of the enemy's cannon; let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker-Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support. ' 16. "Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs; but I see clearly through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time, when this declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously," and on the scaffold. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when thas hour may. 17." But, whatever may be our fate, be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the present, I see the brightness of the future as the sun in heaven. We shall make this a glorious, an immortal day. When we are in our graves our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, copious, gushing tears, not of subjection and slavery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy. Sir, before God Í'believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it;-sink or swim, survive or perish, I am for the declaration! D. Webster. SECTION VII. Ertract of a Speech of Counsellor PHILLIPS, at a public dinner in Ireland, on his health being given, together with that of Mr. Payne, a young American, in 1817. 1. THE mention of America, sir, has never failed to fill me with the most lively emotions. In my earliest infancy,—that 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 dis comfited oppression. 2. I saw her spurning alike the luxuries that would ener vate, 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 a lg-no-min-f-exs-ly, disgracefully Com-pesate, to make amends. 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 her 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 can deny, that the existence of such a county pre sents a subject for 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. SECTION VIII. Mr. Sheridan's invective against Mr. Hastings. 1. HAD a stranger at this time gone into the province of Oude, ignorant of what had happened since the death of Sujah Dowla,—that man, who with a savage heart had still great Em'-i-grant, one who leaves one coun try to reside in another. En-thu-si-asm, heat of imagination. e Arrogance, haughtiness. d In-vec-tive, a railing speech. e Warren Has'-tings, governor of British India in 1786. lines of character, and who, with all his ferocity in war, had still, with a cultivating hand, preserved to his country the riches which it derived from benignant skies and a prolific soil, if this stranger, ignorant of all that had happened in the short interval, and observing the wide and general devas tation, and all the horrors of the scene of plains unclothed and brown-of vegetables burnt up and extinguished-of villages depopulated and in ruin of temples unroofed and perishing-of reservoirs broken down and dry, he would naturally mquire what war has thus laid waste the fertile fields of this once beautiful and opulent country-what civil dissensions have happened, thus to tear asunder and separate the happy societies that once possessed those villages what disputed succession-what religious rage has with unholy violence demolished those temples, and disturbed fervent, but unobtruding piety in the exercise of its duties? 2. What merciless enemy has thus spread the horrors of fire and sword-what severe visitation of Providence has dried up the fountain, and taken from the face of the earth every vestige of verdure?-Or rather, what monsters have stalked over the country, tainting and poisoning, with pestiferous breath, what the voracious appetite could not devour? 3. To such questions what must be the answer? No wars have ravished these lands and depopulated these villages--no civil discords have been felt-no disputed succession--no religious rage no merciless enemy no affliction of Providence, which, while it scourged for the moment, cut off the sources of resuscitation-no voracious and poisoning monsters-no, all this has been accomplished by the friendship, generosity, and kindness, of the English nation. 4. They have embraced us with their protecting arms, and lo! these are the fruits of their alliance. What, then, shall we be told that under such circumstances the exasperated"> feelings of a whole people, thus goaded and spurred on te clamor and resistance, were excited by the poor and feeble influence of the Begums? 5. When we hear the description of the paroxysm, fever and delirium, into which despair had thrown the natives, when on the banks of the polluted Ganges, panting for death, they tore more widely open the lips of their gaping wounds, to accelerate their dissolution; and while their blood was issuing, presented their ghastly eyes to heaven, breathing their last and fervent prayer that the dry earth might not be suffered to drink their blood, but that it might rise up to the a Pes-tif-er-ous, noxious, malignant. Ex-as-pe-ra-test, provoked to anger. c De-lir--um, derangement. throne of God, and rouse the eternal Providence to avenge the wrongs of their country,-will it be said that this was brought about by the incantations of these Begums in their secluded Zenana? or that they could inspire this enthusiasm and this despair into the breasts of a people who felt no grievance, and had suffered no torture? What motive, then, could have such influence in their bosom? 6. 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 te be resumed that principle which tells him that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which he owes to him, self and to his neighbor, but a duty which he owes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank which he gave im 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 princíple which makes it base for a man to suffer when he ought to act, and which, tending to preserve to the species the original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant distinctions of man, and vindicates the independent qualities of his race. SECTION IX. Mr. Burke's description of Junius. 1. WHERE, then, sir, shall we look for the origin of this relaxation of the laws, and of all government? How comes this Junius to have broken through the cobwebs of the law, and to range uncontrolled, unpunished through the land? The myrmidons of the court have long been, and are still pursuing him in vain. They will not spend their time upon me, or you, or you: no; they disdain such vermin when the a Con-ge'-ni-al, partaking of the same nature. 6 Jun-ius, the signature of a severe com enter on the acts of the British múnistry, Re-laxation, a slackening. d Myr'-n-dons, ruffians. mighty boar of the forest, that has broken through all their toils, is before them. 2. But, what will all their efforts avail? No sooner has he wounded one, than he lays down another dead at his feet. For my part, when I saw his attack upon the king, I own my blood ran cold. I thought he had ventured too far, and that there was an end of his triumphs; not that he had not asserted many truths. Yes, sir, there are in that composition many bold truths by which a wise prince might profit. It was the rancor and venom with which I was struck. In these respects the North Briton is as much inferior to him, as in strength, wit, and judgment. 3. But while I expected from this daring flight his final ruin and fall, behold him rising still higher, and coming down souse upon both houses of parliament. Yes, he did make you his quarry, and you stil bleed from the wounds of his talons. You crouched, and still crouch beneath his rage.Nor has he dreaded the terror of your brow, sir; he has attacked even you, he has, and I believe you have no reason to triumph in the encounter. 4. In short, after carrying away our royal eagle in his pounces, and dashing him against a rock, he has laid you prostrate. King, Lords, and Commons, are but the sport of his fury. Were he a member of this house, what might not be expected from his knowledge, his firmness, and integrity! He would be easily known by his contempt of all danger, by his penetration, by his vigor. Nothing would escape his vigilance and activity; bad ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity; nor could promises or threats induce him to conceal any thing from the public. SECTION X. Mr. Burke's compliment to Mr. Fox in support of his India Bill. 1. AND now, having done my duty to the bill, let me say a word to the author. I should leave him to his own noble sentiments, if the unworthy and illiberal language with which he had been treated, beyond all example of parliamentary liberty, did not make a few words necessary, not so much in justice to him, as to my own feelings:-I must say then, that it will be a distinction honorable to the age, that the rescue of the greatest number of the human race that ever were so grievously oppressed, from the greatest tyranny that was ever exercised, has fallen to the lot of abilities and disposi |
