THOMAS ADDIS EMMET. 287 church forced upon nine tenths of the people, who resisted and were still constrained to pay tithes to support that church out of three hundred members of the Irish House of Commons, to represent the whole people of Ireland, two hundred elected by thirty or forty individuals: popery laws, that precluded the youth of nine tenths of the population from early education and the halls of the universities, and the parents of those children from the bar, the bench, the legislature, the magistracy-from every seat of power, honor and responsibility. These things they called to recollection, and they were not all. The genius, the valor, and the fame of the great men of Ireland appealed to the pride of the Irish people. They knew what Ireland had been, they knew what she was, and they looked forward to what she might be elevated to her proper rank in the scale of empires; a broad representative system of government in full operation; great men watching over her interests at home and in foreign courts; the legislature open to talents and to a noble ambition; the bar presenting a splendid theatre of competition, and embracing the sons of the Catholic and the Protestant; her navy and her armies made glorious by Irish valor exerted in the cause of Ireland; her intellectual greatness unfolded by the triumphant cultivation of the arts and sciences; her physical powers and her natural advantages fostered by enterprise and industry; her wilds, her morasses, and her mountains made glad by civilization; and peace, security and comfort every where diffused. Was it not natural, when they looked at all this, that their souls should have panted for war against their oppressors? Such were the views of Thomas Addis Emmet. He began in the cause of Ireland as a patriot, he acted in her cause as a patriot, and he suffered as such. Had he chosen to pursue the road to power, to wealth, and to ambition, he would have joined that abandoned phalanx, composed of such men as Lord Castlereagh, Lord Clare, the Beresfords, and their associates in apostacy and guilt, and sought ele vation by augmenting the misery and sufferings of his country, to secure the smiles of the British Court. He was not one of them. He thought, and with reason, that the day had come when his country could be taken into the family of nations, and run her career with rejoicing. He hailed the temper and spirit of the age, and rejoiced in the tone which was communicated to public opinion by the French Revolution. French connexion proved fatal to the revolution of Ireland. French fidelity and the adoption of sound policy would have made Ireland free. But Ireland was left to her fate, and such men as Mr. Emmet and his compatriots to mourn over her calamities. After a short struggle in the field, and after a few scattering and ineffectual insurrections, in which perished some of the noblest spirits that Ireland ever saw, the patriots were vanquished, and the soul of the nation sunk within her. There was the end of Ireland's hopes, at least for generations. France, under the guidance of Napoleon, sought the conquest of Europe, and England was left to crush to powder her sister isle. Among the illustrious victims of vengeance, the name of Thomas Addis Emmet maintains an exalted place. Without any specific allegation, or any overt act of treason, he was cast into prison, and never again permitted to enjoy his personal liberty in his native land. After being detained a prisoner in Dublin about a year, without notice an order came that he must leave Ireland the next morning at four o'clock ! At the appointed hour he beheld Ireland for the last time. He was landed in Scotland; was there imprisoned for three years; was liberated and went to France, and in 1804 became a resident of our country, the only secure place of refuge from oppression. Here he commenced that splendid career at the American Bar, which has not only elevated the character of the profession, but reflected back a lustre on his native land. [Born at Exeter, November 17, 1817. Died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 11, 1839.] LOOK! what a seraph-glance is hers, Whose full blue eyes thrown up to heaven! That breast no low-born passion stirs, Afar each thought of earth is driven; Maid of the bright, the angel brow, Among those peaks of softest hue, Where twilight's purple feet have strayed, Where all day long the clouds have played; Or, from their moon-beam revels led, With plumes of dazzling whiteness shine, On yonder summits gathering fast, Wave from the cloud a shadowy hand; She heeds thee not! The choral song, The voices of the sainted throng, Who chant the hymns of other spheres, Tread softly on, and dare not break The holy spell which binds her there; THE NATIONAL DEFENCES. EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. In this age of progress, in this land of invention and almost boundless resources, we are not the people to stand still. We have not stood still. But while individual enterprise has kept pace, in all the various pursuits of life, with the best improvements of the day, it must be admitted, considering our position upon the globe—the immense extent of our maritime frontier- the mode in which we must be assailed, if ever successfully, by a foreign foethe easy access to our most commanding harbors - the vast importance and exposed condition of our great commercial cities, especially since the successful application of steam power to ocean navigation that we have been singularly regardless of the improvements which in other countries, especially in France and England, have been and are rapidly changing the character of military operations, offensive and defensive, both on the land and on the sea. There are some things about the military defences of this country which may be considered as settled. I regard it as certain that no large standing army is ever to be maintained here, in time of peace, while our free institutions remain unshaken. In this we differ entirely from those nations with whom, from our position and political relations, we are in the greatest danger of a collision. It is equally certain, in my judgment, that stationary fortifications, in the best condition, with abundance of materiél, and well manned, will prove entirely inadequate to the THE NATIONAL DEFENCES. 291 defence of even our large commercial cities. It must be regarded as not less clear, that no foreign power can ever embark in the Quixotic enterprise of conquering this country, unless its Constitution shall first be trampled in the dust by its children. Such a project can never be soberly contemplated, while we are a united people. During our Revolution in the weakness of our infancy - the invaders could scarcely command more ground than they were able immediately to occupy. The leading purposes of an enemy will be, by the celerity and boldness of his movements on our coast, to keep up a constant alarm; to harass and cut off our commerce; to destroy our naval depots and public works; and, if possible, to lay our great commercial cities under contribution or in ashes. It is against prompt movements and vigorous exertions for objects like these, that we should prepare and provide. France and England have, and always must maintain large and well-appointed standing armies; they are the indispensable appendages of royal power and dominion, without which no monarch in Europe can retain his crown a single year. They have not only armies, but they have now the means of planting them upon our shores; — nay, of quartering them in the heart of our cities, before we can set in order our insufficient and now deserted fortresses, or call into the field any effective force, organized as our militia at present is. Indeed, in some of the States there is no organization whatever; it is wholly disbanded, and men whose thoughts were never elevated above the contemplation of loss and gain, are out in the newspapers, with their calculations to show exactly how many dollars and cents may be saved annually by the "disbandment" of this safe and sure auxiliary in our national defence. I cannot help feeling strongly upon this subject, because I have witnessed the deep lethargy in which the spirit of the nation, easily roused to every thing else, has seemed to slumber here. Within the last few years war-clouds have lowered most portentously upon our horizon, and on one or two occasions seemed ready to burst, and scatter far and |