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When the Protestants were persecuted for their faith— when they were driven from their habitation-when they were driven to the dreadful alternative of misery and debasement at home, or of sorrow and exile abroad-they recollect that their great Deliverer came from Holland. They look to their people as one people with themselves-that the Irish Protestant and the Dutch Protestant achieved the one victory at the plains of Aughrim and the waters of the Boyne; and although it should still please their Sovereign to continue this unprofitable and unhappy contest, they will still maintain to him the loyalty and devotion with which they have ever been characterized, and still lend their best efforts for the maintenance of his dignity and crown. It will be the part of a wise minister to recollect, that at a most dangerous period in the history of Ireland, when the bond of English connection has dwindled to a thread, when its only security is found in the attachment of the Protestants to English rule, that he advises a Sovereign to a war condemned by every thinking and educated individual of that persuasion; and with respect to the lower classes, revolting to the strongest prejudices and most powerful emotions of the heart.

XXXIX.-SPEECH OF GALGACUS TO THE CALEDONIANS.

TACITUS.

As often as I reflect on the origin of the war and our necessities, I feel a strong conviction that this day, and your will, are about to lay the foundations of British liberty. For we have all known what slavery is, and no place of retreat lies behind us. The sea even is insecure when the Roman fleet hovers around. Thus arms and war, ever coveted by the brave, are now the only refuge of the cowardly. In former actions, in which the Britons fought with various success against the Romans, our valor was a resource to look to, for we, the noblest of all the nations, and on that account placed in its inmost recesses, unused to the spectacle of servitude, had our eyes ever inviolate from its hateful sight. We, the last of the earth, and of freedom, unknown to fame, have been hitherto defended by our remoteness; now the extreme limits of Britain appear, and the unknown is ever

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regarded as the magnificent. No refuge is behind us, naught but the rocks and the waves, and the deadlier Romans: men whose pride you have in vain sought to deprecate by moderation and subservience. The robbers of the globe, when the land fails they scour the sea. Is the enemy rich, they are avaricious; is he poor, they are ambitious, the East and the West are unable to satiate their desires. Wealth and poverty are alike coveted by their rapacity. To carry off, massacre, seize on false pretences, they call empire; and when they make a desert, they call it peace.

Do not believe the Romans have the same prowess in war as lust in peace. They have grown great on our divisions; they know how to turn the vices of men to the glory of their own army. As it has been drawn together by success, so disaster will dissolve it, unless you suppose that the Gauls and the Germans, and, I am ashamed to say, many of the Britons, who now lend their blood to a foreign usurpation, and in their hearts are rather enemies than slaves, can be retained by faith and affection. Fear and terror are but slender bonds of attachment; when you remove them, as fear ceases terror begins. All the incitements of victory are on our side; no wives inflame the Romans; no parents are there, to call shame on their flight; they have no country, or it is elsewhere. Few in number, fearful from ignorance, gazing on unknown woods and seas, the gods have delivered them shut in and bound into your hands. Let not their vain aspect, the glitter of silver and gold, which neither covers or wounds, alarm you. In the very line of the enemy we shall find our friends; the Britons will recognize their own cause; the Gauls will recollect their former freedom; the other Germans will desert them, as lately the Usipii have done. No objects of terror are behind them; naught but empty castles, age-ridden colonies; dissension between cruel masters and unwilling slaves, sick and discordant cities. Here is a leader, an army; there are tributes and payments, and the badges of servitude, which to bear forever, or instantly to avenge, lies in your arms. Go forth, then, into the field, and think of your ancestors and descendants.

your

XL-SPEECH OF AGRICOLA TO HIS ARMY IN BRITAIN.

TACITUS.

It is now, my fellow-soldiers, the eighth year of our service in Britain. During that time, the genius and good auspices of the Roman Empire, with your assistance and unwearied labor, have made the island our own. In all our expeditions, in every battle, the enemy has felt your valor, and by your toil and perseverance the very nature of the country has been conquered. I have been proud of my soldiers, and you have had no reason to blush for your general. We have carried the terror of our arms beyond the limits of any other soldiers, or any former general; we have penetrated to the extremity of the land. This was formerly the boast of vainglory, the mere report of fame; it is now historical truth. We have gained possession, sword in hand; we are encamped on the utmost limits of the island. Britain is discovered, and by the discovery conquered.

In our long and laborious marches, when we were obliged to traverse moors, and fens, and rivers, and to climb steep and craggy mountains, it was still the cry of the bravest amongst you, When shall we be led to battle? When shall we see the enemy? Behold them now before you! They are hunted out of their dens and caverns; your wish is granted, and the field of glory lies open to your swords. One victory more makes this new world our own; but remember that a defeat involves us all in the last distress. If we consider the progress of our arms, to look back is glorious; the tract of country that lies behind us, the forests which you have explored, and the estuaries which you have passed, are monuments of eternal fame. But our fame can only last, while we press forward on the enemy. If we give ground, if we think of a retreat, we have the same difficulties to surmount again. The success, which is now our pride will in that case be our worst misfortune. Which of you would not rather die with honor, than live in infamy? But life and honor are this day inseparable; they are fixed to one spot. Should fortune declare against us, we die on the utmost limits of the world; and to die where nature ends, cannot be deemed inglorious.

In woods and forests, the fierce and noble animals attack the huntsmen and rush on certain destruction; but the

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timorous herd is soon dispersed, scared by the sound and clamor of the chase. In like manner, the brave and warlike Britons have long since perished by the sword. The refuse of the nation still remains. They have not stayed to make head against you; they are hunted down; they are caught in the toils. Benumbed with fear, they stand motionless on yonder spot, which you will render forever memorable by a glorious victory. Here you may end your labors, and close a scene of fifty years by one great, glorious day. Let your country see, and let the cornmonwealth bear witness, if the conquest of Britain has been a lingering work, if the seeds of rebellion have not been crushed, that we at least have done our duty.

XLI-INVECTIVE AGAINST ESCHINES.

DEMOSTHENES.

WHEN YOU had obtained your enrolment among our citizens by what means I shall not mention-but when you had obtained it, you instantly chose out the most honorable of employments, that of under-scrivener, and assistant to the lowest of our public officers. And when you retired from this station, where you had been guilty of all those practices you charge on others, you were careful not to disgrace any of the past actions of your life. No, by the powers!—you hired yourself to Simylus and Socrates, those deep-groaning tragedies, as they were called, and acted third characters. You pillaged the ground of other men for figs, grapes, and olives, like a fruiterer; which cost you more blows than ever your playing-which was in effect playing for your life; for there was an implacable, irreconcilable war declared between you and the spectators, whose stripes you felt so often and so severely, that you may well deride those as cowards who are inexperienced in such perils.

Take then the whole course of your life, Æschines, and of mine; compare them without heat or acrimony. You taught writing, I learned it: you were an instructor, I was the instructed you danced at the games, I presided over them you wrote as a clerk, I pleaded as an advocate: you were an actor in the theatres, I a spectator: you broke down, I hissed you ever took counsel for our enemies, I for e

country. In fine, now on this day the point at issue is-Am I, yet unstained in character, worthy of a crown? while to you is reserved the lot of a calumniator, and you are in danger of being silenced by not having obtained a fifth part of the votes.

I have not fortified the city with stone, nor adorned it with tiles, neither do I take any credit for such things. But if you would behold my works aright, you will find arms, and cities, and stations, and harbors, and ships, and horses, and those who are to make use of them in our defence. This is the rampart I have raised for Attica, as much as human wisdom could effect with these I fortified, not the Piræus and the city only, but the whole country. I never sank before the arms or cunning of Philip. No! it was by the supineness of your own generals and allies that he triumphed.

XLII.-RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

SYDNEY SMITH.

WE preach to our congregations, sir, that a tree is known by its fruits. By the fruits it produces I will judge your sys

tem.

What has it done for Ireland? New Zealand is emerging--Otaheite is emerging-Ireland is not emergingshe is still veiled in darkness—her children, safe under no law, live in the very shadow of death. Has your system of exclusion made Ireland rich? Has it made Ireland loyal? Has it made Ireland free? Has it made Ireland happy? How is the wealth of Ireland proved? Is it by the naked, idle, suffering savages, who are slumbering on the mud floor of their cabins ? In what does the loyalty of Ireland consist? Is it in the eagerness with which they would range themselves under the hostile banner of any invader, for your destruction and for your distress? Is it liberty when men breathe and move among the bayonets of English soldiers? Is their happiness and their history anything but such a tissue of murders, burnings, hanging, famine, and disease, as never existed before in the annals of the world? This is a stem which, I am sure, with very different intentions, and rent views of its effects, you are met this day to uphold. e are the dreadful consequences, which those laws your

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