greater: mutatis mutandis, suppose France in possession of the British naval power-and to her the trident must pass, should England be unable to wield it--what would be your condition? What would be the situation of your seaports, and their seafaring inhabitants? Ask Hamburg, Lubeck! Ask Savannah! What, sir, when their privateers are pent up in our harbours by the British bull-dogs: when they receive at our hands every right of hospitality, from which their enemy is excluded; when they capture in our own waters, interdict ed to British armed ships, American vessels; when such is their deportment toward you, under such circumstances, what could you expect if they were the uncontrolled lords of the ocean? Had those privateers at Savannah borne British commissions, or had your shipments of cotton, tobacco, ashes, and what not, to London and Liverpool, been confiscated, and the proceeds poured into the English exchequer, my life upon it, you would never have listened to any miserable, wire-drawn distinctions between "orders and decrees affecting our neutral rights," and "municipal decrees," confiscating, in mass, your whole property: you would have had instant war! The whole land would have blazed out in war. And shall republicans become the instruments of him who has effaced the title of Attila to the 66 scourge of God?" Yet even Attila, in the fallen fortunes of civilization, had, no doubt, his advocates, his tools, his minions, his parasites, in the very countries that he overrun --sons of that soil, whereon his horse had trod, where grass could never after grow. If perfectly fresh, instead of being as I am, my memory clouded, my intellect stupified, my strength and spirits exhausted, I could not give utterance to that strong detestation which I feel toward (above all other works of the creation) such characters as Gengis, Tamerlane, Kouli Khan, or Bonaparte. My instincts involuntarily revolt at their bare idea-malefactors of the human race, who have ground down man to a mere machine of their impious and bloody ambition! Yet, under all the accumulated wrongs, and insults, and robberies of the last of these chieftains, are we not, in point of fact, about to become a party to his views, a partner in his wars? But before this miserable force of ten thousand men is raised to take Canada, I beg gentlemen to look at the state of defence at home; to count the cost of the enterprise before it is set on foot, not when it may be too late; wha the best blood of the country shall be spilt, and naught but empty coffers left to pay the cost. Are the bounty lands to be given in Canada? It might lessen my repugnance to that part of the system, to granting these lands, not to these miserable wretches, who sell themselves to slavery for a few dollars, and a glass of gin, but, in fact, to the clerks in our offices, some of whom, with an income of fifteen hundred or two thousand dollars, live at the rate of four or five thousand, and yet grow rich; who, perhaps, at this moment, are making out blank assignments for these land rights. I beseech the house, before they run their heads against this post, Quebec, to count the cost. My word for it, Virginia planters will not be taxed to support such a war—a war which must aggravate their present distresses-in which they have not the remotest interest. Where is the Montgomery, or even the Arnold, or the Burr, who is to march to the Point Levi? I call upon those professing to be republicans, to make good the promises held out by their republican predecessors, when they came into power; promises which, for years afterward, they honestly, faithfully fulfilled. We have vaunted of paying off the national debt; of retrenching useless establishments, and yet have now become as infatuated with standing armies, loans, taxes, navies, and war, as ever were the Essex Junto. RANDOLPH. 86.-A FAREWELL TO SCOTLAND. Farewell ye hills of glorious deeds, Farewell ye broomy elfin knowes, Farewell, ye hoary haunted howes The martyr's grave-the lover's bower- Home of our hearts!—our father's home- We seek a wild and distant shore But may dishonour blight our fame, She loved, as Roman matron should, She would have calmly seen his blood PRINGLE. But could not bear to have him die To see his stately neck bow'd low She brought to him his own bright brand, And bade him by his own right hand, In vain-the Roman fire was cold "It is not painful, Pætus."-Ay Nor scorn nor yet condemn the deed, Ages since then have swept along; Yet still is woman's love as strong- 88. THE MARINER'S SONG. A WET sheet and a flowing sea, And fills the white and rustling sail, Away the good ship flies, and leaves "O! for a soft and gentle wind," But give to me the snoring breeze, There's tempest in yon horned moon, While the hollow oak our palace is, Our heritage the sea. CUNNINGHAM 89.-ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH. HIGHER, higher will we climb, That our names may live through time Deeper, deeper let us toil In the mines of knowledge; Nature's wealth, and learning's spoil, Win from school and college; Delve we there for richer gems Than the stars of diadems. Onward, onward may we press Excellence true beauty. Minds are of celestial birth, Make we then a heaven of earth. |