4. A king sat on the rocky brow And men and nations, all were his! And when the sun set, where were they? 5. And where are they? And where art thou, My country? On thy voiceless shore Th' theroic lay is tuneless now, Th' heroic bosom beats no more! 6. Must we but weep o'er days more blest? 7. What, silent still? and silent all? And answer, "Let one living head, But one arise, we come, we come!" "T is but the living who are dumb. 8. In vain! in vain !-strike other chords; And shed the blood of Scio's vine! 9. You have the Pyrrhic dance as yet; The nobler and the manlier one? 10. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Were still at least our countrymen. 11. The tyrant of the Chersonese Was freedom's best and bravest friend: O! that the present hour would lend Such chains as his were sure to bind. 12. Fill high the bowl with Samian wine! Where nothing, save the waves and I, CXXV. - ON THE REMOVAL OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. EXTRACT from Lord Chatham's speech, in favor of the removal of the British troops from Boston, delivered in the House of Lords, January 20, 1775. 1. MY LORDS: When I urge this measure of recalling the troops from Boston, I urge it on the pressing principle, that it is necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace, and the establishment of your prosperity. It will then appear, that you are disposed to treat amicably and equitably; and to consider, revise, and repeal those violent acts and declarations which have disseminated confusion throughout your empire. 2. Resistance to your acts was necessary, as it was just; and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be found equally impotent to convince, or to enslave your fellow-subjects in America, who feel, that tyranny, whether exercised by an individual part of the legislature, or by the bodies which compose it, is equally intolerable to British subjects. I therefore urge and conjure your lordships, immediately, to adopt this conciliating measure. I will pledge myself for its immediately producing conciliating effects, by its being thus well-timed; but, if you delay, till your vain hope shall be accomplished of triumphantly *dictating terms of reconciliation, you delay forever. 3. But admitting that this hope (which, in truth, is desperate,) should be accomplished, what do you gain by the interposition of your victorious amity? You will be untrusted and unthanked. Adopt this measure, then, and allay the ferment prevailing in America, by removing the cause; a cause, obnoxious and unserviceable; for the merit of our army can only be in action. Its force would be most +disproportionately exerted against a brave, generous, and united people, with arms in their hands, and courage in their hearts; three millions of people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry, driven to those deserts by the narrow +maxims of a superstitious tyranny. 4. And is the spirit of persecution never to be appeased? Are the brave sons of those brave forefathers to inherit their sufferings as they have inherited their virtues? Are they to sustain the affliction of the most oppressive and unexampled +severity, and finally, because it is the wish of the ministry, be condemned unheard? My lords, the Americans have been condemned, unheard. The indiscriminate hand of vengeance has lumped together innocent and guilty; and, with all the formalities of hostility has blocked up the town of Boston, and reduced to beggary and famine, its thirty thousand inhabitants. 5. But, ministers say, that the union in America can not last. Ministers have more eyes than I have, and should have more ears; but, with all the information I have been able to procure, I can pronounce it a union, solid, permanent, and effectual. It is based upon an unconquerable spirit of independence, which is not new among them. It is, and has ever been, their established principle, their confirmed +persuasion; it is their nature and their doctrine. 6. I remember, some years ago, when the repeal of the stamp act was in agitation, conversing, in a friendly confidence, with a person of undoubted respect and +authenticity on that subject and he assured me, with a certainty which his judgment and opportunity gave him, that these were the +prevalent : and steady principles of America; that you might destroy their towns, and cut them off from the +superfluities, perhaps, the conveniencies of life; but that they were prepared to despise your power, and would not lament their loss, while they have-what, my lords? their woods and their liberty ! 7. When your lordships look at the papers transmitted us from America; when you consider their decency, firmness, and wisdom, you can not but respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must declare and avow, that, in all my reading and observation, and it has been my favorite study, I have read +Thucydides, and have studied and admired the master states of the world-that, for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men, can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia. 8. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men; to establish +despotism over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain; must be fatal. We shall be forced ultimately to retract; let us retract while we can, not when we must. I say we must necessarily undo these violent, oppressive acts; they must be repealed; you will repeal them; I pledge myself for it, that you will, in the end, repeal them; I stake my reputation on it; I will consent to be taken for an idiot, if they are not finally repealed. Avoid, then, this humiliating, this disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted situation, make the first advances to concord, to peace, and happiness; for that is your true dignity, to act with prudence and justice. 9. Every motive, therefore, of justice and of policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America, by a removal of your troops from Boston; by a repeal of your acts of parliament, and by a demonstration of your amicable disposition toward your colonies. On the other hand, every danger and every hazard impend, to deter you from perseverance in your present ruinous measures. Foreign war is hanging over your heads by a slight and brittle thread, and France and Spain are watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors. 10. To conclude, my lords, if the ministers thus persevere in misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown; but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not worth his wearing! I will not say, that the king is betrayed; but I will pronounce, that the kingdom is undone ! CXXVI. - BATTLE OF BEAL' AN DUINE. BEAL' AN DUINE, an abbreviation for Beallach an Duine, is the name of a pass or +defile between two eminences, where the battle described in this extract is supposed to have taken place. The parties in this battle were the forces of James V. of Scotland, on one side, and those of Roderick Dhu, a rebel subject of the king, on the other. Roderick himself had been previously taken prisoner, and was now confined. The minstrel who describes the battle is admitted to see his captive master, Roderick, and at his command portrays, in this wild burst of poetry, the engagement and utter defeat of the rebel troops. Trosach was the name of the region in which lay the glen of Beal' an Duine. Moray and Mar were the chiefs at the head of the king's forces. Clan-Alpine was the name of Roderick's clan, and the forces of this party lay concealed in the glen, intending to surprise their enemies as they approached, but were themselves entirely defeated, as described in this sketch. TINCHEL; a circle of hunters closing around the game. ERNE; Scotch for heron. BOUNE; equipped. 1. THE minstrel came once more to view The eastern ridge of Ben-venue, For ere he parted, he would say Upon her +aerie nods the erne, The deer has sought the brake; 2. Is it the thunder's solemn sound That mutters deep and dread? |