municipality, and exhibit, morever, an admirable pattern to my brother officers, by the cool, steady, upright, downright, and impartial discharge of my business, and the constancy with which I stand to my post. Summer or winter, nobody seeks me in vain; for, all day long, I am seen at the busiest corner, just above the market, stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike; and at night, I hold a lantern over my head, both to show where I am, and to keep people out of the gutters.

4. At this sultry noontide, I am cupbearer to the parched populace, for whose benefit an iron goblet is chained to my waist. Like a dramseller on the mall, at muster day, I cry aloud to all and sundry in my plainest accents, and at the very tiptop of my voice. Here it is, gentlemen! Here is the good liquor! Walk up, walk up, gentlemen, walk up, walk up! Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of father Adam strong beer, or wine of any price; here it is by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a cent to pay! Walk up, gentlemen, walk up, and help yourselves!

better than Cogniac, Hollands, Jamaica,

5. It were a pity, if all this outcry should draw no customers. Here they come. A hot day, gentlemen! Quaff, and away again, so as to keep yourselves in a nice cool. sweat. You, my friend, will need another cupfull, to wash the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your cowhide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles to-day; and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the running brooks and wellcurbs. Otherwise, betwixt heat without and fire within, you would have been burnt to a cinder, or melted down to nothing at all, in the fashion of a jelly-fish. Drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of mine.

6. Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and I have been

great strangers, hitherto; nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy, till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent. Mercy on you, man! the water absolutely hisses down your red-hot gullet, and is converted quite to steam, in the miniature fiery furnace, which you mistake for a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any kind of a dram-shop, spend the price of your children's food, for a swig half so delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of cold water. Goodby; and, whenever you are thirsty, remember that I keep a constant supply at the old stand.

7. Who next? O, my little friend, you are let loose from school, and come hither to scrub your blooming face, and drown the memory of certain school-boy troubles, in a draught from the Town Pump. Take it, pure as the current of your young life. Take it, and may your heart and tongue never be scorched with a fiercer thirst than now! There, my dear child, put down the cup, and yield your place to this elderly gentleman, who treads so tenderly over the paving-stones, that I suspect he is afraid of breaking them. What! he limps by, without so much as thanking me, as if my hospitable offers were meant only for people who have no wine-cellars.

8. Well, well, sir- no harm done, I hope! Go draw the cork, tip the decanter; but when your great toe shall set you a roaring, it will be no affair of mine. If gentlemen love the pleasant titillation of the gout, it is all one to the Town Pump. This thirsty dog, with his red tongue lolling out, does not scorn my hospitality, but stands on his hind legs, and laps eagerly out of the trough. See how lightly he capers away again! Jowler, did your worship ever have the gout?

Are you all satisfied? Then wipe your mouths, my good friends; and my spout shall have a moment's leisure.

4. In short, this honest fisherman,
All other toils forsook;

And though no vagrant man was he,
He lived by hook and crook.

5. He ne'er aspired to rank or wealth,
Nor cared about a name;

For though much famed for fish was he,
He never fished for fame!

6. To charm the fish he never spoke,
Although his voice was fine

He found the most convenient way
Was just to drop a line!

7. And many a gudgeon of the pond,
If made to speak to-day,

Would own, with grief, the angler had
A mighty taking way!

8. One day, while fishing on a log,
He mourned his want of luck,
When suddenly, he felt a bite,
And jerking-caught a duck! ́

9. Alas! that day this fisherman
Had taken too much grog;
And being but a landsman, too,
He could n't keep the log!

10. 'T was all in vain with might and main He strove to reach the shore;

Down, down he went, to feed the fish
He'd baited oft before!

11. The jury gave their verdict, that
'T was nothing else but gin,

That caused the fisherman to be
So sadly taken in ;

12. Though one stood out upon a whim, And said the angler's slaughter,

To be exact about the fact, —

14. And he who scorns to "take the pledge," And keep the promise fast,

May be, in spite of fate, a stiff
Cold water-man, at last!

LESSON XXIX.

PLEA FOR BLENNERHASSETT.- WIRT.

[A Forensic Speech. See Rules 2 and 3, p. 163 and 169.]

1. Let us now put the case between Burr* and BleunerLassett. Let us compare the two men, and settle the question of precedence between them. Who, then, is Blennerhassett? A native of Ireland, a man of letters, who fed from the storms of his own country to find quiet in ours. Possessing himself of a beautiful island in the Ohio, he rears upon it a palace, and decorates it with every romantic embellishment of fancy. A shrubbery, that Shenstone might have envied, blooms around him; music, which might have charmed Calypso and her nymphs, is his; an extensive library spreads its treasures before him; a philosophical apparatus offers to him all the secrets and mysteries of nature; peace, tranquillity, and innocence, shed their mingled delights around him; and to crown the enchantment of the scene, a wife, who is said to be lovely even beyond her sex, and graced with every accomplishment that can render it irresistible, had blessed him with her love, and made him the father of her children.

2. The evidence would convince you, sir, that this is only a faint picture of the real life. In the midst of all this peace, this innocence, and this tranquillity, this feast of the mind, this pure banquet of the heart- the destroyer comes; he comes to turn this paradise into a hell. A stranger presents himself. It is Aaron Burr! Introduced to their

* Burr, (Aa'ron,) was elected vice-president of the United States in 1800. In 1807 he was arrested, and tried for treason. He died in 1836, aged eighty.

+ Shen'stone, (William,) born in 1714. He occupied his life in rural embellish ments, and the cultivation of poetry.

Ca-lyp'so. See note, page 256.