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threaten the freedom of the working classes through the world. Listen to Mr. Cobb, the Southern advocate:-There is perhaps no solution of the great problem of reconciling the interests of labour and capital so as to protect each from the encroachment and oppressions of the other, so simple and effective as negro slavery. By making the labourer himself capital, the conflict ceases, and the interests become identical.' Is there a working man here, or anywhere else, whose freedom is not involved in such a doctrine? Are you prepared to be made 'capital,' that the problem of reconciling labour and capital may be solved? Is it not your cause, then, that the North is fighting at this moment? Is it not a war between black and white that is being waged beyond the Atlantic? It is the war, the world old war, between freedom and tyranny, between GOD and the devil. For the sake of all mankind these dangerous Southern lunatics must be put down. They are called lunatics, because many of them seem to have persuaded themselves that their cause is that of humanity and GOD! The slave owner of the present day maintains that slavery is commanded by the Bible, and is ready to declare, with ex-Governor Hammond, of South Carolina, that slavery is an Eden, and that Satan enters it in the shape of an Abolitionist."

This is plain speaking, and should open the eyes of every free labourer in this country to the nature of the struggle now going on in America.

Again I contend that free institutions and Republican government are imperilled by the Southern States, and therefore they do not deserve our sympathy. Every enemy of liberal measures and progress in England is pointing the finger of scorn at America, and saying "See how Republican governments have broken down." What is war a proof of the breaking down of a system of government? If so, Monarchy has broken down in every country, and almost in every age. I am not trying to defend the system of government adopted in America, nor asking that ours may be altered to its model. I believe it is with governments pretty much as it is with systems of Church organisation, those that are administered best are best." I have no wish to see our constitution overturned, though I would, in some respects, be glad to see it reformed. Let men of little minds and narrow views sneer at and insult the government of a country, that in eighty years has grown from 3,000,000 to 30,000,000, and advanced in wealth and greatness beyond anything the world has ever seen before,

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if they like; but let the liberal men and liberal papers of this country remember, that their sympathies and their prayers ought to be for those who are trying to maintain a government based on the widest suffrage, and covering the most liberal institutions the world has ever seen.

I have now covered the ground I marked out for myself at starting. I fear I must have sorely taxed your patience, but I hope the greatness of the subject, and the importance of the questions I have reviewed, will be a sufficient excuse for the length at which I have addressed you. I have spoken earnestly, for I feel deeply on the subject. I cannot forget that the Americans speak our language, read our books, love our Bible, respect our Sabbath, sing our hymns, chaunt our prayers, and breathe our love of liberty, civilisation, and religion. I cannot but feel a sympathy for a people so nearly allied to us in all that should cement nations together, in their present troubles. I cannot forget the kindness and courtesy with which they received our Prince of Wales, and that while he was everywhere treated in a way becoming his rank and country in the North, he was insulted and annoyed in the South. Let us also not forget that while Americans have lessons to learn by the war, we have also something to learn. "We are verily guilty concerning our brother." We have seen and read of the anguish and sorrow that "GOD's image in Ebony" has been suffering in America, and yet we have continued to get our supplies of cotton from a country where it has been wet with the sweat of unpaid labour, and moist with the tears and blood of our suffering brethren. It cannot and must not be so in the future. India, China, Africa, and the West Indies, are all saying to us-"We have abundance of the soil and the sunshine necessary to produce cotton; let us have some of your energy, capital, and skill, and we will render you independent of slave-grown produce." For the sake of what we have done relative to slavery in the past, let us resolve to make this an occasion for rendering ourselves for ever free from the guilt of supporting slave labour; for the sake, too, of those toiling millions who have borne their privations and sufferings so nobly, so heroically, and so patiently, and who, amidst all their sorrows (to their honour be it spoken), have never asked us to break the blockade or recognise the South, and who, I verily believe, would rather suffer on, than that we should

join hands with "men stealers" and sellers of their own flesh and blood;-for the sake of these, I say, let us hope that the North may succeed in crushing a rebellion that had slavery for its origin, and human degradation for its end. Above all, for the sake of that religion which has long been outraged by the Southern States of America, and through their influence has also been insulted and trampled upon in the North, let us hope and pray that peace and prosperity may soon dawn upon that land. Let us pray that peace may again smile upon America; and that in the same grave in which the implements of war are buried, shall also be covered the chains of the slave; and that with slavery and war-earth's two greatest curses-removed, America may have before her a career of prosperity that shall eclipse the past; and "that GOD, even our GOD, may bless her, and all the ends of the earth may own His salvation."

THE POEMS OF WILLIAM COWPER.

BY

G. WIGHTWICK, ESQ.

(Contiuued.)

N the poem entitled "Conversation," the writer makes the same remark that was made by Dr. Johnson. The latter being asked whether "he had any conversation with Mr. So-and-So?" answered, "No, sir; we had plenty of talk, but no conversation; there was nothing discussed." So, says Cowper

"Words learned by rote, a parrot may rehearse;

But talking is not always to converse.'

He begins by severely censuring those colloquial swearers, who

"fix attention (heedless of your pain), With oaths, like rivets forced into the brain;"

and then proceeds to the theme of his dread and hate"A duel in the form of a debate ;"

picturing the man whose object is so completely the combat and victory of mere opposition, that if you agree with him, he will shift his ground to evade your concurrence, and disagree with himself!

"Vociferated logic kills me quite;

A noisy man is always in the right:

I twirl my thumbs, fall back into my chair,
Fix on the wainscot a distressful stare,

And, when I hope his blunders are all out,
Reply discreetly-To be sure: no doubt!'"

Then comes the ever-scrupulous, self-doubting man :—"With hesitation admirably slow,

He humbly hopes-presumes-it may be so:
He would not with a peremptory tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own.'

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Next comes the peremptory man, who, without the means of studying the question, settles it :

"Where others toil with philosophic force,
His nimble nonsense takes a shorter course;
Flings at your head conviction in the lump,
And gains remote conclusions at a jump."

With a reference to the restraint which the duel with pistols used to put upon angry colloquialists, the poet asks

"Am I to set my life upon a throw,

Because a bear is rude and surly? No.
A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me; and no other can."

The next sketch is that of the tedious spinner of "long yarns," who

"echoes conversations, dull and dry, Embellish'd with 'He said' and 'So said I'

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till he concludes with some incredible marvel, which he supports by the assertion that he "saw it with his eyes." To this his polite listener replies—

"Sir, I believe it on that ground alone;

I would not, had I seen it with my own."

The next hit is against the pipe-smoking speakers, who,

"with solemn interposing puff,

Make half a sentence at a time enough.

The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain,

Then pause-and puff—and speak—and puff again."

The speaker who is prone to the close contact of noses is of the same family with the button-holder: and the poet then goes on to the perfumed man of fine talk, saying

"The sight's enough; no need to smell a beau."

The solemn fop is next,

"With shallow brain, behind a serious mask,
An oracle within an empty cask;

Who says but little-and that little said,

Owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead."

The succeeding sketch is of the man who is ever detailing his sicknesses :

"He thought he must have died, he was so bad;

His peevish hearers almost wished he had."

The bashful man is alluded to; not as always deserving consideration for his modesty, since the writer suggests that vanity is often at the bottom of his apparent humility in conversation. The sketch of the talk during a morning call shows that it was then just as vapid as it is now. the conversation of sporting men, I have myself had example enough to know that Cowper lets them off easily; although in speaking of

"The reeking, roaring hero of the chase,

He gives him over as a desp'rate case;

For though the fox he follows may be tam'd,
A mere fox-hunter never is reclaim'd."

Of

The remaining half of this poem is of a more sacred or serious tone, having reference to the

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converse, such as it behoves

Man to maintain, and such as GOD approves."

The poem on "Retirement" I think the most beautiful of his larger works in rhyme, as well as the most valuable, in respect to its being at once a tonic and a sedative. We know how poets in general might be inclined to speak of retirement, as affording an asylum for minds "the world

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