II. Proud in the blush of morning glowing, III. God be with ye-children and wife! How they ring through the ranks which they rouse to the strife! Thrilling they sound with their glorious tone, Thrilling they go through the marrow and bone! In the life to come that we meet once more! IV. See the smoke, how the lightning is clearing asunder! Hark the guns, peal on peal, how they boom in their thunder! From host to host, with kindling sound, The shouting signals circle round; V. Nearer they close-foes upon foes- Down on the knee they sank, And the fire comes sharp on the foremost rank; Many a gap by the balls is rent O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man, VI. The dead men lie bathed in the weltering blood, And the living are blent in the slippery flood, And the feet, as they reeling and sliding go, Stumble still on the corpses that sleep below. "What, Francis! Give Charlotte my last farewell." As the dying man murmurs the thunders swell"I'll give-O God! are the guns so near? Ho! comrades!-yon volley!-look sharp to the rear!— Sleep soft! where death thickest descendeth in rain, VII. Hark to the hoofs that galloping go! The adjutants flying The horsemen press hard on the panting foe, 'Their thunder booms in dying Victory! The terror has seized on the dastards all, And their colors fall! Victory! Closed in the brunt of the glorious fight, The triumph already sweeps marching in song.' THE DEATH PENALTY FOR NEW CFFENCES, 1812.-Lord Byron. B. 1788; d. 1824. Setting aside the palpable injustice and the certain mefficiency of this Bill, are there not capital punishments sufficient in your statutes? Is there not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth, to ascend to Heaven and testify against you? How will you carry this Bill into effect? Can you commit a whole country to their own prison? Will you erect a gibbet in every field, and hang up men like scarecrows? or will you proceed (as you must to bring this measure into effect) by decimation; place the country under martial law; depopulate and lay waste all around you; and restore Sherwood Forest as an acceptable gift to the Crown, in its former condition of a royal chase, and an asylum for outlaws? Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace? Will the famished wretch who has braved your bayonets be appalled by your gibbets? When death is a relief, and the only relief, it appears, that you will afford him, will he be dragooned into tranquillity? Will that which could not be effected by your grenadiers be accomplished by your executioners? If you proceed by the forms of law, where is your evidence? Those who have refused to impeach their accomplices when transportation only was the punishment, will hardly be tempted to witness against them when death is the penalty. With all deference tɔ the noble Lords opposite, I think a little investigation-some previous inquiry-would induce even them to change their purpose. That most favorite State measure, so marvellously efficacious in many and recent instances,-temporizing,—would not be without its advantage in this. When a proposal is made to emancipate or relieve, you hesitate, you deliberate for years, -you temporize and tamper with the minds of men; but a death-bill must be passed off-hand, without a thought of the consequences. Sure I am, from what I have heard, and from what I have seen, that to pass the Bill, under all the existing circumstances, without inquiry, without deliberation, would only be to add in justice to irritation, and barbarity to neglect. The framers of such a Bill must be content to inherit the honors of the Athenian lawgiver,* whose edicts were said to be written not in ink, but in blood. But * Dracou the author cf the first written code of laws for Athens Buopose it passed,-suppose one of these men, as I have. seen them, meagre with famine, sullen with despair, careless of a life which your Lordships are, perhaps, about to value at something less than the price of a stocking-frame,—suppose this man surrounded by those children, for whom he is unable to procure bread at the hazard of his existence, about to be torn forever from a family which he lately supported in peaceful industry, and which it is not his fault that he can no longer so support;-suppose this man, and there are ten thousand such, from whom you may select your victims, -dragged into Court, to be tried, for this new offence, by this new law, still, there are two things wanting to convict and condemn him; and these are, in my opinion, twelve butchers for a Jury, and a Jeffries for a Judge! ON CHARGES AGAINST ROMAN CATHOLICS, 1828.-Sheil. Richard Lalor Sheil was born in Dublin, Ireland, August 16th, 1791, and died at Florence, Italy, where he held the post of British Minister, May 25th, 1851. He was returned to the Imperial Parliament in 1829, and for twenty years was a prominent member of the House of Commons. A contemporary says of him : "His great earnestness and apparent sincerity, his unrivalled felicity of illustra tion, his extraordinary power of pushing the meaning of words to the utmost extent, and wringing from them a force beyond the range of ordinary expression, were such, that, when he rose to speak, members took their places, and the hum of private conversation was hushed, in order that the House might enjoy the performances of an accomplished artist." His style of speaking was peculiar; his ges ticulation rapid, fierce, and incessant; his enunciation remarkably quick and impetuous. His matter was uniformly well arranged and logical. He carefully prepared himself before speaking. Calumniators of Catholicism, have you read the his tory of your country! Of the charges against the reli |