weapon begins to cut! Cæsar paused upon the brink of the Rubicon? What was the Rubicon? The boundary of Cæsar's province. From what did it sèparate his province ? From his country. Was that country a désert? No: it was cultivated and fertile; rich and populous! Its sons were men of génius, spírit, and gènerosity! Its daughters were lovely, susceptible, and chaste! Friendship was its inhabitant! Love was its inhabitant! Domestic affection was its inhabitant! Liberty was its inhabitant! All bounded by the stream of the Rubicon!

4. What was Caesar, that stood upon the brink of that river? A traitor, bringing war and pestilence into the heart of that country! No wonder that he pausedno wonder if, his imagination wrought upon by his cónscience, he had beheld blood instead of water; and heard groans instead of murmurs! No wonder if some gorgon horror had turned him into stone upon the spot! But, nò!-he cried, "The die is cast!" He plunged!-he cròssed!-and Rome was free no more!

KNOWLES.

4. OUR DUTIES TO OUR COUNTRY.

[An example of oratorical declamation. Movement, slow; quality, orotund; prevailing inflections, falling.]

1. This lovely land, this glorious liberty, these benign institútions, the dear purchase of our fáthers, are òurs; ours to enjoy, ours to presérve, ours to transmit. Generations púst, and generations to come, hold us responsible for this sacred trùst. Our fathers, from behind, admonish us, with their anxious paternal vòices; posterity calls out to us, from the bosom of the future; the world turns hither its solicitous eyes-àll, all conjure us to act wisely, and faithfully, in the relations which we sustain.

2. We can never, indeed, pay the debt which is upòn us; but by virtue, by morálity, by religion, by the culti

vation of every good prínciple and every good hábit, we may hope to enjoy the blessing through our day, and to leave it unimpaired to our children. Let us feel deeply how much of what we are, and what we possess, we owe to this liberty, and these institutions of gòvern

ment.

3. Nature has, indeed, given us a soil which yields bounteously to the hands of industry; the mighty and fruitful ocean is befóre us, and the skies over our heads shed health and vigor. But what are lands, and sèas, and skies, to civilized mán, without society, without knowledge, without mòrals, without religious culture? and how can these be enjoyed, in all their extént, and all their excellence, but under the protection of wise institutions and a free government ?

4. Fellow-cítizens, there is not one of us here présent who does not, at this moment, and at every moment, experience in his own condítion, and in the condition of those most near and déar to him, the influence and the benefits of this liberty, and these institutions. Let us then acknowledge the blessing; let us feel it deeply and powerfully; let us cherish a strong affèction for it, and resolve to maintain and perpètuate it. The blood of our fathers, let it not have been shed in vàin; the great hope of postérity, let it not be blasted.

WEBSTER.

5. THE AMERICAN WAR.

1. These abominable prínciples, and this mòre abominable avówal of them, demand the most decisive indignation! I call upon that Right Reverend Bènch, those holy ministers of the Gospel, and pious pastors of our Church; I conjùre them to join in the holy wórk, and to vindicate the religion of their God! I appeal to the wisdom and the law | of this learned Bench, to de

fend and support the justice of their country! I call upon the Bishops | to interpose the unsullied sánctity | of their lawn, upon the judges | to interpose the púrity of their èrmine, to save us from this pollution!

2. I call upon the honor of your Lòrdships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own! I call upon the spirit and humánity of my country, to vindicate the national character! I invoke the génius of the Constitution! From the tapestry | that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of the noble Lórd frowns with indignation at the disgrúce of his country!

3. Turn forth into our settlements, among our ancient connections, friends, and relátions, the merciless cănnibal, thirsting for the blood of mán, woman, and child? Send forth the infidel savage? Against whom? Against your brethren! To lay waste their country, to desolate their dwellings, and extirpate their ráce and name, with these horrible hounds of savage wàr!

4. Spáin | armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Amèrica; and we | improve on the inhuman example of even Spanish cruelty ;-we turn loose these savages, these fiendish hounds, against our brethren and countrymen in Amèrica, of the same lànguage, làws, líberties, and religion—endéared to us by every tie that should sanctify humanity!

PITT.

I will speak the words of Freedom; I will listen to her music; I will acknowledge her impulses; I will stand beneath her flag; I will fight in her ranks; and, when I do só, I shall find myself surrounded by the greát, the wise, the good, the brave, the noble of évery lànd. If I could stand for a moment upon one of your high

mountain-tops, far above all the kingdoms of the civilized world, and there might sée, coming up, one after another, the bravest and wisest of the ancient warriors, and státesmen, and kings, and mónarchs, and priests; and íf, as they came úp, I might be permitted to ask from them an expression of opinion upon such a case as this, with a common vòice and in thunder tones, reverberating through a thousand valleys, and echoing down the ages, they would cry: "Liberty, Freedom, the Universal Brotherhood of Man!" I join that shout; I swell that ànthem; I echo that pràise FOREVER, and FOR EVERMORE.

COL. E. D. BAKER.

7. THE VOICES OF THE DEAD.

1. The world is filled with the voices of the dead. They speak not from the public records of the great wórld only, but from the private history of our own experience. They speak to us in a thousand remémbrances, in a thousand incidents, évents, and associations. They speak to us, not only from their silent gráves, but from the throng of life. Though they are invisible, yet life | is filled with their prèsence. They are with us by the silent fireside | and in the secluded chamber. They are with us in the paths of society, and in the crowded assemblies of mèn.

2. They speak to us | from the lonely way-side; and they speak to us from the venerable walls | that echo to the steps of a múltitude and to the voice of prayer. Go where we will, the déad | are with us. We live, we convèrse with those who once lived and conversed | with us. Their well-remembered tone | mingles with the whispering breeze, with the sound of the falling leaf, with the jubilee shout of the spring-time.-The earth is filled with their shadowy tràin.

3. But there are more substàntial expressions | of the presence of the déad | with the living. The earth | is filled with the labors, the works, of the dead. Almost all the literature in the world, the discoveries of science, the glories of árt, the ever-enduring témples, the dwellingplaces of generátions, the comforts and improvements of life, the languages, the máxims, the opinions of the living, the very frame-work of society, the institutions of nátions, the fabrics of empires-all | are the works of the dead. By these, they who are dead | yet speak.

ORVILLE DEWEY.

8. GRATTAN'S REPLY TO MR. CORRY.

[An example of impassioned sarcasm and invective.]

1. Has the gentleman done? Has he completely dóne? He was unparliamentary from the beginning to the end of his speech. There was scarce a word he uttered that was not a violation of the privileges of the House. But I did not call him to order,-whý ? because the limited talents of some men render it impossible for them to be severe without being unparliamentary. But before I sit down, I shall show him how to be severe ând parliamentary at the same time.

2. The right honorable gentlemen has called me an unimpeached traitor." I ask why not "trăitor," unqualified by any epithet? I will tell him: it was because he durst not. It was the act of a coward, who raises his arm to strike, but has not courage to give the blow. I will not call him villain, because it would be unparliamentary, and he is a privy counselor. I will not call him fool, because he happens to be chancellor of the exchèquer. But I say, he is one who has abused the privilege of Parliament and the freedom of debate, by uttering language which, if spoken out of the House, I should answer only with a blow. I care not how high