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151.-IMPRESSIONS DERIVED FROM THE STUDY OF HISTORY. THE study of the history of most other nations, fills the mind with sentiments not unlike those which the American traveller feels on entering the venerable and lofty cathedral of some proud old city of Europe. Its solemn grandeur, its vastness, its obscurity, strike awe to the heart. From the richly painted windows, filled with sacred emblems and strange antique forms, a dim religious light falls around. A thousand recollections, of romance, and poetry, and legendary story, come crowding in upon him. surrounded by the tombs of the mighty dead, rich with the labours of ancient art, and emblazoned with the pomp of heraldry.

He is

What names does he read upon them? Those of princes and nobles who are now remembered only for their vices, and of sovereigns, at whose death no tears were shed, and whose memories lived not an hour in the affections of their people. There, too, he sees other names, long familiar to him for their guilty or ambiguous fame. There rest, the blood-stained soldier of fortune-the orator, who was ever the ready apologist of tyranny-great scholars, who were the pensioned flatterers of power-and poets, who profaned their heaven-gifted talent to pamper the vices of a corrupted court.

Our own history, on the contrary, like that poetical temple of fame, which was reared by the imagination of Chaucer, and decorated by the taste of Pope, is almost exclusively dedicated to the memory of the truly great. Or rather, like the Pantheon of Rome, it stands in calm and severe beauty amid the ruins of ancient magnificence and "the toys of modern state." Within, no idle ornament encumbers its bold simplicity. The pure light of heaven enters from above and sheds an equal and serene radiance around. As the eye wanders about its extent, it beholds the unadorned monuments of brave and good men who have greatly bled or toiled for their country, or it rests on votive tablets inscribed with the names of the best benefactors of mankind.

Yes-land of liberty! thy children have no cause to blush for thee. What though the arts have reared no monu

ments among us, and scarce a trace of the muse's footstep is found in the paths of our forest, or along the banks of our rivers; yet our soil has been consecrated by the blood of heroes, and by great and holy deeds of peace. Its wide extent has become one vast temple and hallowed asylum, sanctified by the prayers and blessings of the persecuted of every sect, and the wretched of all nations.

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Land of refuge-land of benedictions! Those prayers still arise, and they still are heard. May peace be within thy walls and plenteousness within thy palaces." May there be no decay, no leading into captivity, and no complaining in thy streets." May truth flourish out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven." VERPLANCK.

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152.-NOBLE BURST OF JUDICIAL ELOQUENCE.-DELIVERED IN THE CELEBRATED CASE OF THE KING AGAINST JOHN WILKES.

Ir is fit to take some notice of the various terrors hung out the numerous crowds which have attended and now attend in and about the hall, out of all reach of hearing what passes in court; and the tumults which, in other places, have shamefully insulted all order and government. Audacious addresses in print dictate to us, from those they call the people, the judgment to be given now, and afterwards upon the conviction. Reasons of policy are urged, from danger to the kingdom, by commotions and general confusion.

Give me leave to take the opportunity of this great and respectable audience to let the whole world know, all such attempts are vain. Unless we have been able to find an error which will bear us out, to reverse the outlawry, it must be affirmed. The constitution does not allow reasons of state to influence our judgments: God forbid it should! We must not regard political consequences, how formidable soever they might be if rebellion was the certain consequence, we are bound to say "Fiat justitia, ruat cælum." The constitution trusts the king with reasons of state and policy he may stop prosecutions; he may pardon offences; it is his to judge whether the law or the criminal should yield. We have no election: none of us encouraged

or approved the commission of either of the crimes of which the defendant is convicted: none of us had any hand in his being prosecuted. It is not in our power to stop it; it was not in our power to bring it on. We cannot pardon. We are to say, what we take the law to be: if we do not speak our real opinions, we prevaricate with God and our own consciences.

I pass over many anonymous letters I have received: those in print are public; and some of them have been brought judicially before the court. Whoever the writers are, they take the wrong way: I will do my duty unawed. What am I to fear? That mendax infamia from the press, which daily coins false facts and false motives? The lies of calumny carry no terror to me: I trust that my temper of mind, and the colour and conduct of my life, have given me a suit of armour against these arrows. If, during this king's reign, I have ever supported his government, and assisted his measures, I have done it without any other reward, than the consciousness of doing what I thought right. If I have ever opposed, I have done it upon the points themselves, without mixing in party or faction, and without any collateral views. I honour the king, and respect the people; but, many things acquired by the favour of either, are, in my account, objects not worth ambition. I wish popularity; but it is that popularity which follows, not that which is run after; it is that popularity which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the pursuit of nol- ends by noble means. I will not do that which my conscience tells me is wrong, upon this occasion, to gain the huzzas of thousands, or the daily praise of all the papers which come from the press: I will not avoid doing what I think is right, though it should draw on me the whole artillery of libels; all that falsehood and malice can invent, or the credulity of a deluded populace can swallow. I can say, with a great magistrate, upon an occasion and under circumstances not unlike, " Ego hoc animo semper fui, ut invidiam virtute partam, gloriam, non invidiam, putarem."

The threats go further than abuse; personal violence is denounced. I do not believe it: it is not the genius of the worst men of this country, in the worst of times. But I have set my mind at rest. The last end that can happen

to any man, never comes too soon, if he falls in support of the law and liberty of his country, (for liberty is synonymous with law and government.) Such a shock, too, might be productive of public good: it might awake the better part of the kingdom out of that lethargy which seems to have be numbed them, and bring the mad part back to their senses, as men intoxicated are sometimes stunned into sobriety.

Once for all, let it be understood, "that no endeavours of this kind will influence any man who at present sits here." If they had any effect, it would be contrary to their intent: leaning against their impression, might give a bias the other way. But I hope, and I know, that I have fortitude enough to resist even that weakness. No libels, no threats, nothing that has happened, nothing that can happen, will weigh a feather against allowing the defendant, upon this and every other question, not only the whole advantage he is entitled to from substantial law and justice, but every benefit from the most critical nicety of form, which any other defendant could claim under the like objection. The only effect I feel, is an anxiety to be able to explain the grounds upon which we proceed; so as to satisfy all mankind "that a flaw of form given way to in this case, should not have been got over in any other." MANSFIELD.

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153.-SPEECH OF LORD CHANCELLOR THURLOW IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, IN REPLY TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. I AM amazed at the attack the noble duke has made on Yes, my lords, [considerably raising his voice,] I am amazed at his grace's speech. The noble duke cannot

me.

* The Duke of Grafton had reproached Lord Thurlow with his plebeian extraction, and his recent admission into the peerage. "Lord Thurlow rose from the woolsack, and advanced slowly to the place from which the chancellor generally addresses the house: then fixing on the duke the look of Jove when he grasps the thunder, in a level tone of voice, he spoke as above.

"The effect of this speech, both within the walls and out of them, was prodigious. It gave Lord Thurlow an ascendancy in the house which no chancellor had ever possessed; it invested him, in public opinion, with a character of independence and honour; and this though he was ever on the unpopular side in politics, made him always popular with the people."

look before him, behind him, or on either side of him, without seeing some noble peer who owes his seat in this house to his successful exertions in the profession to which I belong. Does he not feel that it is as honourable to owe it to these, as to being the accident of an accident? To all these noble lords the language of the noble duke is as applicable and as insulting as it is to myself. But I do not fear to meet it single and alone. No one venerates the peerage more than I do: but, my lords, I must say, that the peerage solicited me, not I the peerage. Nay more: I can say, and will say, that as a peer of parliament, as speaker of this right honourable house, as keeper of the great seal, as guardian of his majesty's conscience, as lord high chancellor of England, nay, even in that character alone in which the noble duke would think it an affront to be considered,,-as A MAN, I am at this moment as respectable,-I beg leave to add,—I am at this time as much respected, as the proudest peer I now look down upon. THURLOW.

154. CONDUCT OF LA FAYETTE IN THE AMERICAN REVO

LUTION.

THE war of American Independence is closed. The people of the North American Confederation are in union, sovereign and independent. La Fayette, at twenty-five years of age, has lived the life of a patriarch, and illustrated the career of a hero. Had his days upon earth been then numbered, and had he then slept with his fathers, illustrious as for centuries their names had been, his name, to the end of time, would have transcended them all. Fortunate youth! fortunate beyond even the measure of his companions in arms with whom he had achieved the glorious consummation of American Independence. His fame was all his own; not cheaply earned; not ignobly won. fellow soldiers had been the champions and defenders of their country. They reaped for themselves, for their wives, their children, their posterity to the latest time, the rewards of their dangers and their toils. La Fayette had watched, and laboured, and fought, and bled, not for himself, not for his family, not, in the first instance, even for his country. In the legendary tales of chivalry we read

His

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