felt no grievance, and had suffered no torture? What motive, then, could have such influence in their bosom? What motive! That, which Nature-the common parent-plants in the bosom of man; and which, though it may be less active in the Indian than in the Englishman, is still congenial with, and makes part of, his being :-That feeling, which tells him, that man was never made to be the property of man; but that when, through pride and insolence of power, one human creature dares to tyrannize over another, it is a power usurped, and resistance is a duty :-That feeling, which tells him that all power is delegated for the good, not for the injury, of the people; and that, when it is converted from the original purpose, the compact is broken, and the right is to be resumed:That principle, which tells him that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which he owes to himself and to his neighbour, but a duty which he owes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank which He gave him in the creation!--to that common God, who, where He gives the form of man, whatever may be the complexion, gives also the feelings and the rights of man:- -That principle, which neither the rudeness of ignorance can stifle, nor the enervation of refinement extinguish :-That principle, which makes it base for a man to suffer, when he ought to act:--which, tending to preserve to the species the original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant distinctions of man, and vindicates the independent quality of his race!

X.—MR. (LORD) BROUGHAM, ON THE STATE OF THE LAW. AFTER a long interval of various fortune, and filled with vast events, we are again called to the grand labour of surveying and amending our laws. For this task, it well becomes us to begird ourselves, as the honest representatives of the people. Despatch and vigour are imperiously demanded; but that deliberation, too, must not be lost sight of, which so mighty an enterprise requires. When we shall have done the work, we may fairly challenge the utmost approval of our constituents; for, in none other, have they so deep a stake.

In pursuing the course which I now invite you to enter upon, I avow that I look for the co-operation of the king's government; and on what are my hopes founded? Men gather not grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles; but that the vine should no longer yield its wonted fruit-that the fig-tree should refuse its natural increase,―required a miracle to strike

it with barrenness. But, whether I have the support of the Ministers or no, to the House I look, with confident expectation that it will control them, and assist me; if I go too far, checking my progress; if I go too fast, abating my speed; but heartily and honestly helping me, in the best and greatest work which the hands of the lawgiver can undertake. The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of sending your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame and more useful import than ever were done within these walls. You saw the greatest warrior of the age-conqueror of Italy-humbler of Germany-terror of the North-you saw him account all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph which you are now in a condition to win!-saw him contemn the fickleness of Fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his memorable boast-"I shall go down to posterity, with my code in my hand!" You have vanquished him in the field; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom, in arms, you overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise which false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys,--the Justinians of their day,—will be the just tribute of the wise and the good, to that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be accomplished. Of a truth, sceptres are chiefly to be envied, for that they bestow the power of thus conquering and ruling. It was the boast of Augustus--it formed part of the glare in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost-that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble; a praise not unworthy a great prince, and to which the present reign has its claims also. But how much nobler will be our sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say that he found law dear, and left it cheap; found it a sealed book,-left it an open letter; found it the patrimony of the rich,-left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the twoedged sword of craft and oppression,--left it the staff of honesty, and the shield of innocence! To me, much reflecting on these things, it has always seemed a worthier honour to be the instrument of making you bestir yourselves in this high matter, than to enjoy all that office can bestow-office, of which the patronage would be irksome incumbrance, the emoluments superfluous, to one, content, with the rest of his industrious fellow-citizens, that his own hands minister to his wants and as for the power supposed to follow it—I have

lived nearly half a century, and I have learned that power and place may be severed. But, one power I do prize that of being the advocate of my countrymen here, and their fellow-labourer elsewhere, in those things which concern the best interests of mankind. That power, I know full well, no government can give—no change take away!

XI.—MR. (LORD) Brougham, on NEGRO SLAVERY.

I TRUST that, at length, the time is come, when parliament will no longer bear to be told that slave-owners are the best law-givers on slavery; no longer suffer our voice to roll across the Atlantic, in empty warnings and fruitless orders. Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny his right-I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same-that rejects it! In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law, above all the enactments of human codes-the same throughout the world-the same in all times: such as it was, before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened, to one world, the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge; to another, all unutterable woes,-such is it at this day: it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternalwhile men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and hate bloodthey shall reject, with indignation, the wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold property in man!

In vain you appeal to treaties-to covenants between nations. The Covenants of the Almighty, whether the Old Covenant or the New, denounce such unholy pretensions. To these laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite-and not untruly; for, by one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in spite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass ? Not, assuredly, by parliament leading the way: but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware-let their assemblies beware-let the government at home beware-let the parliament beware' The same

country is once more awake-awake to the condition of Negro Slavery; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the same cloud is gathering that annihilated the Slave Trade; and if it shall descend again, they on whom its crash may fall will not be destroyed before I have warned them but I pray, that their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God.

XII.-MR. WEBSTER, ON NEGRO SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.

THE United States are not wholly free from the contamination of a traffic, at which every feeling of humanity must for ever revolt-I mean, the African slave-trade. Neither public sentiment, nor the law, has hitherto been able entirely to put an end to this odious and abominable trade. At the moment when God in his mercy has blessed the Christian world with a universal peace, there is reason to fear, that, to the disgrace of the Christian name and character, new efforts are making for the extension of this trade; by subjects and citizens of Christian states, in whose hearts no sentiment of humanity or justice inhabits, and over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law, the African slave-trader is a pirate and a felon: and, in sight of heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt. There is no brighter part of our history, than that which records the measures which have been adopted by the government, at an early day, and at different times since, for the suppression of this traffic: and I would call on all the true sons of New England, to co-operate with the laws of man and the justice of heaven. If there be, within the extent of our knowledge or influence, any participation in this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here to extirpate and destroy it. It is not fit that the land of the Pilgrims should bear the shame longer. I hear the sound of the hammer, I see the smoke of the furnaces, where manacles and fetters are still forged for human limbs. I see the visages of those who, by stealth, and at midnight, labour in this work of hell, foul and dark, as may become the artificers of such instruments of misery and torture. Let the spot be purified, or let it cease to be of New England. Let it be purified, or let it be set aside from the Christian world; let it be put out of the circle of human sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it.

I would invoke those who fill the seats of Justice, and all

who minister at her altar, that they execute the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of Religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has reaped his harvest upon the seas, that he assist in Scourging from those seas the worst pirates that ever infested them. That ocean, which seems to wave with a gentle mag. nificence, to waft the burdens of an honest commerce, and to roll along its treasures with a conscious pride; that ocean, which hardy industry regards, even when the winds have ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil ;-what is it to the victim of this oppression, when he is brought to its shores, and looks forth upon it, for the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with stripes? What is it to him, but a wide-spread prospect of suffering, anguish, and death? Nor do the skies smile longer, nor is the air longer fragrant to him.

The sun

is cast down from heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut him off in his manhood or in his youth, from every enjoyment belonging to his being, and every blessing which his Creator intended for him.

XIII.-MR. PATRICK HENRY, ON BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA.

MR. PRESIDENT,—It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that Syren, till she transforms us to beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern our temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future, but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House? Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will