still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed-it will be confessed-there is no refuge from confession but suicide—and suicide is confession!

THE IMPORTANT TRUTH.-H. MELVILL.

If there be a cause of exultation, a motive for rejoicing, to a fallen creature, must it not be that he is still dear to his Maker, that notwithstanding all which he hath done to provoke Divine wrath, and make condemnation inevitable, he is regarded with unspeakable tenderness by the Almighty, watched over with a solicitude, and provided for at a cost which could not be exceeded if he were the noblest and purest of the beings that throng the intelligent universe? Teach me this, and you teach me everything. And this I learn from Christ crucified. I learn it indeed in a measure from the sun as he walks the firmament, and warms the earth into fertility. I learn it from the moon, as she gathers the stars into her train, and throws over creation her robe of soft light. I gather it from the various operations and provisions of nature, from the faculties of the mind, from the capacities of the soul. But if I am taught by these, the teaching after all is but imperfect and partial: they do indeed give testimony that man is not forgotten of God; but the testimony would be equally given, were there the power of receiving it, to the brute creation, to the innumerable animated tribes which are to perish at death. It is not a testimony, at least not a direct testimony, that we are cared for as immortal beings, and can be pardoned as sinful. It is not a testimony that He who is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity, can receive into favor even the vilest of those who have thrown off allegiance, and manifest such an exuberance of loving-kindness towards the guilty, as will not leave the worst case without hope and without succor. Show us what will give moon, and the granaries

such testimony as this, and sun, and

of nature, and the workings of intellect will drop, in comparison, their office of instructor.

IRELAND.-D. O'CONNell.

I Do not rise to fawn or cringe to this House. I do not rise to supplicate you to be merciful toward the nation to which I belong; toward a nation which, though subject to England, yet is distinct from it. It is a distinct nation. It has been treated as such by this country, as may be proved by history, and by seven hundred years of tyranny. I call upon this House, as you value the liberty of England, not to allow the present nefarious bill to pass. In it are involved the liberties

of England, the liberty of the press, and of every other institution dear to Englishmen. Against the bill I protest, in the name of the Irish people, and in the face of Heaven.

I treat with scorn the puny and pitiful assertions, that grievances are not to be complained of; that our redress is not to be agitated; for, in such cases, remonstrances cannot be too strong, agitation cannot be too violent, to show to the world with what injustice our fair claims are met, and under what tyranny the people suffer.

The clause which does away with trial by jury; what is it, if it is not the establishment of a revolutionary tribunal? It drives the judge from his bench. It does away with that which is more sacred than the throne itself; that for which your king reigns, your lords deliberate, your commons assemble. If ever I doubted before of the success of our agitation for repeal, this bill, this infamous bill-the way in which it has been received by the House; the manner in which its opponents have been treated; the personalities to which they have been subjected; the yells with which one of them has this night been greeted—all these things dissipate my doubts, and tell me of its complete and early triumph.

Do you think those yells will be forgotten? Do you suppose their echo will not reach the plains of my injured and insulted country; that they will not be whispered in her green valleys, and heard from her lofty hills? O, they will be heard there! Yes; and they will not be forgotten. The youth of Ireland will bound with indignation; they will say, "We are eight

millions; and you treat us thus, as though we were no more to your country than the isle of Guernsey or of Jersey !"

I have done my duty. I stand acquitted to my conscience and my country. I have opposed this measure throughout. I now protest against it as harsh, oppressive, uncalled for, unjust; as establishing an infamous precedent, by retailing crime against crime; as tyrannous, cruelly and vindictively tyrannous !

CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.-HAMILTON.

AFTER all our doubts, our suspicions, and speculations on the subject of government, we must return at last to this important truth-that, when we have formed a constitution upon free principles, when we have given a proper balance to the different branches of administration, and fixed representation upon pure and equal principles, we may with safety furnish it with all the powers necessary to answer, in the most ample manner, the purposes of government. The great desiderata are a free representation and mutual checks. When these are obtained, all our apprehensions of the extent of powers are unjust and imaginary. What, then, is the structure of this constitution? One branch of the legislature is to be elected by the people-by the same people who choose your state representatives. Its members are to hold their office two years, and then return to their constituents. Here, sir, the people govern. Here they act by their immediate representatives. You have also a Senate, constituted by your state legislatures-by men in whom you place the highest confidence,—and forming another representative branch. Then, again, you have an executive magistrate, created by a form of election which merits universal admiration.

In the form of this government, and in the mode of legislation, you find all the checks which the greatest politicians and the best writers have ever conceived. What more can reasonable men desire? Is there any one branch in which the whole

legislative and executive powers are lodged? No! The legislative authority is lodged in three distinct branches, properly balanced; the executive authority is divided between two branches; and the judicial is still reserved for an independent body, who hold their office during good behavior. This organization is so complex, so skilfully contrived, that it is next to impossible that an impolitic or wicked measure should pass the great scrutiny with success. Now, what do gentlemen mean by coming forward and declaiming against this government? Why do they say we ought to limit its powers, to disable it, and to destroy its capacity of blessing the people? Has philosophy suggested, has experience taught, that such a government ought not to be trusted with everything necessary for the good of society? Sir, when you have divided and nicely balanced the departments of government; when you have strongly connected the virtue of your rulers with their interests; when, in short, you have rendered your system as perfect as human forms can be, you must place confidence; you must give power.

TRUTH.-LORD BACON.

THE first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense, the last was the light of reason, and his Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos, then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet, that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, "It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage-ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale

below;" so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly it is heaven upon earth to have at man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged, even by those that practise it not, that clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold or silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it; for these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent, which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, "If it be well weighed, to say, that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards man; for a lie faces God, and shrinks from man." Surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men: it being foretold, that when "Christ cometh," he shall not "find faith upon earth.”

AMERICA.-PHILLIPS.

SEARCH creation round, where can you find a country that presents so sublime a view, so interesting an anticipation? What noble institutions! What a comprehensive policy! What a wise equalization of every political advantage! The oppressed of all countries, the martyrs of every creed, the innocent victim of despotic arrogance or superstitious frenzy, may there find refuge; his industry encouraged, his piety respected, his ambition animated; with no restraint but those laws which are the same to all, and no distinction but that which his merit may

C