upon your courage and conduct rest the hopes of our bleeding and insulted country; our wives, children, and parents expect safety from us only; and they have every reason to believe that Heaven will crown with success so just a cause.

The enemy will endeavor to intimidate by show and appearance; but, remember, they have been repulsed on various occasions by a few brave Americans. Their cause is bad-their men are conscious of it; and, if opposed with firmness and coolness on their first onset, with our advantage of works, and knowledge of the ground, the victory is most assuredly ours. Every good soldier will be silent and attentive-wait for orders, and reserve his fire until he is sure of doing execution.

WAR INEVITABLE.

PATRICK HENRY.

THEY tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a

proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.

Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable; and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace! peace! - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the North will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

POCAHONTAS.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY.

WEARIED arm and broken sword
Wage in vain the desperate fight;
Round him press a countless horde,
He is but a single knight.
Hark! a cry of triumph shrill

Through the wilderness resounds,
As, with twenty bleeding wounds,
Sinks the warrior, fighting still.

Now they heap the funeral pyre,
And the torch of death they light;
Ah! 'tis hard to die by fire!

Who will shield the captive knight? Round the stake with fiendish cry

Wheel and dance the savage crowd, Cold the victim's mien and proud, And his breast is bared to die.

Who will shield the fearless heart?
Who avert the murderous blade?
From the throng with sudden start

See, there springs an Indian maid.
Quick she stands before the knight:
"Loose the chain, unbind the ring!
I am daughter of the king,
And I claim the Indian right!"

Dauntlessly aside she flings

Lifted axe and thirsty knife,
Fondly to his heart she clings,
And her bosom guards his life!
In the woods of Powhattan,

Still 'tis told by Indian fires
How a daughter of their sires
Saved a captive Englishman.

FRANKLIN'S TOAST.

ANONYMOUS.

LONG after Washington's judicious and intrepid conduct in respect to the French and English had made his name familiar to all Europe, Dr. Franklin chanced to dine with the English and French ambassadors, when the following toasts were drunk :

The British ambassador, rising, said: "England, the sun whose bright beams enlighten and fertilize the remotest corners of the earth."

The French ambassador, glowing with national pride, but too polite to dispute the previous toast, drank: "France, the moon whose mild, steady, and cheering rays are the delight of all nations, consoling them in darkness, and making their dreariness beautiful."

Dr. Franklin then arose, and, with his usual dignified simplicity, said: "George Washington, Washington, the Joshua who commanded the sun and moon to stand still, and

they obeyed him.”

THE PEN.

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON.

BENEATH the rule of men entirely great
The pen is mightier than the sword. Behold
The arch enchanter's wand!-itself a nothing
But taking sorcery from the master's hand
To paralyze the Cæsars and to strike

The loud earth breathless! Take away the sword
States can be saved without it.

THE LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS.

FELICIA HEMANS.

THE breaking waves dashed high

On a stern and rockbound coast,
And the woods against a stormy sky
Their giant branches tossed;

And the heavy night hung dark

The hills and waters o'er,

When a band of exiles moored their bark
On the wild New England shore.

Not as the conqueror comes,

They, the true-hearted, came;

Not with the roll of the stirring drums
And the trumpet that speaks of fame.

Not as the flying come,

In silence, and in fear;