"July 17, 1830.

"Temptation, if successfully resisted, strengthens the character; but it should always be avoided. 'Lead us not into temptation' are words of deep meaning, and should always carry with them corresponding desires of obedience. At a large meeting of merchants and others held ten days ago, it was resolved to make an effort to prevent the licensing of such numbers of soda-shops, retailers of spirits and the like, which have, in my opinion, done more than anything else to debase and ruin the youth of our city. It is a gross perversion of our privileges to waste and destroy ourselves in this way. God has given us a good land and many blessings. We misuse them, and make them minister to our vices. We shall be called to a strict account. Every good citizen owes it to his God and his country to stop, as far as he can, this moral desolation. Let me see you, on your return, an advocate of good order and good morals. * * *

"Our old neighbor the sea-serpent was more than usually accommodating the day after we left Portsmouth. He exhibited himself to a great number of people who were at Hampton Beach last Saturday. They had a full view of his snakeship from the shore. He was so civil as to raise his head about four feet, and look into a boat, where were three men, who thought it the wisest way to retreat to their cabin. His length is supposed to be about one hundred feet, his head the size of a ten-gallon cask, and his body, in the largest part, about the size of a barrel. I have never had any more doubt respecting the existence of this animal, since he was seen here eleven years ago, than I have had of the existence of Bonaparte. The evidence was as strong to my mind of the one as of the other. I had never seen either; but I was as well satisfied of the existence of both, as I should have been had I seen both. And yet the idea of the sea-serpent's existence has been scouted and ridiculed."

"September 25.

"The events of the late French Revolution have reached us up to the 17th August. The consideration of them is animating, and speaks in almost more than human language. We are poor, frail, and mortal beings; but there is something elevating in the thought of a whole people acting as with the mind and the aim of one man, a part which allies man to a higher order of beings. I confess it makes me feel a sort of veneration for them; and trust that no extravagance will occur to mar the glory and the dignity of this enterprise. Our beloved old hero, too, acting as the guiding and presiding genius of this wonderful event! May God prosper them, and make it to the French people what it is capable of being, if they make a right use of it! I hope that you have been careful to see and learn everything, and that you will preserve the information you obtain in such a form as to recall the events to your mind a long time hence. We are all very well and very busy, and in fine spirits, here in the old town of Boston. Those who fell behind last year have some of them placed themselves in the rear rank, and are again on duty. Others are laid up, unfit for duty; and the places of all are supplied with fresh troops. We now present as happy and as busy a community as you would desire to see."

[CHAPTER XIV.]

TESTIMONIAL TO MR. WEBSTER.—DANGEROUS ILLNESS.—LETTERS.

During the autumn of 1830, in order to testify in a more marked manner his appreciation of Mr. Webster's distinguished services in the Senate of the United States, Mr. Lawrence presented to that gentleman a service of silver plate, accompanied by the following note:

"Boston, October 23, 1830.

"Hon. Daniel Webster.

"Dear Sir: Permit me to request your acceptance of the accompanying small service of plate, as a testimony of my gratitude for your services to the country in your late efforts in the Senate; especially for your vindication of the character of Massachusetts and of New England.

"From your friend and fellow-citizen,
"Amos Lawrence.

"P. S.—If by any emblem or inscription on any piece of this service, referring to the circumstances of which this is a memorial, the whole will be made more acceptable, I shall be glad to have you designate what it shall be, and permit me the opportunity of adding it."

To which Mr. Webster replied, on the same evening, as follows: