sympathies and human regards, and let civilized man henceforth have no communion with it. I would invoke those who fill the seats of Justice, and all who minister at her altar, that they execute the wholesome and necessary severity of the law. I invoke the ministers of Religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of those crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws. If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust. I call on the fair merchant, who has reaped his harvest upon the seas, that he assist in scourging from those seas the worst pirates that ever infested them. That ocean, which seems to wave with a gentle magnificence, to waft the burdens of an honest commerce, and to roll along its treasures with a conscious pride; that ocean, which hardy industry regards, even when the winds have ruffled its surface, as a field of grateful toil; what is it to the victim of this oppression, when he is brought to its shores, and looks forth upon it for the first time, from beneath chains, and bleeding with stripes ?—what is it to him, but a wide-spread prospect of suffering, anguish, and death? Nor do the skies smile longer, nor is the air longer fragrant to him. The sun is cast down from heaven. An inhuman and accursed traffic has cut him off, in his manhood or in his youth, from every enjoyment belonging to his being, and every blessing which his Creator intended for him. XI.-DEFENCE OF QUEEN CAROLINE. The trial of Caroline, consort of George IV., took place in 1820, before the SUCH, my lords, is the case now before you! Such is the evidence in support of this measure-evidence inadequate to prove a debt-impotent to deprive of a civil right-ridiculous to convict of the lowest offence-scandalous if brought forward to support a charge of the highest nature which the law knows-monstrous to ruin the honour, to blast the name of an English Queen! What shall I say, then, if this is the proof by which an act of judicial legislation, a parliamentary sentence, an ex post facto law, is sought to be passed against this defenceless woman? My lords, I pray you to pause. I do earnestly beseech you to take heed! You are standing upon the brink of a precipice-then beware! It will go forth your judgment, if sentence shall go against the Queen. But it will be the only judgment you ever pronounced, which, instead of reaching its object, will return and bound back upon those who give it. Save the country, my lords, from the horrors of this catastrophe-save yourselves from this peril-rescue that country, of which you are the ornaments, but in which you can flourish no longer, when severed from the people, than the blossom when cut off from the roots and the stem of the tree. Save that country, that you may continue to adorn it—save the Crown, which is in jeopardy-the Aristocracy, which is shakensave the Altar, which must stagger with the blow that rends its kindred Throne! You have said, my lords, you have willed-the Church and the King have willed-that the Queen should be deprived of its solemn service. She has instead of that solemnity, the heartfelt prayers of the people. She wants no prayers of mine. But I do here pour forth my humble supplications at the Throne of Mercy, that that mercy may be poured down upon the people, in a larger measure than the merits of their rulers may deserve, and that your hearts may be turned to justice! XII. THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION. (KOSSUTH.) The insurrection of the Hungarians against the Emperor of Austria broke out in 1848, and was crushed in 1849,-the surrender of the fortress of Komorn (28th September 1849) being the anniversary of the appointment of a provisional government under Kossuth. THREE years ago, yonder house of Austria, which had chiefly me to thank for not having been swept away by the revolution of Vienna in March 1848, having, in return, answered by the most foul, most sacrilegious conspiracy against the chartered rights, freedom, and national existence of my native land, it became my share, being then a member of the ministry, with undisguised truth to lay before the Parliament of Hungary the immense danger of our bleeding fatherland. Having made the sketch, which, however dreadful, could be but a faint shadow of the horrible reality, I proceeded to explain the alternations which our terrible destiny left to us, after the failure of all our attempts to avert the evil. Reluctant to present the neck of the realm to the deadly snake which aimed at its very life, and anxious to bear up against the horrors of fate, and manfully to fight the battle of legitimate defence, scarcely had I spoken the word, scarcely had I added the words that the defence would require two hundred thousand men and 80,000,000 of florins, when the spirit of freedom moved through the hall, and nearly four hundred representatives rose as one man, and, lifting their right arms towards God, solemnly said, “We grant it-freedom or death!" Thus they spoke, and there they swore, in a calm and silent majesty, awaiting what further word might fall from my lips. And for myself,—it was my duty to speak, but the grandeur of the moment and the rushing waves of sentiment benumbed my tongue. A burning tear fell from my eyes, a sigh of adoration to the Almighty Lord fluttered on my lips; and, bowing low before the majesty of my people, as I bow now before you, gentlemen, I left the tribunal silently, speechless, mute. Pardon me my emotion,-the shadows of our martyrs passed before my eyes; I heard the millions of my native land once more shouting "Liberty or death!" As I was then, sirs, so am I now. I would thank you, gentlemen, for the generous sympathy with which, in my undeserving person, you have honoured the bleeding, the oppressed, but not broken, Hungary. I would thank you for the ray of hope which the sympathy of the English people casts on the night of our fate. I would thank you, gentlemen, warmly as I feel, and as becomes the dignity of your glorious land. But the words fail me; they fail me not only from want of knowledge of your language, but chiefly because my sentiments are deep, and fervent, and true. The tongue of man is powerful enough to render the ideas which the human intellect con- Perhaps there might be some glory in inspiring such a 72699 And so they died by thousands, the unnamed demigods. Such is the people of Hungary. Still they say it is I who have inspired them. No! a thousand times no! It is they who have inspired me. The moment of death, gentlemen, is a dreary one. Even the features of Cato partook of the impression of this dreariness. A shadow passed over the brow of Socrates on drinking the hemlock cup. With us those who beheld the nameless victims of the love of country lying on the death-field beneath Buda's walls, met but the impression of a smile on the frozen lips of the dead; and the dying answered those who would console but by the words, "Never mind; Buda is ours! Hurrah for the fatherland!" So they spoke and died. He who witnessed such scenes, not as an exception, but as a constant rule,-he who saw the adolescent weep when told he was yet too young to die for his land, he who saw the sacrifices of spontaneity, he who heard what a fury spread over the people on hearing XfQtRok FREE Circulating Librah catastrophe, he who marked his behaviour towards the victors after all was lost, he who knows what sort of curse is mixed in the prayers of the Magyar, and knows what sort of sentiment is burning alike in the breast of the old and of the young, of the strong man and of the tender wife, and ever will be burning on, till the hour of national resurrection strikes, he who is aware of all this will surely bow before this people with respect, and will acknowledge with me that such a people wants not to be inspired, but that it is an everlasting source of inspiration itself. This is the people of Hungary! And for me, my only glory is, that this people found in myself the personification of their own sentiments. This is all he can tell of himself whom you are honouring with so many tokens of your sympathy. Let me, therefore, hold the consoling faith, that, in honouring me by your sympathy, you were willing to give your sympathy to the people of the Magyars. . . . Hungary is not the sacrifice of its own crimes. An ambitious woman had, in the palace of Vienna, the sacrilegious dream to raise a child to the seat of power upon the ruins of liberty. Well she knew that God would not be with her; but she knew that the Czar would be with her,—and what do they care for God, if only the Czar be with them!-the Czar, who dared to boast that he has the calling to put his foot upon mankind's neck. Arrogant mortal! thou dust before God! No, gentlemen, by such an act a nation may suffer, but not die. The God of humanity cannot admit this. And do you note already his judgment-mark? They said, "Down with Hungary, that the Hapsburgs may rule as they please!" And look! they had already, in the first act of their sacrilegious plot, to mendicate the helm of him whose aid gave them dishonourable bondage instead of the coveted might. They longed to be the sun, and have nations for moons to revolve around them in obedience; and they themselves became the obedient moon of a frail mortal. them not rely on their Czar; his hour also will come. millions of Russia cannot be doomed to be nothing else than blind instruments of a single mortal's despotic whims. Humanity has a nobler destiny than to be the footstool to the ambition of some families. The destiny of mankind is Let The |