later, it may have been drawn from actual life.

“On the night of the arrival of the young friends mentioned in my former number, Alfred, whose signal had drawn them to the parlor, where they were first met by Rosalie and myself, performed the part of master of ceremonies by giving us a mutual introduction, which he did in the following terms: