man those were which abolished the Slave Trade! How precious is time! How valuable and dignified is human life, which in general appears so base and miserable! How noble and sacred is human nature, made capable of achieving such truly great exploits! THE PROGRESSIVENESS OF THE RACE. In government, commerce has overthrown that "feudal and chivalrous" system under whose shade it first grew. In religion, learning has subverted that superstition whose opulent endowments had first fostered it. Peculiar circumstances softened the barbarism of the Middle Ages to a degree which favored the admission of commerce and the growth of knowledge. These circumstances were connected with the manners of chivalry; but the sentiments peculiar to that institution could only be preserved by the situation which gave them birth. They were themselves enfeebled in the progress from ferocity and turbulence, and almost obliterated by tranquillity and refinement. But the auxiliaries which the manners of chivalry had in rude ages reared, gathered strength from its weakness, and flourished in its decay. Commerce and diffused knowledge have, in fact, so completely assumed the ascendant in polished nations, that it will be difficult to discover any relics of Gothic manners but in a fantastic exterior, which has survived the generous illusions that made these manners splendid and seductive. Their direct influence has long ceased in Europe; but their indirect influence, through the medium of those causes which would not perhaps have existed but for the mildness which chivalry created in the midst of a barbarous age, still operates with increasing vigor. The manners of the Middle Ages were, in the most singular sense, compulsory. Enterprising benevolence was produced by general fierceness, gallant courtesy by ferocious rudeness, and artificial gentleness resisted the torrent of natural barbarism. But a less incongruous system has succeeded, in which commerce, which unites men's interests, and knowledge, which excludes those prejudices that tend to embroil them, present a broader basis for the stability of civilized and beneficent manners. Mr. Burke, indeed, forbodes the most fatal consequences to literature from events which he supposes to have given a mortal blow to the spirit of chivalry. I have ever been protected from such apprehensions by my belief in a very simple truth-that diffused knowledge immortalizes itself. A literature which is confined to a few may be destroyed by the massacre of scholars and the conflagration of libraries; but the diffused knowledge of the present day could only be annihilated by the extirpation of the civilized part of mankind. From the Vindicia Gallica. THE BLESSINGS OF A FREE PRESS. Gentlemen, there is one point of view in which this case seems to merit your most serious attention. The real prosecutor is the master of the greatest empire the civilized world ever saw; the defendant is a defenceless, proscribed exile. I consider this case, therefore, as the first of a long series of conflicts between the greatest power in the world and the ONLY FREE PRESS remaining in Europe. Gentlemen, this distinction of the English press is new— it is a proud and a melancholy distinction. Before the great earthquake of the French Revolution had swallowed up all the asylums of free discussion on the Continent, we enjoyed that privilege, indeed, more fully than others, but we did not enjoy it exclusively. In Holland, in Switzerland, in the imperial towns of Germany, the press was either legally or practically free. But all these have been swallowed up by that fearful convulsion which has shaken the uttermost corners of the earth. They are destroyed, and gone for ever! One asylum of free discussion is still inviolate. There is still one spot in Europe where man can freely exercise his reason on the most important concerns of society, where he can boldly publish his judgment on the acts of the proudest and most powerful tyrants. The press of England is still free. It is guarded by the free constitution of our forefathers. It is guarded by the hearts and arms of Englishmen, and I trust I may venture to say that, if it be to fall, it will fall only under the ruins of the British empire. It is an awful consideration, gentlemen. Every other monument of European liberty has perished. That ancient fabric which has been gradually reared by the wisdom and virtue of our fathers, still stands. It stands, thanks be to God! solid and entire but it stands alone, and it stands in ruins! Believing, then, as I do, that we are on the eve of a great struggle that this is only the first battle between reason and power-that you have now in your hands, committed to your trust, the only remains of free discussion in Europe, now confined to this kingdom; addressing you, therefore, as the guardians of the most important interests of mankind; convinced that the unfettered exercise of reason depends more on your present verdict than on any other that was ever delivered by a jury-I trust I may rely with confidence on the issue-I trust that you will consider yourselves as the advanced guard of liberty, as having this day to fight the first battle of free discussion against the most formidable enemy that it ever encountered! Speech in Defence of M. Peltier. HANNAH MORE, 1745-1833. THIS most excellent and accomplished woman was the daughter of Jacob More, a village schoolmaster at Stapleton, in Gloucestershire, where she was born in the year 1745. Soon after this, Mr. More removed to Bristol, where he was appointed to take charge of the parochial school of St. Mary Redcliff. The family, which numbered four other daughters, soon began to attract notice, as one in which there was an unusual degree of talent; and, shortly after removing to Bristol, they opened a boarding and day-school for young ladies, which continued for many years the most flourishing establishment of the kind in the West of England. Hannah was, from early life, the most remarkable of the family. Her first literary efforts were some poetical pieces written for the edification of her pupils. Among these was the "Search after Happiness," a pastoral drama, which she wrote at eighteen, but did not publish till 1773. It met with a very flattering reception. She was thus induced to try her strength in the higher walks of dramatic poetry, and she successively brought forward for the stage her tragedies of the "Inflexible Captive," "Percy," and "The Fatal Falsehood:" of these "Percy" was the most popular, having been acted fourteen nights successively. The reputation which she thus acquired introduced her into the best literary society of London-into the circle in which Johnson, and Burke, and Sir Joshua Reynolds moved. But her dramatic career closed with the production of these tragedies. Shortly after, her opinions upon the theatre underwent a decided change; and, as she has stated in the preface to her tragedies, she did not "consider the stage, in its present state, as becoming the appearance or the countenance of a Christian."2 This great change in her spiritual views was followed by a corresponding change in her manner of life. Under a deep conviction that to live to the glory of God, and for the good of our fellow-creatures, is the great object of human existence, and the only one which can bring peace at the last, she quitted, in the prime of her days, the bright circles of fashion and literature, and, retiring into the neighborhood of Bristol, devoted herself to a life of active Christian benevolence, and to the composition of various works having for their object the moral and religious improvement of mankind. Her practical conduct thus beautifully exemplified the moral energy of her Christian principles. She retired into the country in 1786, and in two years after published her first prose piece, "Thoughts on the Manners of the Great," and a "Poem on the Slave Trade." These were followed, in 1791, by her "Estimate of the Religion of the Fashionable World." In 1795, she commenced, at Bath, in monthly numbers, "The Cheap Repository," a series of most instructive and interesting tales, one of which is the world-renowned " Shepherd of Salisbury Plain." The success of this publication, so seasonable, at a time when the infidelity of France had 1 She went to London in 1774. While her mind was in this state of transition, she published, in 1782, a volume of "Sacred Dramas," to which was annexed a poem called "Sensibility;" all of which were received by the public with great favor. too many admirers in England, was extraordinary and unprecedented; for it is said that in one year one million copies of the work were sold. In 1799, appeared her "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education," which led to an intention, warmly advocated by Porteus, the Bishop of London, of committing to her the education of Charlotte, Princess of Wales. This, however, was not effected, but it led to the publication of her "Hints towards Forming the Character of a Young Princess," in 1805. Then came what has, perhaps, been her most popular work, "Colebs in Search of a Wife," published in 1809, and which passed through at least six editions in one year. It is a very entertaining and instructive novel, full of striking remarks on men and manners, and portrays the kind of character which, in the estimation of our author, it is desirable that young ladies should possess. In 1811 and 1812, appeared her "Practical Piety," and "Christian Morals;" and, in 1815, her "Essay on the Character and Writings of St. Paul,”—a far bolder undertaking than any in which she had previously been engaged, and which she has executed to the delight of every reader. Soon after the death of her sister Martha, in 1819, her literary career terminated with "Moral Sketches," and "Reflections on Prayer." She was now aged and infirm, but still continued to take a great interest in the welfare of charity schools, Bible and missionary societies, and other benevolent and religious institutions. In 1828, she left Barley Wood, where she had resided from the beginning of the century, and took up her abode at Clifton, very near Bristol, at both of which places she had many valuable friends, though she had outlived every known relation on the earth. Here she spent her last days, supported in the afflictions of age by the consolations of that religion to the service of which she had devoted the vigor of her life, and expired, with the calmness and full faith of the Christian, on the 7th of September, 1833.3 Few authors of any age or country have done more to improve mankind-to make them wiser and better for both worlds-than Hannah More. All her writings are devoted to the cause of sound Christian morals and practical righteousness. Her poetry, though it takes not a very high rank among the productions of the Muse, is easy in its versification, displays a considerable degree of imagination, and is full of excellent sentiments and judicious remarks upon men and "Hannah More's eminently useful life manifested itself in nothing more than in the effort she made to instruct the ignorant, through the medium of moral and religious tracts, and by the establishment of schools. These were made a blessing on a wide scale, while their good effects are continued to this time, and are likely to be perpetuated."-CoTTLE'S Reminiscences of Southey and Coleridge. A cottage delightfully situated in the village of Wrington, in Somersetshire, a village renowned as the birthplace of John Locke. "Miss Hannah More lived with her four sisters, Mary, Elizabeth, Sarah, and Martha, after they quitted their school in Park Street, Bristol, at a small neat cottage in Somersetshire, called Cowslip Green. The Misses More, some years afterward, built a better house, and called it Barley Wood, on the side of a hill about a mile from Wrington. Here they all lived in the highest degree respected and beloved, their house the seat of piety, cheerfulness, literature, and hospitality; and they themselves receiving the honor of more visits from bishops, nobles, and persons of distinction than, perhaps, any private family in the kingdom."-Ibid. Read an excellent article on Hannah More's writings and life, in "American Quarterly Review," xvi. 519. Also, "London Quarterly," lii. 416. A writer, in an article in the fifty-second volume of the "Quarterly Review," thus strongly remarks: "How many have thanked God for the hour that first made them acquainted with the writings of Hannah More! She did as much real good in her generation as any woman that ever held the pen." manners. Her prose is justly admired for its sententious wisdom, its practical good sense, its masculine vigor, and the elevated, moral, and religious tone that pervades it.2 WAR. O war, what art thou? After the brightest conquest, what appears O'er desolated nations-a drear waste, Of dear-bought joy, with many a triumph swell'd, With the sad dissonance of virgins' cries, Who mourn their brothers slain!-of matrons hoar, How is the laurel's verdure stain'd with blood, OPPRESSION.3 What wrongs, what injuries does oppression plead, Barbarians, hold! the opprobrious commerce spare; In the house of Garrick, where she was a constant visitor in the earlier part of her life, she was called "The Tenth Muse," and then for shortness, and still more refinedly, "Miss Horace Walpole used to call her his "Holy Hannah." NINE." In one of his addresses, preceding the Revolution, John Adams, afterward the second President of the United States, nobly said: "Let the colleges impress on the tender mind the beauty of Liberty and Virtue, and the deformity and turpitude of Slavery and Vice, and spread far and wide the ideas of Right and the sentiments of Freedom." |