tender season when impressions at once the most permanent and the most powerful, are likely to be excited, the story of her then recent struggle raised a throb in every heart that loved liberty, and wrung a reluctant tribute even from discomfited oppression. 2. I saw her spurning alike the luxuries that would enervate, and the legions that would intimidate; dashing from her lips the poisoned cup of European servitude; and, through all the vicissitudes of her protracted conflict, displaying a magnanimity that defied misfortune, and a moderation that gave new grace to victory. It was the first vision of my childhood; it will descend with me to the grave. But if, as a man, I venerate the mention of America, what must be my feelings toward het as an Irishman! Never, O! never, while memory remains, can Ireland forget the home of her emigrant, and the asylum of her exile. 3. No matter whether their sorrows sprung from the errors of enthusiasm, or the realities of suffering; from fancy, or infliction: that must be reserved for the scrutiny of those, whom the lapse of time shall acquit of partiality. It is for the men of other ages to investigate and record it; but, surely, it is for the men of every age to hail the hospitality that received the shelterless, and love the feeling that befriended the unfortunate. 4. Search creation round, and where can you find a country that presents so sublime a view, so interesting in anticipation? What noble institutions! What a comprehensive policy! What a wise equalization of every political advantage! The oppressed of all countries, the martyr of every creed, the innocent victim of despotic arrogance, of superstitious frenzy, may there find refuge; his industry encouraged, his piety respected, his ambition animated; with no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which his merit may originate. 5. Who car deny, that the existence of such a country presents a subject of human congratulation? Who can deny, that its gigantic advancement offers a field for the most rational conjecture? At the end of the very next century, if she proceeds as she seems to promise, what a wondrous spectacle may she not exhibit! Who shall say for what purpose a mysterious Providence may not have designed her? Who shall say, that, when in its follies or its crimes the old world may have interred all the pride of its power, and all the pomp of its civilization, human nature may not find its destined renovation in the new. LESSON LXXXVI. A SPEECH ON PARLIAMENTARY REFORM.- Fox. [Let the reader determine the character of the language or style of this piece, and the kinds of questions it contains, and how they should be read.] 1. The right honorable gentleman speaks, sir, of the strength of government. But what symptom of strength does it exhibit? Is it the cordiality of all the branches of the national force? Is it the harmony that happily reigns in all the departments of the executive power? Is it the reciprocal affection that subsists between the government and the people? 2. Is it in the energy with which the people are eager to carry into execution the measures of the administration, from the heartfelt conviction that they are founded in wisdom, favorable to their own freedom, and calculated for national happiness? Is it because our resources are flourishing and untouched, because our vigor is undiminished, because our spirit is animated by success, and our courage by our glory? 3. Is it because government have, in a perilous situation, when they have been obliged to call upon the country for sacrifices, shown a conciliating tenderness and regard for the rights of the people, as well as a marked disinterestedness and forbearance on their own parts, by which they have, in an exemplary manner, made their own economy to keep pace with the increased demands for the public service? Are these the sources of the strength of government? 4. I forbear, sir, to push the inquiry. I forbear to allude more particularly to symptoms which no man can contemplate at this moment without grief and dismay. It is not the declarations of right honorable gentlemen, that constitute the strength of a government. That government is alone strong, which possesses the hearts of the people; and will any man contend that we should not be more likely to add strength to the state, if we were to extend the basis of the popular representation? 5. Would not a house of commons, freely elected, be more likely to conciliate the support of the people? If this be true in the abstract, it is certainly our peculiar duty to look for this support in the hour of difficulty. What man, who foresees a hurricane, is not desirous of strengthening his house? Shall nations alone be blind to the dictates of reason? Let us not, sir, be deterred from this act of prudence, by the false representations that are made to us. 6. If it is clearly demonstrated that genuine representation alone can give solid power, and that, in order to make government strong, the people must make the government, you ought to act on this grand maxim of political wisdom thus demonstrated, and call in the people, according to the original principles of your system, to the strength of your government. In doing this, you will not innovate, you will not imitate. In making the people of England a constituent part of England, you do no more than restore the genuine edifice, designed and framed by our ancestors. LESSON LXXXVII EXTRACT FROM MR. BROUGHAM'S INAUGURAL ADDRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW. 1. It is not the less true, because it has been oftentimes said, that the period of youth is by far the best fitted for the improvement of the mind, and the retirement of a college almost exclusively adapted to much study. At your enviable age, every thing has the lively interest of novelty and freshness; attention is perpetually sharpened by curiosity; and the memory is tenacious of the deep impressions it thus receives, to a degree unknown in after-life; while the distracting cares of the world, or its beguiling pleasures, cross not the threshold of these calm retreats; its distant noise and bustle are faintly heard, making the shelter you enjoy more grateful; and the struggles of anxious mortals, embarked upon that troublous sea, are viewed from an eminence, the security of which is rendered more sweet, by the prospect of the scene below. 2. Yet a little while, and you, too, will be plunged into those waters of bitterness, and will cast an eye of regret, as now I do, upon the peaceful regions you have quitted forever. Such is your lot, as members of society; but it will be your own fault, if you look back on this place with repentance, or with shame. And be well-assured, that whatever time,— - ay, every hour, you squander here, on, unprofitable idling, will then rise up against you, and be paid for by years of bitter, but unavailing regrets. 3. Study, then, I beseech you, so to store your minds with the requisite learning of former ages, that you may always possess, within yourselves, sources of rational and refined enjoyment, which will enable you to set at naught the grosser pleasures of sense, whereof other men are slaves; and so imbue yourselves with the sound philosophy of later days, forming yourselves to the virtuous habits which are its legitimate offspring, that you may walk unhurt through the trials which await you, and may look down upon the ignorance and error that surround you, not with lofty and supercilious contempt, as the sages of old time, but with the vehement desire of enlightening those that wander in darkness, and who are by so much the more endeared to us, by how much they want our assistance. LESSON LXXXVIII. MIDNIGHT MEDITATION.-W. T. BACON. 1. Silence, and night! It is the time for thought; And the lone dreamer sends his weary eye 2. Out from the casement, up to the dim stars, And deems that from those rolling worlds comes to him A cheering voice. How beautiful they are, Those sparkling fires in that eternal void! And yet how fancy dreams Of those bright worlds! Tell us, ye unseen powers, Ye that do gather round us in these hours When the impassioned world lies locked in sleep, And the day's whirl is over,- tell us here, What are those rolling worlds! Are there bright scenes, Such as we dream of here? Robed in such hues as this? Heave their high tops to such Are there fair realms, Do wild hills there a bright, blue heaven As this which spans our world? Have they rocks there, |