On yonder cliffs, a grissly band, I see them sit: they linger yet, Avengers of their native land; With me in dreadful harmony they join, "Weave the warp, and weave the woof, "The winding sheet of Edward's race: "Give ample space and verge enough "The characters of hell to trace. "Mark the year and mark the night "When Severn shall re-echo with affright "The shrieks of death, through Berkley's roofs that ring: " Shrieks of an agonizing King! 5 "Mighty Victor, mighty Lord, "Low on his funeral couch he lies! - "A tear to grace his obsequies. "Is the sable warrior fled? "Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead. "The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born? "Gone to salute the rising morn. "Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, "While proudly riding o'er the azure realm Y 2 "In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; "Youth on the prow, and pleasure at the helm; "Regardless of the sweeping whirlwinds sway, "That, hushed in grim repose expects his evening prey. 6 "Edward lo! to sudden fate "Weave we the woof. The thread is spun. "Half of thy heart we consecrate. "Stay, O stay! nor thus forlorn, - " Leave me unblest, unpitied, here to mourn : "But Oh! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height "Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul! "No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. "All hail, ye genuine Kings, Britannia's issue, hail! 7 "Girt with many a baron bold "Sublime their starry fronts they rear; " And gorgeous dames and statesmen old, "In bearded majesty, appear "In the midst a form divine! "Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line; "Waves in the eye of heaven her many coloured wings. "The verse adorn again 8 " Fierce war, and faithful love, "And truth severe, by fairy fiction dress'd " In buskin'd measures move "Pale grief and pleasing pain, " With Horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. " Gales from blooming Eden bear; "That lost in long futurity expire. "Fond impious man! think'st thou yon sanguine cloud, Raised by thy breath has quench'd the orb of day? "To-morrow he repairs the golden flood, "And warms the nations with redoubled ray. 1 "Be thine Despair and sceptred care; "To triumph and to die, are mine. He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height, "AMES," ON THE BRITISH TREATY. On this theme my emotions are unutterable. If I could find words for them, if my powers bore any proportion to my zeal, I would swell my voice to such a note of remonstrance, it should reach every log house beyond the mountains. I would say to the inhabitants, wake from your false security. Your cruel dangers, your more cruel apprehensions, are soon to be renewed: the wounds yet unhealed, are to be again torn open. In the day time, your path through woods will be ambushed. The darkness of midnight will glitter with the blaze of your dwellings. You are a father-the blood of your sons shall fatten your corn fields. You are a mother-the war whoop shall wake the sleep of your cradle. Who will accuse me of wandering out of the subject? Who will say that I exaggerate the tendencies of our measures? Will any one answer by a sneer, that all this is idle preaching? Would any one deny that we are bound, and I hope to good purpose, by the most solemn sanctions of duty for the vote we give? Are Despots alone to be reproached for unfeeling indifference to the tears and blood of their subjects? Are republicans unresponsible? Have the principles on which you ground the reproach of cabinets and of Kings no practical influence, no binding force? Are they merely themes of idle declamation, introduced to decorate the morality of a newspaper essay, or to furnish pretty topics of harangue from the windows of that state house? I trust it is neither too presumptious nor too late to ask, can you put the dearest interest of society at risk, without guilt, and without remorse? By rejecting the posts, we light the savage fires, we bind the victims. This day we undertake to render account to the widows and orphans whom our decision will make, to the wretches, that will be roasted at the stake, to our country, and I do not deem it too serious to say, to our conscience and to God. We are answerable; and if duty be any thing more than a word of imposture, if conscience be not a bugbear, we are preparing to make ourselves as wretched as our country. There is no mistake in this case, there can be none. Experience has already been the prophet of events, and the cries of our future victims have already reached us. The Western inhabitants are not a silent and uncomplaining sacrifice. The voice of humanity issues from the |