The lids of Fancy's sleepless eyes
Are gates unto that Paradise;
Holy thoughts, like stars, arise,
Its clouds are angels' wings.

'Learn that henceforth thy song shall be,
Not mountains capped with snow,
Nor forests sounding like the sea,
Nor rivers flowing ceaselessly,
Where the woodlands bend to see
The bending heavens below.

'There is a forest where the din
Of iron branches sounds!
A mighty river roars between,
And whosoever looks therein
Sees the heavens all black with sin,--
Sees not its depths nor bounds.

'Athwart the swinging branches cast,
Soft rays of sunshine pour ;
Then comes the fearful wintry blast;
Our hopes, like withered leaves, fall fast;
Pallid lips say, "It is past!

We can return no more!"

'Look, then, into thine heart, and write!
Yes, into Life's deep stream!

All forms of sorrow and delight,
All solemn voices of the night,
That can soothe thee, or affright,-
Be these henceforth thy theme.'

LONGFELLOW.

LESSON 50.

FAMOUS SPEECHES.

I. CHATHAM: ON THE AMERICAN WAR.

I cannot, my lords, I will not, join in congratulation on misfortune and disgrace. This, my lords, is a perilous and tremendous moment. It is not a time for adulation; the smoothness of flattery cannot save us in this rugged and awful crisis. It is now necessary to instruct the throne in the language of truth. We must, if possible, dispel the delusion and darkness which envelop it; and display, in its full danger and genuine colours, the ruin which is brought to our doors.

Can ministers still presume to expect support in their infatuation? Can Parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give its support to measures thus obtruded and forced upon it,measures, my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing empire to scorn and contempt? 'But yesterday and Britain might have stood against the world; now none so poor as do her reverence!'

The people whom we at first despised as rebels, but whom we now acknowledge as enemies, are abetted against us, supplied with every military store, have their interests consulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by our inveterate enemy;

WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM,

and ministers do not-and dare not-interpose with dignity or effect. The desperate state of our army abroad is known in part. No man more highly esteems and honours the British troops than I do. I know their virtues and their valour;

I know they can achieve anything but impossibilities; and I know that the conquest of British America is an impossibility.

You cannot, my lords, you cannot conquer America. What is your present situation there? We do not know the worst; but we know that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and suffered much. You may swell every expense, accumulate every assistance, and extend your traffic to the shambles of every German despot: your attempts will be for ever vain and impotentdoubly so, indeed, from this mercenary aid on which you rely; for it irritates, to an incurable resentment, the minds of your adversaries, to overrun them with the mercenary sons of rapine and plunder, devoting them and their possessions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty. If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms,-never, never, never!

But, my lords, who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage ?-to call into civilised alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the wood ?-to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against his brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality; 'for it is perfectly allowable,' says Lord Suffolk,' to use all the means which God and nature have put into our hands.' I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such

principles confessed,-to hear them avowed in this House, or in this country.

My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation; I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon, as members of this House, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity, 'that God and nature have put into our hands.' What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not; but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalping-knife-to the cannibal savage torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation.

I call upon that right reverend and this most learned bench to vindicate the religion of their God, to support the justice of their country. I call upon the bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn, upon the judges to interpose the purity of their ermine, to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your lordships to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character. I invoke the genius of the constitution!

From the tapestry that adorns these walls, the immortal ancestor of this noble lord frowns with indignation at the disgrace of his country.