2. I have returned, not as the right honourable member has said, to raise another stórm,-I have returned to protect that constitution, of which I was the parent and foùnder, from the assassination of such men as the honourable gentleman and his unworthy associates. They are corrupt-they are sedìtious at this very moment they are in a conspiracy against their country! Here I stand, for impeachment or for trial! I dare accusation! I defy the honourable gentleman! I defy the government! I defy their whole phalanx! Let them come fòrth! I tell the ministers I will neither give thém quarter, nor take it!

3. The right honourable gentleman has called me "an unimpeached tràitor.” I ask, why not tràitor unqualified by any epithet? I will tell him: it was because he dared not. It was the act of a còward who raises his arm to strike, but has not courage to give the blow. I will not call him villain, because it would be unparliamentary, and he is a privy councillor. I will not call him fool, because he happens to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. But I say he is one who has abused the privilege of Parliament and the freedom of debate to the uttering of language, which, if spoken out of the House, I should answer only with a blow! I care not how high his situation, how low his character, how contemptible his speech; whether a privy councillor or a parasite, my answer would be a blow!

7.-EMOTIONAL.

1. But here I stand and scòff you! here, I fling
Hatred and full defiance in your face!

2.

Your consul's mêrciful :-for this all thânks.
He dares not touch a hàir of Catiline '

Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
In the Rialto you have rated me
About my moneys and my ùsances:
Still I have borne it with a patient shrùg;
For sufferance is the badge of all our tribe.
You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
And spit upon my Jewish gabardine,
And all for use of that which is mine òwn.
Well, then, it now appears, you need my help:
Go to, then; you come to me, and you say—
Shylock, we would have moneys." You say so;
You that did void your rheum upon my beard,
And foot me, as you spurn a stranger cùr
Over your threshold; mòneys is your suit.
What should I say to you? Should I not say-
"Hath a dog money? Is is possible

66

A cur can lend three thousand ducats?" or
Shall I bend lòw, and in a bondman's key,
With 'bated breath and whispering humbleness,
Say this-

"Fair Sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last;
You spurned me such a day; another time
You called me dòg; and for these courtesies
I'll lend you thus much moneys?"

3. Farewell, a lòng farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man :-to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hópe; to-morrow blossoms,

And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a fròst, a killing fròst,
And-when he thinks, good, easy man, full surely
This greatness is a-ripening-nips his root,
And then he falls, as I do.

4. I could have bid you live, had life been to you the same weary and wasting burden that it is to me, that it is to every noble and generous mind. But you, wretch! you could creep through the world unaffected by its varicus disgraces, its ineffable miseries, its constantly accumulating masses of crime and sorrow; you could live and enjoy yourself, while the noble-minded were betrayed,-while nameless and birthless villains tread on the neck of the brave and long-descended; you could enjoy yourself like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while the slaughter of the brave went on around you! This enjoyment you shall not live to partake of: you shall die, base dog!—and that before yon cloud has passed over the sùn !

5. Thou slave, thou wretch, thou còward,
Thou little valiant, great in villany!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou Fortune's champion, thou dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by
To teach thee safety! thou art perjured too,
And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou,
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and swear
Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave,
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?
Been sworn my soldier! bidding me depend
Upon thy stárs, thy fórtune, and thy strength?
And dost thou now fall over to my fóes?
Thou wear a lion's hide! dòff it for shame,
And hang a câlf's skin on those recreant limbs.

NOTE.-The points prefixed to certain words in the Lessons indicate the words explained in the Vocabularies.

The figures refer to the Notes at the end of each Lesson.

SIXTH READING-BOOK.

PART I.

THE GREAT SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR.

1779-1782.

GIBRALTAR1 fell into the hands of the English in 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession2-the war in which Marlborough gained so much glory for the English arms. Admiral

Sir George Rooke had been sent to the Mediterranean, to watch the French and Spanish fleets. For a long time he was unable to accomplish anything of 'importance; but, learning that Gibraltar was very poorly garrisoned, he suddenly attacked and captured it, and hoisted the English flag on its Signal Station.

That flag is the only one that has ever floated there since the 23rd of July 1704. Time after time have the Spaniards tried to recover this "key of the Mediterranean ;" but every effort has been repulsed most gallantly, and often with tremendous loss to the enemy.

The last attempt they made was the most gigantic and determined of all; and its successful resistance by the English garrison forms one of the most heroic incidents in the annals of modern warfare. It occurred during the struggle which severed from England her North American colonies.3 France recognized the United States as an independent power in 1778, and a war with England was the consequence. In the following year Spain joined France, and Gibraltar was immediately 'blockaded.

The siege which followed lasted three years. Every 'ap pliance which experience could suggest, or skill could devise,

was brought into requisition. Never before had such tremendous armaments, by sea and by land, been brought against any fortress. Yet the garrison held out bravely; and twice their friends outside-once by Admiral Darby, and once by Rodney succeeded in sending them reinforcements and supplies.

4

Early in 1781, there was a terrific bombardment of the place; but so effectual was the shelter afforded by the casemates, or bomb-proof vaults, that the garrison lost only seventy men. In November of the same year, General Elliot, who conducted the defence, headed a midnight 'sortie, which 'annihilated the entire line of the enemy's works. Their floating batteries were at the same time destroyed with red-hot balls. That one night cost the Spaniards two millions sterling!

But the final effort was made in 1782, when the Duke de Crillon, flushed with his success in capturing Minorca, took the command of the besiegers. He had under him upwards of 30,000 of the best troops of France and Spain, and his heavy guns amounted to the then unprecedented number of one hundred and seventy. The combined fleets numbered forty-seven sail of the line, with ten great floating batteries-the contrivance of a French engineer, and deemed 'invincible, and frigates, gun-boats, mortar-boats and small craft without number. The besieged numbered only 7000 men with eighty guns.

The siege attracted the interest of the whole civilized world. Two French princes joined the besiegers' camp, to witness the fall of the place. "Is it taken?" was the first question asked each morning by the King of Spain. "Not yet; but it will be soon," said his courtiers: and still Elliot's guns thundered 'defiance from the Rock.

13th of September, the The ten battering-ships

At length, on the morning of the grand and decisive attack commenced. bore down in admirable order to their several stations. The Admiral, in a two-decker, moored about nine hundred yards off the King's Bastion.5 The other vessels took their places in a masterly manner, the most distant being eleven hundred or twelve hundred yards from the garrison. Under shelter of the walls, furnaces for heating shot had been lighted; and, from the instant the ships dropped into position, a continuous fire of redhot balls was directed upon them by the garrison.

In little more than ten minutes, continues Drinkwater, the enemy were completely moored, and their cannonade then became tremendous. The showers of shot and shell which were