THE ACADEMICAL SPEAKER.

117

DIALOGUE.

OLLAPOD AND SIR CHARLES CROPLAND.

Colman.

Ollapod. SIR CHARLES, I have the honor to be your slave. Hope your health is good. Been a hard winter here -Sore throats were plenty; so were woodcocks. Flushed four couple, one morning, in a half-mile walk, from our town, to cure Mrs Quarles of a quinsy. May coming on soon, Sir Charles. Hope you come to sojourn. Should n't be always on the wing-that's being too flighty. Do you take, good sir, do you take?

Sir Charles. Oh, yes, I take. But, by the cockade in your hat, Ollapod, you have added lately, it seems, to your avocations.

Olla. My dear Sir Charles, I have now the honor to be cornet in the volunteer association corps of our town. It fell out unexpected-pop on a sudden; like the going off of a field-piece, or an alderman in an apoplexy.

Sir C. Explain.

Olla. Happening to be at home-rainy day-no going out to sport, blister, shoot, nor bleed-was busy behind the counter. You know my shop, Sir Charles-Galen's head over the door-new gilt him last week, by the by-looks as fresh as a pill.

Sir C. Well, no more on that head now-proceed.

Olla. On that head! That's very well, very well indeed! Thank you, good sir, I owe you one-Churchwarden Posh, of our town, being ill of an indigestion, from eating three pounds of measly pork, at a vestry dinner, I was making up a cathartic for the patient; when, who should strut into the shop, but Lieutenant Grains, the brewersleek as a dray-horse-in a smart scarlet jacket, tastily turned up with a rhubarb-coloured lapel. I confess his figure struck me. I looked at him, as I was thumping the mortar, and felt instantly inoculated with a military ardour.

Sir C. Inoculated! I hope your ardour was of a very favourable sort.

Olla. Ha! ha! That's very well-very well, indeed!Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. We first talked of shooting-He knew my celebrity that way, Sir Charles.

I

told him, the day before, I had killed-lost, I mean-six brace of patients-I thumped on at the mortar-eyeing him all the while; for he looked mighty flashy, to be sure; and I felt an itching to belong to the corps. The medical, and military, both deal in death, you know-so, 't was natural. Do you take, good sir? do you take?

Sir C. Take? Oh, nobody can miss.

Olla. He then talked of the corps itself: said it was sickly; and if a professional person would administer to the health of the association-dose the men, and drench the horse-he could, perhaps, procure him a cornetcy.

Sir C. Well, you jumped at the offer?

Olla. Jumped! I jumped over the counter-kicked down Churchwarden Posh's cathartic, into the pocket of Lieutenant Grain's smart scarlet jacket, tastily turned up with a rhubarb-coloured lapel; embraced him and his offer, and I am now Cornet Ollapod, apothecary, at the Galen's Head, of the association corps of cavalry, at your service.

Sir C. I wish you joy of your appointment. You may now distil water for the shop, from the laurels you gather in the field.

Olla. Water for-Oh! laurel water. Come, that's very well-very well, indeed! Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. Why, I fancy fame will follow, when the poison of a small mistake I made, has ceased to operate.

Sir C. A mistake?

Olla. Having to attend Lady Kitty Carbuncle on a grand field day, clapped a pint bottle of her ladyship's dietdrink into one of my holsters; intending to proceed to the patient, after the exercise was over. I reached the martial ground, and jalloped-galloped, I mean-wheeled, and flourished, with great eclât; but when the word 'fire' was given, meaning to pull out my pistol, in a horrible hurry, I presented, neck foremost, the villanous diet-drink of Lady Kitty Carbuncle; and the medicine being, unfortunately, fermented, by the jolting of my horse, it forced out the cork, with a prodigious pop, full in the face of my gallant commander.

Sir C. But, in the midst of so many pursuits, how pro

Sir C. My dear Doctor, the lady of all others I wish most to know. Introduce yourself to the family, and pave the way for me. Come! mount your horse-I'll explain more as you go to the stable :-but I am in a flame, in a fever, till I see you off.

Olla. In a fever! I'll send you physic enough to fill a baggage wagon.

Sir C. [Aside.] So! a long bill as the price of his politeness!

Olla. You need not bleed; but you must have medicine.

Sir C. If I must have medicine, Ollapod, I fancy I shall bleed pretty freely.

Olla. Come, that's very well! very well indeed! Thank you, good sir-I owe you one. Before dinner, a strong dose of coloquintida, senna, scammony, and gamboge;-

Sir C. Oh, confound scammony and gamboge!

Olla. At night a narcotic; next day, saline draughts, camphorated julap, and

Sir C. Zounds! only go, and I'll swallow your whole shop.

Olla. Galen, forbid! 'Tis enough to kill every customer I have in the parish!—Then we 'll throw in the bark -By the by, talking of bark, Sir Charles, that Juno of yours is the prettiest pointer—

Sir C. Well, well, she is yours.

Olla. My dear Sir Charles! such sport next shooting If I had but a double-barrelled gun

season!

Sir C.

Take mine that hangs in the hall.

Olla. My dear Sir Charles!—Here's morning's work; senna and coloquintida

Sir C. Well, be gone, then.

Olla. I'm off-Scammony and gamboge.

Sir C. Nay, fly,

man!

[Aside.

[Pushing him.

Olla. I do, Sir Charles-A double-barrelled gun-I fly -the bark-I'm going-Juno-a narcotic

Sir C. Off with you!

ADDRESS TO THE COLUMBIAN CONVENTION."
Bolivar.

LEGISLATORS, Great and arduous is the task which the public will has confided to you. Save yourselves from the compromise in which our fellow-citizens have placed you,

by saving Columbia. Cast your penetrating glances into the hearts of your constituents. You will there read the prolonged sufferings to which they are a prey; they sigh for repose. A firm, powerful, and just government, is the cry of the country. Behold her standing on the ruins left by despotism, pale with fear, deploring the loss of thousands of heroes, who have died for her, and from whose blood, sowed in her fields, her rights arise.

Yes, legislators, dead and living, sepulchres and ruins, call on you for guarantees. And I, who now, seated at the hearth of a simple citizen, and mixed with the multitude, resume my voice and my right-I, who am the last to call for the object of society-I, who have consecrated a religious worship to the country and to liberty, ought not to remain silent at a moment so solemn.

Give us a government under which the laws shall be obeyed, the magistrate respected, and the people free—a government which shall prevent the transgression of the general will and the commands of the people.

Consider, legislators, that energy in the public force is the safeguard of individual weakness; the menace which deters the unjust man; and the hope of society. Consider, that the corruption of the people arises from the indulgence of the tribunals and from the impunity of crime. Observe, that without energy there is no virtue; and that without virtue the Republic perishes. Observe, in short, that anarchy destroys liberty, and that union preserves order.

Legislators, in the name of Columbia, I entreat, that, like the Providence whom you represent, you give us-as the arbiters of our destinies, for the people, for the army, for the judge, and for the magistrate-inexorable laws.

NECESSITY OF NATIONAL MORALITY.

Beecher.

THE crisis has come. By the people of this generation, by ourselves, probably, the amazing question is to be decided, whether the inheritance of our fathers shall be preserved or thrown away; whether our Sabbaths shall be a delight or loathing; whether the taverns, on that holy day, shall be crowded with drunkards, or the sanctuary of God with humble worshippers; whether riot and profaneness

shall fill our streets, and poverty our dwellings, and convicts our jails, and violence our land; or whether industry, and temperance, and righteousness shall be the stability of our times; whether mild laws shall receive the cheerful submission of freemen, or the iron rod of a tyrant compel the trembling homage of slaves.

Be not deceived. Human nature in this state is like human nature everywhere. All actual difference in our favour is adventitious, and the result of our laws, institutions, and habits. It is a moral influence, which with the blessing of God, has formed a state of society so eminently desirable. The same influence which formed it is indispensable to its preservation. The rocks and hills of New-England will remain till the last conflagration. But let the Sabbath be profaned with impunity, the worship of God be abandoned, the government and religious instruction of children neglected, the streams of intemperance be permitted to flow; and her glory will depart. The wall of fire will no longer surround her, and the munition of rocks will no longer be her defence.

If we neglect our duty, and suffer our laws and institutions to go down, we give them up forever. It is easy to relax, easy to retreat; but impossible, when the abomination of desolation has once passed over New-England, to rear again the thrown down altars, and gather again the fragments, and build up the ruins of demolished institutions.

The hand that overturns our laws and temples, is the hand of death, unbarring the gates of Pandemonium, and letting loose upon our land the crimes and miseries of Hell. If the Most High should stand aloof, and cast not a single ingredient into our cup of trembling, it would seem to be full of superlative wo. But he will not stand aloof. As we shall have begun an open controversy with him, he will contend openly with us. And never since the earth stood, has it been so fearful a thing for nations to fall into the hands of the living God.

The day of vengeance is at hand; the great earthquake which sinks Babylon, is shaking the nations, and the waves of the mighty commotion are dashing upon every shore.Is it, then, a time to remove the foundations when the earth itself is shaken ?

Is this a time to forfeit the protection of God, when the hearts of men are failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are to come upon the earth? Is this a time to run upon his neck and the thick bosses of