IMMEDIATELY after the death of Judge Hall, the Historical Society of Delaware requested its President, the Hon. Daniel M. Bates, to deliver a memorial address on his life and character; in compliance with which request the following paper was read before the Society on the 23d of May, 1876.

ADDRESS ON THE LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF

WILLARD HALL.

GENTLEMEN OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY:

THERE are few communities, if any, in which there do not arise, now and then, men whose lives move in a plane above the common level,-men who, besides filling, as others do, some one of the special vocations of business, seem to have it as their life-work to be ever helping the general interests of the age and society in which their lots are cast, occupying such fields of usefulness as their peculiar endowments may fit them for. To such ends as these they bestow their labors and sacrifices, often under discouragements and with little immediate fruit; being sustained in their work by hopes which reach beyond the mental vision of ordinary men. And, what perhaps is hardly of less value to society, these men set before it an attractive example of purity and unselfishness, of powers consecrated to lofty aims, and surpassing in their energy and constancy even the efforts commonly given to sordid ends; and thus, unconsciously, they