Oh! was there ever such a knight, in friendship or in war, Ho! maidens of Vienna! Ho! matrons of Lucerne ! return. Ho! Philip, send, for charity, thy Mexican pistoles, That Antwerp monks may sing a mass for thy poor spearmen's souls! Ho! gallant nobles of the League, look that your arms be bright! Ho! burghers of St. Genevieve, keep watch and ward to night! For our God hath crushed the tyrant, our God hath raised the slave, And mocked the counsel of the wise, and the valor of the brave. Then glory to His holy name, from whom all glories are; And glory to our sovereign lord, king Henry of Navarre ! IX.-APPEAL FOR PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. LORD BROUGHAM. During the years 1830, 1831, and 1832, the English nation, and both houses of Parliament, were intensely agitated, in reference to parliamentary reform. Under the system that had previously prevailed, there were such inequalities, that in some instances a member of the House of Commons represented hundreds of thousands of persons, and in some instances only one or two dwellings. Old Sarum had two members, and not a single inhabitant. The members were appointed by the owner of the land on which the town had formerly stood. In 1831, Lord Brougham made a powerful speech in the House of Lords, in favor of a better system. The following is an extract from it. It requires great force, high pitch, and marked falling inflections. It is an expression of the most earnest supplication : But, among the awful considerations that now bow down my mind, there is one that stands preeminent above the rest. You are the highest judicature in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeal. It is a judge's first duty never to pronounce a sentence, in the most trifling case, without a hearing. Will you make this the exception? Are you really prepared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty cause upon which a nation's hopes and fears hang? You are? Then beware of your decision! Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-loving but a resolute people! Alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire! As your friend, as the friend of my order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant of my sovereign, I counsel you to assist, with your uttermost efforts, in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the Constitution. Therefore, I pray and exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear,-by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order, and our common country, I solemnly adjure you,—I warn you,— I implore you, yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you, -reject not this bill! X. THE LOSS OF THE ARCTIC. H. W. BEECHER. In September, 1854, the Steamer Arctic, in making a voyage from Liverpool to New York, encountered another vessel in the fog, off Newfoundland. The Arctic was sunk, and most of those on board perished. Rev. Henry Ward Beecher preached a sermon upon the event, from which the following is an extract. The mate, Mr. Gourley, with some of the crew, had been sent to ascertain what damage had been done to the other vessel. Moderate pitch and slow speed are required: They departed, and with them the hope of the ship; for now the waters, gaining upon the hold and rising upon the fires, revealed the mortal blow. Oh, had now that stern, brave mate, Gourley, been on deck, whom the sailors were wont to mind,-—had he stood to execute efficiently the commander's will, we may believe that we should not have had to blush for the cowardice and recreancy of the crew, nor to weep for the untimely dead. But, apparently, each subordinate officer lost all presence of mind, then courage, and so honor. In a wild scramble, that ignoble mob of firemen, engineers, waiters, and crew, rushed for the boats, and abandoned the helpless women, children, and men, to the mercy of the deep! Four hours there were from the catastrophe of collision to the catastrophe of SINKING! Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his home, among weeping throngs, and gently carried to the green fields, and laid peacefully beneath the turf and the flowers. No priest stood to pronounce a burial service. It was an ocean grave. The mists alone shrouded the burial place. No spade prepared the grave, nor sexton filled up the hollowed earth. Down, down they sank, and the quick returning waters smoothed out every ripple, and left the sea as if it had not been. XI. PEACEABLE SECESSION. DANIEL WEBSTER. For many years before the civil war of 1861, some of the Southern politicians had been threatening to dissolve the Union of the American States, and to set up a Southern Confederacy. This was done by way of terrifying men in other parts of the country. The impossibility of this idea of "peaceable secession" was thus forcibly exposed by Daniel Webster in 1850. Full volume is required : The con Peaceable secession! Peaceable secession ! current agreement of all the members of this great Republic to separate! A voluntary separation, with alimony on one side and on the other. Why, what would be the result? Where is the line to be drawn? What states are to secede? What is to remain American? What am I to be? An American no longer? Am I to become a sectional man, a local man, a separatist, with no country in common with the gentlemen who sit around me here, or who fill the other house of Congress? Heaven forbid! Where is the flag of the Republic to remain? Where is the eagle still to tower? or is he to cower and shrink, and fall to the ground? Why, Sir, our ancestors, our fathers and our grandfathers, those of them that are yet living amongst us with prolonged lives, would rebuke and reproach us; and our children and our grandchildren would cry out shame upon us, if we of this generation should dishonor these ensigns of the power of the government, and the harmony of that Union which is every day felt among us with so much joy and gratitude. What is to become of the army? What is to become of the navy? What is to become of the public lands? How is each of the thirty states to defend itself? But, Sir, I am ashamed to pursue this line of remark; I dislike it, I have an utter disgust for it. I would rather hear of natural blasts and mildews, war, pestilence, and famine, than to hear gentlemen talk of secession. To break up this great government! to dismember this glorious country! to astonish Europe with an act of folly such as Europe for two centuries has never beheld in any government or any people! No, Sir! no, Sir! There will be no secession ! Gentlemen are not serious when they talk of secession. XII. THE SEMINOLE'S REPLY. G. W. PATTEN. The Seminoles were a tribe of Indians in Florida, with whom the United States maintained a conflict from 1817 to 1842. It arose chiefly from the practice adopted by the Indians of harboring runaway slaves. The Seminoles exhibited great courage and perseverance, as well as vindictiveness. Their most famous warrior was Osceola, who died in 1838. In the following extract, a Seminole Chief is represented as spurning the peace offered by the United States Government on condition of submission. The piece requires pure tone, great force, with a prevalence of radical stress. The expressions of scorn should have the vanishing stress : Blaze, with your serried columns ! I will not bend the knee! When the tempest muttered low; I've scared ye in the city, I've scalped ye on the plain; Go, count your chosen, where they fell I scorn your proffered treaty! Revenge is stamped upon my spear, Ye've trailed me through the forest, I loathe ye in my bosom, And I'll taunt ye with my latest breath, I ne'er will ask ye quarter, And I ne'er will be your slave; XIII.-A POLITICAL PAUSE. CHARLES J. FOX. During the wars with Napoleon Bonaparte, from 1799 to 1812, the British government was often urged by the whigs-the party then in opposition—to conclude peace. The government for some time insisted on a pause in the negotiations for peace, in order that they might the better learn Napoleon's intentions. This policy is treated with scathing sarcasm, by Charles James Fox, in the following extract. It requires the tones of irony, and hence marked circumflex : But if a man were present now at the field of slaughter, and were to inquire for what they were fighting-" Fighting!" would be the answer; "they are not fighting; they are pausing." "Why is that man expiring? Why is that other writhing with agony? What means this implacable fury?" The answer must be, "You are quite wrong, Sir ; you deceive |