people, in its own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least evince that one of its remote extremities is susceptible of sensibility to Christian wrongs, and capable of sympathy for Christian sufferings; that in this remote quarter of the world there are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a people endeared to us by every ancient recollection and every modern tie.

5. Sir, an attempt has been made to alarm the committee by the dangers to our commerce in the Mediterranean; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has been spread before us to repress our sensibilities and to eradicate our humanity. Ah! sir, "what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?"—or what shall it avail a nation to save the whole of a miserable trade, and lose its liberties?

Henry Clay.

XLIIL—MIDSUMMER.
i.

AROUND this lovely valley rise
The purple hills of Paradise.
O, softly on yon banks of haze
Her rosy face the Summer lays!
Becalmed along the azure sky,
The argosies of Cloudland lie,
Whose shores, with many a shining rift,
Far off their pearl-white peaks uplift.

Through all the long midsummer day
The meadow-sides are sweet with hay.
I seek the coolest sheltered seat,
Just where the field and forest meet.—
Where grow the pine-trees tall and bland,
The ancient oaks austere and grand,
And fringy roots and pebbles fret
The ripples of the rivulet.

I watch the mowers, as they go
Through the tall grass, a white-sleeved row.
With even stroke their scythes they swing,
In tune their merry whetstones ring.
Behind, the nimble youngsters run,
And toss the thick swaths in the sun.
The cattle graze, while, warm and still,
Slopes the broad pasture, basks the hill,
And bright, where summer breezes break,
The green wheat crinkles like a lake.

The butterfly and humble-bee
Come to the pleasant woods with me;
Quickly before me runs the quail,
Her chickens skulk behind the rail;
High up the lone wood-pigeon sits,
And the woodpecker pecks and flits,
Sweet woodland music sinks and swells,
The brooklet rings its tinkling bells,
The swarming insects drone and hum,
The partridge beats his throbbing drum.
The squirrel leaps among the boughs,
And chatters in his leafy house,
The oriole flashes by; and, look!
Into the mirror of the brook,
Where the vain bluebird trims his coat,
Two tiny feathers fall and float.

v.
As silently, as tenderly,
The down of peace descends en me.
O, this is peace! I have no need
Of friend to talk, of book to read:
A dear Companion here abides;
Close to my thrilling heart He hides;
The holy silence is His voice:
I lie and listen, and rejoice.

J. T. Trowbridge. XLIV.—CHARACTER OF CHARLES THE FIRST.

THE advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, generally decline all controversy about the facts, and content themselves with calling testimony to character. He had so many private virtues! And had James the Second no private virtues? Was Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies themselves being judges, destitute of private virtues?

2. And what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the ordinary household decencies which half the tombstones in England claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father! A good husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and falsehood!

3. We charge him with having broken his coronation oath; and we are told that he kept his marriage vow! We accuse him of having given up his people to the merciless inflictions of the most hot-headed and hard-hearted of prelates; and the defence is, that he took his little son on his knee and kissed him! We censure him for having violated the articles of the Petition of Right. after having, for good and valuable consideration, promised to observe them; and we are informed that he was accustomed to hear prayers at six o'clock in the morning! It is to such considerations as these, together with his Vandyke dress, his handsome face, and his peaked beard, that he owes, we verily believe, most of his popularity with the present generation.

4. For ourselves, we own that we do not understand the common phrase, a good man, but a bad king. We can as easily conceive a good man and an unnatural father, or a good man and a treacherous friend. We cannot, in estimating the character of an individual, leave out of our consideration his conduct in the most important of all human relations; and if in that relation we find him to have been selfish, cruel, and deceitful, we shall take the liberty to call him a bad man, in spite of all his temperance at table, and all his regularity at chapel.

Loed Macaulay.

XLV.—FALL OF THE INDMN HEROES.

i.
"T I 1HEY come! they come! the pale-face come!"

_l_ The chieftain shouted where he stood
Sharp watching at the margin wood,
And gave the war-whoop's treble yell,
That like a knell on fair hearts fell
Far watching from their rocky home.

No nodding plumes or banners fair
Unfurled or fretted in the air;
No screaming fife or rolling drum
Did challenge brave of soul to come:
But, silent, sinew-bows were strung,
And, sudden, heavy quivers hung,
And, swiftly, to the battle sprung
Tall painted braves with tufted hair,
Like death-black banners in the air.

And long they fought, and firm and well,

And silent fought, and silent fell,

Save when they gave the fearful yell

Of death, defiance, or of hate.

But what were feathered flints to fate?

And what were yells to seething lead?

And what the few and feeble feet

To troops that came with martial tread,

And stood by wood and hill and stieaiu

As thick as people in a street,

As strange as spirits in a dream?

IV.

From pine and poplar, here and there,

A cloud, a Hash, a crash, a thud,

A warrior's garments rofled in biood,

A yell that rent the mountain air

Of fierce defiance and despair,

Did tell who fell, and when and where.

Then tighter drew the coils around,

And closer grew the battle-ground,

And fewer feathered arrows fell,

And fainter grew the battle yell,

Until upon the hill was heard

The short, sharp whistle of the bird.

The calm, that cometh after all,

Looked sweetly down at shut of day,

Where friend and foe commingled lay

Like leaves of forest as they fall.

Afar the somber mountains frowned,

Here tall pines wheeled their shadows round

Like long, slim fingers of a hand

That sadly pointed out the dead.

Like some broad shield high overhead

The great white moon led on and on,

As leading to the Better Land.

You might have heard the cricket's trill.

Or night-birds calling from the hill,

The place was so profoundly stilL

The mighty chief at last was down,
The broken breast of brass and pride!
The hair all dust, the brow a-frown,
And proud mute lips compressed in hate
To foes, yet all content with fate;
While, circled round him thick, the foe
Had folded hands in dust, and died.
His tomahawk lay at his side,
All blood, beside his broken bow.