And hop from perch to perch, and chirp and sing
Merrily! Happy fool, it had forgot

Blithe liberty! But man, though he should drag
A captive's heavy chain, even till he starts
To hear his own sad voice, cannot forget.
He wants that blessed gift.

SECTION XCV.

EXTRACT FROM MR. NORTH'S SPEECH ON THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.

THE honourable gentleman has made complaint of the 'surprise which has been practised on the nation, and he has implored time for the purpose of procuring further petitions from the country against the Catholic claims, as if there were something premature in the measure that was now proposed. Sir, I have considered this objection in the best way I could, and I feel bound to protest, that a more unfounded complaint I never heard. Why, sir, let us for a moment pause to reckon what has been the nature of the progress of the measure. I ask, boldly, was there ever in this house a measure that went on from stage to stage, and from session to session, every now and then making new grounds on the reason and feelings of the parliament, and, I will say, on the reason and feelings of the country, giving every body an opportunity of watching its progress? Let me also request the house to remember, that the whole of this progress was continually marked by such particular events as ought to have prevented its escaping the memory of any man. In one year it happensI am only just imagining that it might be so-that one gentleman who had heretofore been strenuous in his opposition to the measure, passes over to the other side, and declares his strong conviction of the necessity of something being done in favour of the Catholics; in another year the division was changed from a majority against the Catholics to a majority in their favour-an event which one may well suppose could not have happened, without being strongly impressed on the minds of those who thought that the majority had changed for the worse; and, last of all, let the house recollect what was the warning conveyed to it in the

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course of the last cession, when that great measure for the relief of the dissenters passed through parliament. If that was not a warning, sir-if honourable gentlemen did not then see what the signs of the times were-I can only say, that they appear to me to be like that stiff-necked generation described in the Scriptures, that would not have believed, even though one had risen from the dead." In my opinion, sir, the honourable gentlemen have had abundance of time; but, if they had had more, could they, I will ask, have acted with greater zeal or activity? Have they not established their Brunswick clubs in Ireland? Are they not as numerous as they are violent? Have they not approached nearer to the confines of sedition and tumult than any other body or collection of men? Will they then now tell us, that they have had no warning of the proposal of this measure? At least I think that if they wanted any further, they might have obtained it from a survey of their own condition. It seems to me, that the well known story of Mrs. Thrale, about the three warnings is very applicable to the opponents of the Catholic claims just now. The house of course knows that, in the story to which I have just alluded, old Dobson complains, that death has no business with him, because he has not received the three warnings that had been promised him, quite forgetting that at that very moment he was without the use of his limbs, had lost his sight, and was as deaf as a post. So it is with these honourable gentlemen. Here they are complaining that they have had no warning; but I assure them, that the case of old Dobson is very much in point, and that they are so like old men, that they must depart without any further warning.

Sir, I feel that I should not be discharging my duty as a member of this house-I feel that I should not be acting as a friend of Ireland, which I am most sincerely-if, before I conclude, I did not return my warmest thanks to the right honourable gentleman who has introduced this measure; and I take the greatest honour to myself, in greeting him not only as the friend of my country, but as my own. I do not intend to dwell upon the sacrifices which the right honourable gentleman has made in undertaking to bring forward this measure; but there is one topic connected with the course which my right honourable friend has taken, which has not been touched upon, and which is, therefore, still left open for me. I allude, sir, to the great reward which is still in store for my right

honourable friend, and which will more than repay him for all the sacrifices which he has made for this greatest of questions for can a greater be imagined than that of Catholic emancipation? I would speak of the period, after a few years shall have passed by, when my right honourable friend shall turn his pleased but anxious eye towards Ireland-when he shall behold tranquillity restored to her -industry excited-knowledge diffused, and the moral tone of society elevated and improved: then will it be that my right honourable friend will experience feelings which he would not exchange for anything which the crown or the people have within their gift-it will be then that he will say that his reward is greater even than the sacrifices which he made to obtain it. And, sir, if I may be allowed to turn from my right honourable friend to the noble duke at the head of his majesty's government, I would say of him, that it appears to me that he has achieved a greater conquest, by the wisdom and policy which he has exercised in bringing forward this measure, than by anything he ever consummated by his valour and military skill in the field; he has secured by it the affections of a great, loyal, ardent, and devoted people. As to the measure itself, need I say that I look upon it as calculated to confirm and establish all our great national interests? I believe that it will give security to the government and to the state, and afford satisfaction, as the means of protecting the institutions of the country: it will be the means of completing the imperfect measure of the union of this country with Ireland; and, if I may be allowed to use the expression, it is inserting the key-stone into the great arch of the safety and policy of the empire. Nay, sir, it will do more than this-it will still the voice of faction-it will extinguish the seeds of rebellion-and should foreign envy entertain any lurking hope of witnessing, through this medium, the downfall of British greatness, it will be utterly destroyed.

SECTION XCVI.

BELSHAZZAR.....Rev. H. H. Milman.

FOR twice three hours our stately cars have roll'd
Along the broad highway that crowns the walls
Of mine imperial city, nor complete

Our circuit by a long and ample space.

And still our eyes look down on gilded roofs,
And towers and temples, and the spreading tops
Of cedar groves, through which the fountains gleam;
And everywhere the countless multitudes,
Like summer insects in the noontide sun,
Come forth to bask in our irradiate presence.
Oh, thou vast Babylon! what mighty hand
Created thee, and spread thee o'er the plain,
Capacious as a world; and girt thee round

With high-tower'd walls, and bound thy gates with brass;
And taught the indignant river to endure
Thy bridge of cedar and of palm, high hung

Upon its marble piers? What voice proclaim'd,
Amid the silence of the sands, "Arise!

And be earth's wonder?" Was it not my father's?
Yea, mine entombed ancestors awake,

Their heads uplift upon their marble pillows;
They claim the glory of thy birth. Thou hunter,
That didst disdain the quarry of the field,
Choosing thee out a nobler game of man,
Nimrod! and thou that with unfeminine hand
Didst lash the coursers of thy battle car
O'er prostrate thrones, and necks of captive kings,
Semiramis! and thou whose kingly breath
Was like the desert wind; before its coming
The people of all earth fell down, and hid
Their humble faces in the dust! that madest
The pastime of a summer day t' o'erthrow
A city, or cast down some ancient throne;
Whose voice each ocean shore obey'd, and all
From sable Ethiopia to the sands

Of the gold-flowing Indian streams;-oh! thou,
Lord of the hundred thrones, high Nabonassar!
And thou my father, Merodach! ye crown'd
This city with her diadem of towers-
Wherefore?-but prescient of Belshazzar's birth,
And conscious of your destin'd son, ye toil'd
To rear a meet abode. Oh, Babylon!

Thou hast him now, for whom through ages rose
Thy sky-exalted towers-for whom yon palace
Rear'd its bright domes and groves of golden spires,
In whom, secure of immortality,

Thou stand'st, and consecrate from time and ruin,
Because thou hast been the dwelling of Belshazzar!

SECTION XCVII.

BELSHAZZAR DURING THE CONFLAGRATION OF BABYLON.

I CANNOT fight nor fly; where'er I move,
On shadowy battlement, or cloud of smoke,
That dark unbodied hand waves to and fro,
And marshals me the way to death-to death
That still eludes me. Every blazing wall
Breaks out in those red characters of fate;
And when I raised my sword to war, methought
That dark-stoled prophet stood between, and seem'd
Rebuking Heaven for its slow consummation

Of his dire words.

I am alone; my slaves
Fled at the first wild outcry; and my women

Closed all their doors against me-for they knew me
Mark'd with the seal of destiny; no hand,
Though I have sued for water, holds a cup
To my parch'd lips; no voice, as I pass on,
Hath bless'd me; from the very festal garments,
That glitter'd in my halls, they shake the dust:
Even the priests spurn'd me, as abhorr'd of Heaven.
Oh! but the fiery Mede doth well avenge me!
They're strew'd beneath my feet-though not in worship!
Oh death! death! death! that art so swift to seize
The conqueror on his triumph day, the bride
Ere yet her wedding lamps have waned, the king
While all mankind are kneeling at his footstool—
Thou'rt only slow to him that knows himself
Thy fated prey, that seeks within the tomb
A dark retreat from wretchedness and shame.
From shame!-the heir of Nabonassar's glory!
From wretchedness!-the lord of Babylon-
Of golden and luxurious Babylon!

Alas! through burning Babylon! the fallen,
The city of lamentation and of slaughter!
A fugitive and outcast, that can find,
Of all his realm, not even a grave!-so base,
That even the conquering Mede disdains to slay him!