he be, shall be robbed of his rights? whether, freeman as he is, he shall be scourged like a slave? 10. Shall an American citizen be scourged? Forbid it, Heaven! Humanity forbid it! For myself, I would rather see the navy abolished, and the stars and the stripes buried, with their glory, in the depths of the ocean, than that those who won for it all its renown should be subjected to a punishment so brutal, to an ignominy so undeserved. XXVIII. THE BRIDAL OF MALAHIDE. GERALD GRIFFIN. MALAHIDE is a village in Ireland, eight miles from Dublin. Pronounce CLANGOR klang'gur, WREATHS rēthz, COMBAT kŭm'bat or kom'bat, BURGHER burg'er, STORY store'ry, GLORY glore'ry, FOREHEAD for'ed; the o in PORTAL as in more, in BORDER as in nor. Do not slur the th in DEPTHS, In BROKEN, SPOKEN, MAIDEN, the ow (0) in HOLLOW, MEADOW, WIDOW. the e before n is silent. See in the Index CHANCEL, OUNCE, GRIFFIN. Delivery. There should be a transition at the fifth stanza to a tone of alarm; at the seventh the young chieftain's summons should be loud and carnest; the tenth should breathe the eagerness of victory; and the eleventh, by its slow movement and altered tone, should prepare us for the grief of the bereaved mourner. I. THE joy-bells are ringing in gay Malahide, The fresh wind is singing along the sea-side; The maids are assembling with garlands of flowers, And the harp-strings are trembling in all the glad bowers. II. Swell, swell the gay measure! roll, trumpet and drum! For the lord and the lady, the bridegroom and bride. III. Before the high altar young Maud stands arrayed! From father and mother forever to part, IV. The words are repeated, the bridal is done, The rite is completed, - the two, they are one; The vow, it is spoken all pure from the heart, V. Hark! 'mid the gay clangor that compassed their car, The foe's on the border! his weapons resound VI. As wakes the good shepherd, the watchful and bold, While the new-married lady looks fainting and pale. VII. "Son, husband, and brother, arise to the strife, VIII. Hurrah! to the battle! They form into line, The shields, how they rattle! the spears, how they shine! Soon, soon shall the foeman his treachery rue, On, burgher and yeoman! to die or to do! IX. The eve is declining in lone Malahide : The maidens are twining gay wreaths for the bride; Where the clansmen are bleeding for her in the war. X. Hark! loud from the mountain -'tis victory's cry! O'er woodland and fountain it rings to the sky! XI. With foreheads unruffled the conquerors come- And where does he tarry, the lord of the field? XII. Ye saw him at morning, how gallant and gay! Now, weep for the lover, his triumph is sped, XIII. But O for the maiden who mourns for that chief, - in one morning-tide, A wife and a widow, a maid and a bride! XIV. Ye maidens attending, forbear to condole ! Give the distinct sound of e as in her to e before r in GOVERNMENT, HEARD, LIBERTY, THEREFORE, WERE; also to o and i in WORSE, FIRST. Pronounce the first syllable of DURING, Puritan, as if dure-, pure-. See in the Index, CONSTRUE, CONTEMPLATE, counselor, guide, Indian, PARLIAMENT, SCAFFOLD, TEDIOUS; REFORM, STUART, LOUIS, MACAULAY. 1. It is a principle never to be forgotten, that it is not by absolute, but by relative misgovernment, that nations are roused to madness. Look at our own history. The liberties of the English people were, at least, as much respected by Charles the First as by Henry the Eighth, by James the Second as by Edward the Sixth. But did this save the crown of James the Second? Did this save the head of Charles the First? Every person who knows the history of our civil dissensions knows that all those arguments which are now employed by the opponents of the Reform Bill might have been employed, and were actually employed, by the unfortunate Stuarts. 2. The reasoning of Charles, and of all his apologists, runs thus: "What new grievance does the nation suffer? Did the people ever enjoy more freedom than at present? Did they ever enjoy so much freedom?" But what would a wise and honest counselor have replied? He would have said: "Though there has been no change in the government for the worse, there has been a change in the public mind, which produces exactly the same effect which would be produced by a change in the government for the worse. It may be that the submissive loyalty of our fathers was preferable to that inquiring, censuring, resisting spirit which is now abroad. And so it may be that infancy is a happier time than manhood, and manhood than old age. 3. "But God has decreed that old age shall succeed to manhood, and manhood to infancy. Even so have societies their law of growth. As their strength becomes greater, as their experience becomes more extensive, you can no longer confine them within the swaddling-bands, or lull them in the cradles, or amuse them with the rattles, or terrify them with the bugbears, of their infancy. I do not say that they are better or happier than they were; but this I say, they are different from what they were; you cannot again make them what they were, and you cannot safely treat them as if they continued to be what they were." 4. This was the advice which a wise and honest minister would have given to Charles the First. These were the principles on which that unhappy prince should have acted. But no. He would govern, — I do not say ill, I do not say tyrannically; I say only this, he would govern the men of the seventeenth century as if they had been the men of the sixteenth century; and therefore it was that all his talents, and all his virtues, did not save him from unpopularity, from civil war, from a prison, from a bar, from prison,—from — a scaffold! - 5. Sir, I have from the beginning of these discussions supported Reform, on two grounds: first, because I believe it to be in itself a good thing; and, secondly, because I think the dangers of withholding it to be so great, that, even if it were an evil, it would be the less of two evils. I shall not relinquish the hope that this great contest may be conducted, by lawful means, to a happy termination. But of this I am assured, that, by means lawful or unlawful, to a termination, happy or unhappy, this contest must speedily come. 6. All that I know of the history of past times, all the observations that I have been able to make on the present state of the country, have convinced me that the time has arrived when a great concession must be made to the democracy of England; that the question, whether the change be in itself good or bad, has become a question of secondary importance: that, good or bad, the thing must be done; that a law as strong as the laws of attraction and motion has decreed it. 7. I well know that history, when we look at it in small portions, may be so construed as to mean anything; that it may be interpreted in as many ways as a Delphic oracle. "The French revolution," says one expositor, "was the effect of concession." "Not so," cries another; "the French revolution was produced by the obstinacy of an arbitrary government." These controversies can never be brought to any decisive test or to any satisfactory conclusion. But, as I believe that history, when we look at it in small fragments, proves anything or nothing, so I believe that it is full of useful and precious instruction when we contemplate it in large portions, when we take in, at one view, the whole lifetime of great societies. 8. We have heard it said a hundred times, during these discussions, that the people of England are more free than ever they were; that the government is more democratic than ever it was; and this is urged as an |