daily, until the funds of the Institution were sufficient to provide a teacher and superintendent. She was a trustee at the time of her decease. The wish to establish this new Society, was occasioned by the pain which it gave the ladies of the Widows' Society, to behold a family of orphans, driven, on the decease of a widow, to seek refuge in the Alms House; no melting heart to feel, no redeeming hand to rescue them from a situation so unpromising for mental and moral improvement.

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"Amongst the afflicted of our suffering race," thus speaks the Constitution of the Society, none makes a stronger or more impressive appeal to humanity, than the destitute orphan. Crime has not been the cause of its misery, and future usefulness may yet be the result of its protection; the reverse is often the case of more aged objects. God himself has marked the fatherless, as the peculiar subjects of his divine compassion. A Father of the fatherless, is God in his holy habitation.' 'When my father and my mother forsake me, then the 'Lord will take me up.' To be the blessed instrument of Divine Providence in making good the promise of God, is a privilege equally desirable and honourable to the benevolent heart."

And truly God has made good his promise towards this benevolent Institution. He has crowned the undertaking with his remarkable blessing. It was begun by his disciples in faith, and he has acknowledged them in it. Having for fourteen months occupied a hired house for an Asylum, the ladies entertained the bold idea of building an Asylum on account of the Society. They had then about three hundred and fifty dollars, as the commencement of a fund for the building: they purchased four lots of ground in the village of Greenwich, on a healthful elevated site, possessing a fine prospect. The corner stone was laid on the 7th of July, 1807. They erected a building fifty feet square, planned for the accommodation of two hundred orphans. From time to time they proceeded to finish the interior of the building, and to purchase additional ground, as their funds would permit ; and such has been the liberality of the Legislature and of the public, that the Society now possess a handsome

building, and nearly an acre of ground, all of which must have cost them little short of twenty-five thousand dollars. This property is clear, the last shilling due upon it having been lately paid off. Their success furnishes strong encouragement to attempt great and good objects, even with slender means. God in his providence will command a blessing on exertions of this character. It is too common a mistake, and one fatal to the progress of improvement, that great means should be in actual possession before great objects should be attempted. Ah, were our dependence simply on apparent instruments, how small must be our hopes of success! There is a mystery, yet a certainty, in the manner by which God is pleased in his providence to conduct feeble means to a happy conclusion. Has he not preserved, cherished, and blessed his church through many ages, amidst overwhelming persecutions, and that often by means apparently inadequate to this end? We must work for, as well as pray for, the blessings which God has promised to bestow on our sinful race. We must put our shoulder to the wheel, whilst we look up to heaven for assistance, and God will always bless those who are found in the path of duty The Orphan Asylum Society is a striking proof of this they have now one hundred orphans under their care, and have placed more than one hundred children in eligible situations, after educating them; many of the latter promise to be useful to society. If a child be fatherless, motherless, and of legitimate birth, it is welcome to their Asylum. The children are clothed, fed, instructed. There is a well-regulated school on the Lancasterian plan, in a room fifty feet long, within the building: there are excellent printed regulations established for the management of the orphans: they enjoy religious instruction, and under the care of a man and his wife, both pious characters: the latter are superintendents under the direction of the Board of ladies, one of whom is appointed a weekly visiter at each monthly meeting of the trustees.

Only one death has occurred amongst the orphans, since the commencement of the Institution, excepting in cases where they came into the Asylum sick; and of

such there have been but few. The ladies have set no limits to the number to be received: and it has pleased God also not to set limits to the means necessary for their support. The Institution is a great favourite with the public, and is usually visited by strangers, who are delighted with the cleanliness, health, and cheerful countenances of the orphans.

The Society have received a charter of incorporation from the legislature; they have a handsome seal, with this inscription: IN AS MUCH AS YE HAVE DONe it unto ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE, YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME.

For several years it was customary with Mrs. Graham to visit the Hospital. Before the erection of the very valuable wing of that edifice adapted to the reception of deranged persons, and now called "the Lunatic Asylum," she paid a particular attention to patients of this. description.

One instance is fresh in the recollection of the writer of this sketch. A French gentleman of fortune in St Domingo, through the fidelity of one of his slaves, es caped the general massacre of the white people in his neighbourhood by the blacks in 1793. Warned by this faithful informer, he fled with his mother, sister, and younger brother, on board of a French vessel, whilst they were pursued to the beach. They had saved and carried with them some of their jewels; but on their voyage the vessel was captured by a British privateer, and carried to Bermuda. From thence they sailed in an American vessel for New-York; but on their passage they were plundered by a French privateer. From these cruel depredations they saved but a slender amount of property for their support in a strange land. This gentleman now improved those accomplishments which his education had bestowed, as means of providing a subsistence for himself and his dependant relatives. He be came a teacher of dancing. In the year 1797 he returned to St. Domingo, and received a commission in the British army, then masters of the place. Having recovered a part of his property, he sold his commission, and prepared to return to New-York, with a prospect of rendering his family comfortable. On the day previous to em.

barking, he fell among thieves,' and received a wound which no Samaritan could cure. A set of gamblers robbed him, by card-playing, of all the money in his possession; his distress and remorse of conscience, were too strong for his mind to bear, and he became a maniac. In this state he reached New-York. He refused to go to the Hospital, until Mrs. Graham led him there. She had long befriended him and his family: he always listened respectfully to her requests, and she visited him often. Let the rest of his tale be told. He escaped from the Hospital, wandered to the southward, and was heard of no more. The remaining part of his family, after the peace of Amiens, returned to St. Domingo, where General Le Clerc had led a French army, and afterwards, there is every reason to fear, were destroyed by Christophe, along with many more unhappy victims of the same description.

Oh Slavery! thou bitter draught! the oppressor's chain becomes, at length, the murderous steel, sharply and secretly whetted by the oppressed! Then there is confusion and every evil work. And what shall be said of gambling? There cunning, malice, rage, and madness, mingle their horrible expressions.

To the apartments appropriated to sick female convicts in the State Prison, Mrs. Graham, made many visits. She met with some affecting circumstances among this class.

In the winter 1807-8, when the suspension of commerce by the embargo, rendered the situation of the poor more destitute than ever, Mrs. Graham adopted a plan best calculated in her view to detect the idle applicant for charity, and at the same time to furnish employment for the more worthy amongst the female poor. She purchased flax, and lent wheels, where applicants had none. Such as were industrious, took the work with thankfulness, and were paid for it; those who were beggars by profession, never kept their word to return for the flax or the wheel. The flax thus spun, was afterwards wove, bleached, and made into table-cloths and towels for family use.

Mrs. Graham used to remark, that until some Institu

tion should be formed to furnish employment for indus trious poor women, the work of charity would be incomplete. It was about this time, that deeming the duties too laborious for her health, she resigned the office of First Directress of the Widows' Society, and took the place of a manager. She afterwards declined this also, and became a trustee of the Orphan Asylum Society as more suited to her advanced period of life.

The delicate state of health to which one of her granddaughters was reduced in 1808, made it necessary for her to spend the summer season for five successive years at Rockaway for the advantage of sea-bathing. Mrs. Granam went with her, it being beneficial to her own health also. In this place, she met with many strangers: the company residing there, treated her with much affection and respect. She always attended to the worship of God morning and evening in her room, and was usually accompanied by some of the ladies who boarded in the house. Her fund of information, vivacity of manner, and the interest which she felt in the happiness of all around her, made her society highly valued and pleasing. Few of those ladies who stayed with her at Rockaway, for any length of time, failed to express, at parting, their esteem for her, and they generally added a pressing invitation for a visit from her, if ever she should travel near where they dwelt.

In the year 1810, whilst bathing, she was carried by the surf, beyond her depth, and for some time there was scarcely a hope of her regaining the shore. Her grandchildren were weeping on the beach, and the company assembled there were afflicted but hopeless spectators of her danger. At that moment of peril, she prayed to the Lord for deliverance, but acquiesced in his will, if he should see fit to take her to himself in this manner. Able to swim a little, she kept herself afloat for some time : she became at length very faint; and when her friends on the beach apprehended her lost, they perceived that the waves had impelled her somewhat nearer to them. A gentleman present, and her female attendant, stepped into the surf, and extending their arms for mutual support, one of them was enabled to lay hold of Mrs. Graham's