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8. "And pray," said the judge, sternly, "why do you object to that gentleman as juryman ?"

9. "I object to him, my lord, by the rights of an Englishman, without giving my reasons why."

10. "And whom do you wish to have in his place?"

11. "An honest man, my lord, if I can get one!" cried Thomas, looking round. "Yon miller,-I don't know his name; I'd like him."

12. "Very well," says his lordship, "let the miller be sworn."

13. Accordingly the miller was called down from the gallery, and empanneled with the rest of the jury. He had not been long in the box, when he observed, going about among the jurymen, a bustling, obsequious little man, who presently came to him, and smilingly slipped five guineas into his hand, intimating that they were a present from the younger brother.

14. "Yonder is a very polite man!" said the miller, to his next neighbor in the box.

15. "I may well say so," said the delighted juryman, "since he has given me ten guineas to drink our friend James's health." And, on further inquiry, the miller discovered that each man had received double the sum presented to himself.

16. He now turned his whole attention to the trial, which appeared to lean decidedly in favor of the younger brother; for while a few witnesses timidly testified to the plaintiff's striking resemblance to the elder brother, others swore positively that the elder brother was dead and buried.

17. When his lordship came to deliver his charge to the jury, he took no notice whatever of several palpable contradictions in the testimony of these false witnesses, but proceeded to expatiate upon the evidence as if it had been overwhelmingly in James's favor.

18. When he had concluded, the usual question was put to the jury: were they all agreed? The foreman rose, with his ten guineas jingling in his pocket, and was about to

reply, supposing all to have been equally convinced with himself, by the same golden arguments; when the miller stepped forward, calling out,-"No, my lord, we are not all agreed !"

19. “And pray," said his lordship, frowning with contempt and impatience, "what objections have you?"

20. "I have many objections, my lord! In the first place all these gentlemen of the jury have received ten broad pieces of gold from the younger brother, while I have received but five!"

21. Having made this simple announcement, to the consternation of the court, and to the amusement of the spectators, the supposed miller proceeded to point out the contradictory evidence which had been adduced, in such a strain of eloquence that all present-especially the elder brother and the attorney-were filled with amazement. At length the judge, unable to contain himself, called out with vehemence," Who are you?-where do you come from?what is your name?"

22. To which the miller calmly replied: "I come from Westminster Hall—my name is Matthew Hale—I am Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench; and convinced as I am of your entire unfitness to hold so high a judicial position, from having observed your iniquitous and partial proceedings this day, I command you to come down from that tribunal which you have so disgraced. I will try this case myself."

23. Sir Matthew then ascended the bench in his miller's coat and wig; ordered a new jury to be empanneled; reëxamined the witnesses, and drew out confessions of bribery from those who had sworn to the elder brother's death. He then summed up the case anew, and it was unhesitatingly decided in the elder brother's favor.

V.—THE FINDING OF THE LYRE.

I.

HERE lay upon the ocean's shore

THERE

What once a tortoise served to cover.

A year and more, with rush and roar,
The surf had rolled it over,

Had played with it, and flung it by,

As wind and weather might decide it, Then tossed it high, where sand-drifts dry Cheap burial might provide it.

II.

It rested there to bleach or tan,

The rains had soaked, the suns had burned it;

With many a ban the fisherman

Had stumbled o'er and spurned it;

And there the fisher-girl would stay,
Conjecturing with her brother,
How in their play the poor estray
Might serve some use or other.

III.

So there it lay, through wet and dry,
As empty as the last new sonnet,
Till by and by came Mercury,

And, having mused upon it,

"Why here," cried he, "the thing of things, In shape, material, and dimension!

Give it but strings, and, lo, it sings,

A wonderful invention!"

IV.

So said, so done; the chords he strained,
And, as his fingers o'er them hovered,
The shell disdained a soul had gained,
The lyre had been discovered.

O empty world that round us lies,

Dead shell, of soul and thought forsaken, Brought we but eyes like Mercury's,

In thee what songs should waken!

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

VI.-TREATMENT OF THE AMERICAN

M

COLONIES.

Y LORDS-I rise with astonishment to see these papers brought to your table at so late a period of this business; papers, to tell us what? Why, what all the world knew before; that the Americans, irritated by repeated injuries, and stripped of their inborn rights and dearest privileges, have resisted, and entered into associations for the preservation of their common liberties.

2. Had the early situation of the people of Boston been attended to, things would not have come to this. But the infant complaints of Boston were literally treated like the capricious squalls of a child, who, it was said, did not know whether it was aggrieved or not. But full well I knew at that time that this child, if not redressed, would soon assume the courage and voice of a man. Full well I knew that the sons of ancestors, born under the same free constitution, and once breathing the same liberal air, as Englishmen, would resist upon the same principles and on the same occasions.

3. What has government done? They have sent an armed force, consisting of seventeen thousand men, to dragoon the Bostonians into what is called their duty; and, so far from once turning their eyes to the impolicy and destructive consequence of this scheme, are constantly sending out more troops. And we are told, in the language of menace, that, if seventeen thousand men won't do, fifty thousand shall.

4. It is true, my lords, with this force they may ravage the country, waste and destroy as they march; but in the progress of fifteen hundred miles can they occupy the places they have passed? Will not a country which can produce three millions of people, wronged and insulted as they are, start up, like hydras, in every corner, and

gather fresh strength from fresh opposition? Nay, what dependence can you have upon the soldiery, the unhappy engines of your wrath? They are Englishmen, who must feel for the privileges of Englishmen. Do you think that these men can turn their arms against their brethren? Surely not. A victory must be to them a defeat; and carnage, a sacrifice.

5. But it is not merely three millions of people, the produce of America, we have to contend with in this unnatural struggle; many more are on their side, dispersed over the face of this wide empire. Every whig in this country and in Ireland is with them. Who, then, let me demand, has given, and continues to give, this strange and unconstitutional advice?

6. I do not mean to level at any one man, or any particular set of men; but thus much I will venture to declare, that if His Majesty continues to hear such counselors, he will not only be badly advised, but undone. He may continue, indeed, to wear his crown; but it will not be worth his wearing. Robbed of so principal a jewel as America, it will lose its luster, and no longer beam that effulgence which should irradiate the brow of majesty.

7. In this alarming crisis, I come, with this paper in my hand, to offer you the best of my experience and advice; which is, that an humble petition be presented to His Majesty, beseeching him, that, in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, it may graciously please him that immediate orders be given to General Gage for removing His Majesty's forces from the town of Boston.

8. And this, my lords, upon the most mature and deliberate grounds, is the best advice I can give you at this juncture. Such conduct will convince America that you mean to try her cause in the spirit of freedom and inquiry, and not in letters of blood. There is no time to be lost. Every hour is big with danger. Perhaps, while I am now

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