And raised his rebel standard :-that but now
A meeting of conspirators was held
Under his roof, with mystic rites, and oaths,
Pledged round the body of a murder'd slave.
To these he has no answer.

Cat. (Rising calmly.) Conscript fathers!
I do not rise to waste the night in words;
Let that plebeian talk: 'tis not my trade;
But here I stand for right-let him show proofs
For Roman right; though none, it seems,
dare stand
To take their share with me. Ay, cluster there,
Cling to your master; judges, Romans-slaves!
His charge is false;-I dare him to his proofs.
You have my answer.
Let my actions speak!

Cic. (Interrupting him) Deeds shall convince you! Has the traitor done?

Cat. But this I will avow, that I have scorn'd,

And still do scorn, to hide my sense of wrong;
Who brands me on the forehead, breaks my sword,
Or lays the bloody scourge upon my back,

Wrongs me not half so much as he who shuts

The gates of honour on me,-turning out

The Roman from his birthright; and for what! (Looking round him)

To fling your offices to every slave;

Vipers that creep where man disdains to climb;

And having wound their loathsome track to the top
Of this huge mouldering monument of Rome,

Hang hissing at the nobler man below.

Cic. This is his answer! Must I bring more proofs ? Fathers, you know there lives not one of us, But lives in peril of his midnight sword. Lists of proscription have been handed round, In which your general properties are made Your murderer's hire.

[A cry is heard without, "More prisoners!" An officer enters with letters for CICERO; who, after glancing at them, sends them round the Senate. CATALINE is strongly perturbed.]

Cic. Fathers of Rome! If man can be convinced By proof, as clear as day-light, here it is!

Look on these letters! Here's a deep-laid plot
To wreck the provinces: a solemn league,
Made with all form and circumstance.

The time

Is desperate,—all the slaves are up;-Rome shakes!—
The heavens alone can tell how near our graves
We stand ev'n here!-The name of Cataline
Is foremost in the league. He was their king.
Tried and convicted traitor!

Cat. (Haughtily rising.) from your thrones:

Go from Rome!
Come, consecrated lictors,

[To the Senate.

Fling down your sceptres:-take the rod and axe,
And make the murder as you make the law.

Cic. (Interrupting him.) Give up the record of his ban[To an officer.

ishment.

[The OFFICER gives it to the CONSUL in the chair.

Cat. (Indignantly.) Banish'd from Rome! What's banish'd, but set free

From daily contact of the things I loathe ?

"Tried and convicted traitor!" Who says this?
Who'll prove it, at his peril, on my head?

Banish'd-I thank you for 't. It breaks my chain!
I held some slack allegiance till this hour-
But now my sword's my own. Smile on, my lords!
I scorn to count what feelings, wither'd hopes,
Strong provocations, bitter, burning wrongs,
I have within my heart's hot cells shut up,
To leave you in your lazy dignities.
But here I stand and scoff you; here, I fling
Hatred and full defiance in your face.

Your Consul's merciful.-For this, all thanks.
He dares not touch a hair of Cataline.

(The CONSUL reads:) "Lucius Sergius Cataline: by
the decree of the Senate, you are declared an ene-
my and alien to the state, and banished from the
territory of the Commonwealth."

The Consul. Lictors, drive the traitor from the temple! Cat. (Furious.) "Traitor!" I go-but I return. This

-trial!

Here I devote your Senate! I've had wrongs

To stir a fever in the blood of age,

Or make the infant's sinews strong as steel.

This day's the birth of sorrows!-this hour's work
Will breed proscriptions:-look to your hearths, my lords!
For there, henceforth shall sit, for household gods,
Shapes hot from Tartarus !—all shames and crimes!
Wan treachery, with his thirsty dagger drawn;
Suspicion, poisoning his brother's cup;
Naked Rebellion, with the torch and axe,
Making his wild sport of your blazing thrones;
Till Anarchy comes down on you like Night,
And Massacre seals Rome's eternal grave!

The SENATORS rise in tumult and cry out,
Go, enemy and parricide, from Rome!

Cic. Expel him, lictors! Clear the Senate house!

[They surround him. Cat. (Struggling through them.) I go, but not to leap

the gulf alone.

I go-but when I come, 'twill be the burst

Of ocean in the earthquake-rolling back

In swift and mountainous ruin. Fare you well!—

You build my funeral-pile, but your best blood

Shall quench its flame. Back slaves! (To the lictors)—I will return!

[He rushes through the portal; the scene closes.

LESSON LXX.

Commemorative of the First Settlement of New England.D. WEBSTER.

LET us not forget the religious character of our origin. Our fathers were brought hither by their high veneration for the Christian religion. They journeyed by its light, and laboured in its hope. They sought to incorporate its principles with the elements of their society, and to diffuse its influence through all their institutions, civil, political, or literary. Let us cherish these sentiments, and extend this influence still more widely; in the full conviction, that that is the happiest society, which partakes in the highest degree of the mild and peaceable spirit of Christianity. The hours of this day are rapidly flying, and this occa

sion will soon be passed. Neither we nor our children can expect to behold its return. They are in the distant regions of futurity, they exist only in the all-creating power of God, who shall stand here, a hundred years hence, to trace, through us, their descent from the Pilgrims, and to survey, as we have now surveyed, the progress of their country, during the lapse of a century. We would anticipate their concurrence with us in our sentiments of deep regard for our common ancestors. We would anticipate and partake the pleasure with which they will then recount the steps of New England's advancement. On the morning of that day, although it will not disturb us in our repose, the voice of acclamation and gratitude, commencing on the Rock of Plymouth, shall be transmitted through millions of the sons of the Pilgrims, till it lose itself in the murmurs of the Pacific seas.

And

We would leave for the consideration of those who shall then occupy our places, some proof that we hold the blessings transmitted from our fathers in just estimation; some proof of our attachment to the cause of good government, and of civil and religious liberty; some proof of a sincere and ardent desire to promote everything which may enlarge the understandings and improve the hearts of men. when, from the long distance of an hundred years, they shall look back upon us, they shall know, at least, that we possessed affections, which, running backward, and warming with gratitude for what our ancestors have done for our happiness, run forward also to our posterity, and meet them with cordial salutation, ere yet they have arrived on the shore of being.

Advance, then, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration. We bid you welcome to this pleasant land of the fathers. We bid you welcome to the healthful skies and the verdant fields of New England. We greet your accession to the great inheritance which we have enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings of good government, and religious liberty. We welcome you to the treasures of science, and the delights of learning. We wel come you to the transcendent sweets of domestic life, to

the happiness of kindred, and parents, and children. We welcome you to the immeasurable blessings of rational existence, the immortal hopes of Christianity, and the light of everlasting truth!

LESSON LXXI.

In Behalf of Catholic Emancipation.-REV. SYDNEY SMITH.

THERE are a set of high-spirited men, who are very much afraid of being afraid; who cannot brook the idea of doing any thing from fear, and whose conversation is full of fire and sword, when any apprehension of resistance is alluded to. I have perfect confidence in the high and unyielding spirit, and in the military courage of the English; and I have no doubt, but that many of the country gentlemen, who now call out No Popery, would fearlessly put themselves at the head of their embattled yeomanry to control the Irish Catholics. My objections to such courage is, that it would certainly be exercised unjustly, and probably exercised in vain. I should deprecate any rising of the Catholics, as the most grievous misfortune which could happen to the empire and to themselves. They had far better endure all they do endure, and a great deal worse, than try the experiment.

But, if they do try it, you may depend upon it they will do it at their own time, and not at yours. They will not select a fortnight in the summer, during a profound peace, when corn and money abound, and when the Catholics of Europe are unconcerned spectators. If you make a resolution to be unjust, you must make another resolution to be always strong, always vigilant, and always rich; you must present a square phalanx of impenetrable strength, for keen-eyed revenge is riding round your ranks; and if one heart falter, or one hand tremble, you are lost.

You may call all this threatening; I am sure I have no such absurd intention; but wish only, in sober sadness, to point out what appears to me to be the inevitable conse