implacably vindictive against the white people. No wonder that the rage of resentment is handed down from generation to genera tion. No wonder that they refuse to associate and mix permanently with their unjust and cruel invaders and exterminators. No wonder that, in the unabating spite and frenzy of conscious impotence, they wage an eternal war, as well as they are able; that they triumph in the rare opportunity of revenge; that they dance, sing, and rejoice, as the victim shrieks and faints amid the flames, when they imagine all the crimes of their oppressors col lected on his head, and fancy the spirits of their injured forefath ers hovering over the scene, smiling with ferocious delight at the grateful spectacle, and feasting on the precious odor as it arises from the burning blood of the white man.

Yet the people here affect to wonder that the Indians are so very unsusceptible of civilization; or, in other words, that they so obstinately refuse to adopt the manners of the white man. Go, Virginians, erase from the Indian nation the tradition of their wrongs. Make them forget, if you can, that once this charming country was theirs; that over these fields and through these forests their beloved forefathers once, in careless gayety, pursued their sports and hunted their game; that every returning day found them the sole, the peaceful, and happy proprietors of this extensive and beautiful domain. Go, administer the cup of obliv ion to recollections like these; and then you will cease to complain that the Indian refuses to be civilized.

But, until then, surely it is nothing wonderful that a nation, even yet bleeding afresh from the memory of ancient wrongs, perpetually agonized by new outrages, and goaded into desperation and madness at the prospect of the certain ruin which awaits their descendants, should hate the authors of their miseries, of their desolation, their destruction; should hate their manners, hate their color, hate their language, hate their name, hate every thing that belongs to them! No; never, until time shall wear out the history of their sorrows and their sufferings, will the Indian be brought to love the white man, and to imitate his manners.

WILLIAM WIRT.

XLVI. CHARACTER OF LORD CHATHAM.

THE secretary stood alone. Modern degeneracy had not reached him. Original and unaccommodating, the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. His august mind overawed majesty itself; and one of his sovereigns thought royalty so impaired in his presence, that he conspired to remove him, in order

CHARACTER OF LORD CHATHAM.

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to be relieved from his superiority. No state chicanery, no narrow systems of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sank him to the vulgar level of the great; but, overbearing, persuasive, and impracticable, his object was England, his ambition was fame. Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. France sank beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded in the other the democracy of England. sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to affect, not England, not the present age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestions of an understanding animated by ardor, and enlightened by prophecy.

The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent were unknown to him. No domestic difficulties, no domestic weakness, reached him; but, aloof from the sordid occurrences of life, and unsullied by its intercourse, he came occasionally into our system to counsel and to decide.

A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country and the calamities of the enemy answered and refuted her.

Nor were his political abilities his only talents. His eloquence was an era in the senate; peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instinctive wisdom; not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder and sometimes the music of the spheres. He did not, like Murray, conduct the understanding through the painful subtlety of argumentation; nor was he, like Townshend, forever on the rack of exertion; but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of his mind, which, like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed.

Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority; something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through its history!

GRATTAN.

XLVII. THE STUDY OF LANGUAGES.

WITHOUT a competent command of language, either written or ōral, it is impossible for any person, be his abilities or position what they may, to acquire any lasting influence in a free and enlightened community. I speak not merely of those destined for the senate, the bar, or the church: the power of public speaking, and a thorough command of the English language, are obviously indispensable to them, if they would gain the least success in life. It lies at the very threshold of their career. But the utility of a thorough command of language is not confined to those professions in which it is immediately called for; it is felt, also, in every walk of life, as soon as any thing like distinction and eminence has been attained.

Such is the construction of the English language, owing to the many different nations who, during the course of eighteen centu ries, have taken part in its formation, that a thorough command of our own tongue can not by possibility be acquired, unless the languages are known from which it has been compounded. A considerable number of our oldest words-nearly all which are to be found in our translation of the Bible-are of German origin; almost all those used in science are derived from Greek; two thirds of the words at present in daily use are derived from Latin, or French, or Italian, which are only dialects of the tongue in use with the ancient conquerors of the world. It is out of the question to obtain a thorough command of such a language, unless the sources are known from which it has been drawn.

Be not deterred by the labor requisite for the command of many languages. Recollect the words of Johnson: "Distinction is now to be won only by the labors of a lifetime; it is not to be attained at any less price." Recollect also the words of Sir Joshua Reynolds: "Nothing is denied to well-directed industry; nothing is to be attained without it." "All things," says the wise man, are full of labor. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing." To all, these words were spoken. It is the common law of our being; it is by the labor of man's hands, and the sweat of his brow, that he is to earn his knowledge as well as his subsistence. But to us a higher motive for effort has been opened; an immortal reward for exertion has been offered. Therefore it is, O Christian! that thy eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor thy ear with hearing; for that eye must open upon immortality, and that ear must hear the voice of the living God!

ALISON.

DUTY OF A CHIEF MAGISTRATE.

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XLVIII. - DUTY OF A CHIEF MAGISTRATE,

GENTLEMEN, we live under a constitution. It has made us what we are. What has carried the American flag all over the world? What has constituted that unit of commerce that, wherever the stripes and stars are seen, they signify that it is America, and united America? What is it now that represents us so respectably all over Europe, in London at this moment, and all over the world? What is it but the result of those commercial regulations which bound us all together, and made our commerce the same commerce; which made all the States,- New York, Massachusetts, South Carolina,- in the aspect of our foreign relations, the same country, without division, distraction, or separation? Now, gentlemen, this was the original design of the constitution. We, in our day, must see that this spirit is made to pervade the whole administration of the government. The constitution of the United States, to keep us united, to keep flowing in our hearts a fraternal feeling, must be administered in the spirit of it.

And if I wish to have the spirit of the constitution, in its living, speaking, animated form, I would refer always, always, to the administration of the first president George Washing ton; and if I were now, fellow-citizens, to form the ideal of a patriot President, I would draw his master strokes, and copy his design. I would present this picture before me as a constant study for life. I would present his policy, alike liberal, just, narrowed down to no sectional interests, bound down to no personal objects, held to no locality, but broad, and generous, and open; as expansive as the air which is wafted by the winds of heaven from one part of the country to another. I would draw a picture of his foreign policy - just, steady, stately, but, withal, proud, and lovely, and glorious. No man could say, in his day, that the broad escutcheon of the honor of the Union could receive either injury or damage, or even contumely or disrespect. His own character gave character to the foreign relations of the country. He upheld every interest of his country, in even the proudest nations of Europe; and, while resolutely just, he was resolutely determined that no plume of her renown should ever be defaced.

Gentlemen, a wise and prudent shipmaster makes it his first duty to preserve the vessel that carries him and his merchandise to keep her afloat, to conduct her to her destined port with entire security of property and life. That is his first object; and that should be the object, and is, of every chief magistrato of the

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United States who has a proper appreciation of his duty.is to preserve the constitution which bears him, which sustains the government, without which every thing goes to the bottom;-to preserve that, and keep it, to the utmost of his ability, off the rocks and shoals, and away from the quicksands; to preserve that, he exercises the caution of the experienced shipmaster; he suffers nothing to betray his watchfulness-to draw him aside from the joint interests committed to his care, and the great object in view.

Though pleased to see the dolphins play,

He minds his compass and his way;

And oft he throws the wary lead,
To see what dangers may be hid.
At helm he makes his reason sit;
His crew of passions all submit:

Thus safe he steers his barge, and sails
On upright keel, and meets the gales."

Now, gentlemen, with this steadiness of purpose, this entire and devoted patriotism of motive, Washington reached that which those who wish to reach, must emulate him and his example to find all their efforts crowned with success. He lived to see his country great, prosperous, and happy. He reaped a rich reward in the thanks of his countrymen; and we are enabled to read his history in a nation's pride.

WEBSTER.

A company of volunteers were present at the delivery of this discourse (in Bristol, England, Oct. 19, 1803), at the time of the threatened invasion by Napoleon.

Go forth, defenders of your country, accompanied with every auspicious omen; advance with alacrity into the field, where God himself musters the hosts to war. Religion is too much interested in your success not to lend you her aid. She will shed over your enterprise her selectest influence. While you are engaged in the field, many will repair to the closet, many to the sanctuary; the faithful of every name will employ that prayer which has power with God; the feeble hands which are unequal to any other weapon, will grasp the sword of the Spirit; and, from myriads of humble, con'trite hearts, the voice of intercession, supplication, and weeping, will mingle, in its ascent to heaven, with the shouts of battle and the shock of arms.

While you have every thing to fear from the success of the enemy, you have every means of preventing that success; so that