not forget what a piece of mechanism he is, how ́ ́ fearfully and wonderfully made." If we have a fine horse, we do not use him exactly as a steam-engine; and still less should we treat man so, more especially in his earlier years. The depressing labor that begins early in life, and is continued too long every day, enfeebles his body, enervates his mind, weakens his spirits, overpowers his understanding, and is incompatible with any good or useful degree of education. A state of society in which such a system prevails will inevitably, and in no long space, feel its baneful effects. What is it which makes one community prosperous and flourishing, more than another? You will not say that. it is the soil; you will not say that it is its climate; you will not say that it is its mineral wealth, or its natural advantages,-its ports, or its great rivers. Is it anything in the earth, or in the air, that makes Scotland a richer country than Egypt; or, Batavia, with its marshes, more prosperous than Sicily? No; but Scotchmen made Scotland what she is, and Dutchmen raised their marshes to such eminence. Look to Amer ica. Two centuries ago, it was a wilderness of buffaloes and wolves. What has caused the change? Is it her rich mould? Is it her mighty rivers? Is it her broad waters? No; her plains were then as fertile as they are now, her rivers were as numerous. Nor was it any great amount of capital that the emigrants carried out with them. They took a mere pittance. What is it then, that has effected the change? It is simply this,-you placed the Englishman, instead of the red man, upon the soil; and the Englishman, intelligent and energetic, cut down the forests, turned them into cities and fleets, and covered the land with harvests and orchards in their place. I am convinced, sir, that this question of limiting the hours of labor, being a question connected, for the most part, with persons of tender years,―a question in which public health is concerned, and a question relating to public morality,—it is one with which the State may properly interfere. Sir, as law-givers, we have errors of two different kinds to repair. We have done that which we ought not to have done; we have left undone that which we ought to have done. We have regulated that which we ought to have left to regulate itself; we have left unregulated that which it was our especial business to have regulated. We have given to certain branches of industry a protection which was their bane. We have withheld from public health and from public morality a protection which it was our duty to have given. We have prevented the laborer from getting his loaf where he could get it cheapest, but we have not prevented him from prematurely destroying the health of his body and mind, by inordinate toil. I hope and believe that we are approaching the end of a vicious system of interference, and of a vicious system of non-interference. REFORM, THAT YOU MAY PRESERVE. MARCH 2, 1831. T. B. Macaulay. Turn where we may,-within, around,-the voice of great events is proclaiming to us, "Reform, that you may preserve!" Now, therefore, while everything at home and abroad forebodes ruin to those who persist in a hopeless struggle against the spirit of the age; now, while the crash of the proudest Throne of the Continent is still resounding in our ears; now, while the roof of a British palace affords an ignominious shelter to the exiled heir of forty Kings;* now, while we see on every side ancient institutions subverted, and great societies dissolved; now, while the heart of Eng land is still sound; now, while the old feelings and the old associations retain a power and a charm which may too soon pass away; now, in this your accepted time,now, in this your day of salvation,-take counsel, nct of prejudice, not of party spirit, not of the ignominious pride of a fatal consistency, but of history, of reason, of the ages which are past, of the signs of this most portentous time. Pronounce in a manner worthy of the expectation with which this great debate has been anticipated, and of the long remembrance which it will leave behind. Renew the youth of the State. Save property, divided against itself. Save the multitude, endangered by their own ungovernable passions. Save the aristocracy, endangered by its own unpopular power. Save the greatest, and fairest, and most highly civilized community that ever existed, from calamities which may in a few days sweep away all the rich heritage of so many ages of wisdom and glory. The danger is terrible. The time is short. If this bill should be rejected, I pray to God that none of those who concur in rejecting it may ever remember their *Charles the Tenth, of France. votes with unavailing regret, amidst the wreek of laws, the confusion of ranks, the spoliation of property, and the dissolution of social order. ALFRED THE GREAT TO HIS MEN.-Knowles. 1. My friends, our country must be free! The land The ransom. that redeems her! Now, what wit 2 For Alfred's word to move upon the foe? Upon him then! Now think ye on the things You most do love! Husbands and fathers, on Their wives and children; lovers, on their beloved; And all, upon their COUNTRY! When you use Your weapons, think on the beseeching eyes, To whet them, could have lent you tears for water! O, now be men, or never! From your hearths Thrust the unbidden feet, that from their nooks Drove forth your agèd sires--your wives and babes! 8 The couches your fair-handed daughters used To spread, let not the vaunting stranger press, Weary from spoiling you! Your roofs, that hear The wanton riot of the intruding guest That mocks their masters-clear them for the sake Of the manhood to which all that's precious clings, Else perishes. The land that bore you--O! Your breeding! Rescue her! Revenge her-or Ne'er call her mother more! Come on, my friends! 4. And where you take your stand upon the field, However you advance, resolve on this That you will ne'er recede, while from the tongues Of age, and womanhood, and infancy, The helplessness whose safety in you lies, Invokes you to be strong! Come on! Come on! I'll bring you to the foe! him, And when you meet Strike hard! Strike home! Strike while a dying blow Is in an arm! Strike till you're free, or fall! THE BATTLE.—Schiller. II. Heavy and solemn, Thro' the green plain they marching came ! "Halt!" And fettered they stand at the stark command, |