INVECTIVE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. 361 IF INVECTIVE AGAINST WARREN HASTINGS. F, my Lords, a stranger had at this time gone into the province of Oude, ignorant of what had happened since the death of Sujah Dowlah-that prince who with a savage heart had still great lines of character, and who, with all his ferocity in war, had, with a cultivated hand, preserved to his country the wealth which it derived from benignant skies and a prolific soil-if, ignorant of all that had happened in the short interval, and observing the wide and general devastation of fields unclothed and brown; of vegetation burned up and extinguished; of villages depopulated and in ruins; of temples unroofed and perishing; of reservoirs broken down and dry,—this stranger should ask, "what has thus laid waste this beautiful and opulent land; what monstrous madness has ravaged with wide-spread war; what desolating foreign foe; what civil discords; what disputed succession; what religious zeal; what fabled monster has stalked abroad, and, with malice and mortal enmity to man, withered by the grasp of death every growth of nature and humanity, all means of delight, and each original, simple principle of bare existence?" the answer would have been, not one of these causes! No wars have ravaged these lands and depopulated these villages! No desolating foreign foe! No domestic broils! No disputed succession! No religious, super-serviceable zeal! No poisonous monster! No affliction of Providence, which, while it scourged us, cut off the sources of resuscitation! No! This damp of death is the mere effusion of British amity! We sink under the pressure of their support! We writhe under their perfidious gripe! They have embraced us with their protecting arms, and lo! these are the fruits of their alliance! What then, my Lords! shall we bear to be told that, under such circumstances, the exasperated feelings of a whole people, thus spurred on to clamor and resistance, were excited by the poor and feeble influence of the Begums? After hearing the description given by an eye-witness of the paroxysm of fever and delirium into which despair threw the natives, when on the banks of the polluted Ganges, panting for breath, they tore more widely 362 THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. open the lips of their gaping wounds, to accelerate their dissolution; and while their blood was issuing, presented their ghastly eyes to heaven, breathing their last and fervent prayer that the dry earth might not be suffered to drink their blood, but that it might rise up to the throne of God, and rouse the eternal Providence to avenge the wrongs of their country,-will it be said that all this was brought about by the incantations of these Begums in their secluded Zenana; or that they could inspire this enthusiasm and this despair into the breasts of a people who felt no grievance, and had suffered no torture? What motive, then, could have such influence in their bosom? What motive! That which nature, the common parent, plants in the bosom of man; and which, though it may be less active in the Indian than in the Englishman, is still congenial with, and makes a part of, his being. That feeling which tells him that man was never made to be the property of man; but that, when in the pride and insolence of power, one human creature dares to tyrannize over another, it is a power usurped, and resistance is a duty. That principle which tells him that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which he owes to himself and to his neighbor, but a duty which he owes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank which he gave him in his creation-that God, who, where he gives the form of man, whatever may be the complexion, gives also the feelings and the rights of man. That principle which neither the rudeness of ignorance can stifle, nor the enervation of refinement extinguish! That principle which makes it base for a man to suffer when he ought to act; which, tending to preserve to the species the original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant distinctions of man, and indicates the independent quality of his race. THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. RITEMIUS of Herbipolis one day, TRIT While kneeling at the altar's foot to pray, A sound that seemed of all sad things to tell, THE GIFT OF TRITEMIUS. Thereat the abbot rose, the chain whereby She cried: "For the dear love of Him who gave "Woman!" Tritemius answered, "from our door None go unfed; hence are we always poor. A single soldo is our only store Thou hast our prayers, what can we give thee more?" "Give me," she said, "the silver candlesticks God well may spare them on His errand sped, Then said Tritemius, "Even as thy word, But his hand trembled as the holy alms And as she vanished down the linden shade, He bowed his head and for forgiveness prayed. 363 364 THE DOOM OF MAC GREGOR. So the day passed; and when the twilight came And dumb with grateful wonder to behold "M THE DOOM OF MAC GREGOR.--JAMES HOGG. AC GREGOR! Mac Gregor! remember the foeman! We must meet them at home, else they'll quickly be here." I have sworn, by the cross, by my God, by my all, THE DOOM OF MAC GREGOR. That the name and renown of Mac Gregor are gone; Like a glimpse of the moon through the storm of the night, It faded-it darkened! He shuddered; he sighed : No sound, save the lullaby sung by the rill. All silent they went, for the time was approaching, Nor once turned his eye to the brook of Glen Gyle. 365 |