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But circumstances have

natural superiority to other nations. conspired to give us an advantage, in making this great political experiment, which no other modern nation enjoys. If, therefore, our experiment shall fail, the world may well despair. Warned as we are by the taunts of European monarchists, and by the mournful example of all the ancient republics, are we willing to split on the same rock on which we have seen them shipwrecked trond'rxa foxfoit ell, the bright honors that we bere land water, -a lake for calmness, a sea for extent, in which the fleets of the world might ride at anchor.

3. San Francisco will be the entrepôt of nations, the empo rium of the East and West. High prices, and the absorption of the people in gold-seeking, will long cause it to import everything, and the deficiency of wood and the want of coal will im pede anything like manufactures; even her ships will for a long time be built in the harbors of the Atlantic. But her merchants will be the brokers, her hulls the exchange, of the Pacific., Turn to the map, and you will see the rare advantages of her position. The whole Pacific, with its countless isles, lies open to her enterprise; the Australian continent, and the realms of Hindostan', will reciprocate her commerce; and the Golden Gate fronts the harbor of Canton' and the mouth of the Yang-tze-kiang, the great artery of Chinese traffic.

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4. Instead of the tedious route by the Cape of Good Hope, steam-vessels from California will carry the produce of China, India, and the Isles, to the Isthmus of Dariën, and shorten by a half the voyage to Europe and Eastern America. The very winds and currents combine to favor the new region; and a vessel self to the loughts and the judgment of men. nave most cause to dread force can arrest its progress. Its approaches are u consequences are deeply felt. It enters garrisons n fortified, and operates in the palaces of kings and emp should cherish this power, as essential to the preservati government, and as the most efficient means of ameliorà political condition of our race. reverence for the laws, and by the exercise of an elevated And this can only be don

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7. THE FABRIC OF OUR GOVERNMENT.-Webster.

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Of all the presumptions indulged by presumptuous man. that is one of the rashest which looks for repeated and favorable opportunities for the deliberate establishment of a united govern.nent over distinct and widely-extended communities. Such a thing has happened once in human affairs, and but once; the

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speaking amid the threats and invectives of her hearers.

The people were at that period permitted to take a fearful and leading part in the dialogue between the judges and accused; they even permitted persons on trial to address the court, or compelled their silence; the very verdict rested with them.

2. Madame Roland heard herself sentenced to death with the air of one who saw in her condemnation merely her title to immortality. She rose, and, slightly bowing to her judges, said, with a bitter and ironical smile, "I thank you for considering me worthy to share the fate of the good and great men you have murdered!" She flew down the steps of the Conciergerie with the rapid swiftness of a child about to obtain some long-desired object the end and aim of her desires was death. As she passed along the corridor, where all the prisoners had assembled to greet her return, she looked at them smilingly, and, drawing her right hand across her throat, made a sign expressive of cutting off a head. This was her only farewell; it was tragic as her destiny, joyous as her deliverance; and well was it understood by those who saw it. Many who were incapable of weeping for their own fate shed tears of unfeigned sorrow for hers.

3. On that day (November 10th, 1793) a greater number than usual of carts laden with victims rolled onward toward the scaffold. Madame Roland was placed in the last, beside an infirm old man, named Lamarche. She wore a white robe, as a symbol of her innocence, of which she was anxious to convince the people; her magnificent hair, black and glossy as a raven's wing, fell in thick masses almost to her knees; her complexion, purified by her long captivity, and now glowing under the influence of a sharp, frosty November day, bloomed with all the freshness of early youth. Her eyes were full of expression; her whole countenance seemed radiant with glory, while a movement between pity and contempt agitated her lips. A crowd followed them, uttering the coarsest threats and most revolting expressions. "To the guillotine! to the guillotine!" exclaimed the female part of the rabble.

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4. "I am going to the guillotine," replied Madame Roland; a few moments and I shall be there; but those who send me thither will follow me ere long. I go innocent, but they will come stained with blood, and you who applaud our execution will then applaud theirs with equal zeal." Sometimes she would turn away her head that she might not appear to hear the insults with which she was assailed, and would lean with almost filial tenderness over the aged partner of her execution. The poor old man wept bitterly, and she kindly and cheeringly encouraged him to bear up with firmness, and to suffer with resignation. She even

tried to enliven the dreary journey they were performing together by little attempts at cheerfulness, and at length succeeded in winning a smile from her fellow-sufferer.

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5. A colossal statue of Liberty, composed of clay, like the liberty of the time, then stood in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, on the spot now occupied by the Obelisk; the scaffold was erected beside this statue. Upon arriving there, Madame Roland descended from the cart in which she had been conveyed. Just as the executioner had seized her arm to enable her to be the first to mount to the guillotine, she displayed an instance of that noble and tender consideration for others, which only a woman's heart could conceive, or put into practice at such a moment. Stay!" said she, momentarily resisting the man's grasp. "I have one only favor to ask, and that is not for myself; I beseech you grant it me." Then, turning to the old man, she said, “Do you precede me to the scaffold; to see my blood flow would be making you suffer the bitterness of death twice over. I must spare you the pain of witnessing my punishment." The executioner allowed this arrangement to be made. 6. With what sensibility and firmness must the mind have been imbued which could, at such a time, forget its own suffer. ings, to think only of saving one pang to an unknown old man! and how clearly does this one little trait attest the heroic calmness with which this celebrated woman met her death! After the execution of Lamarche, which she witnessed without changing color, Madame Roland stepped lightly up to the scaffold, and, bowing before the statue of Liberty, as though to do homage to a power for whom she was about to die, exclaimed, “O, Liberty! Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name! She then resigned herself to the hands of the executioner, and in a few seconds her head fell into the basket placed to receive it.

LAMARTINE.

CXXXVIII.

WHAT A COMMON MAN MAY SAY.

1. I AM lodged in a house that affords me conveniences and comforts which even a king could not command some centuries ago. There are ships crossing the seas in every direction, some propelled by steam and some by the wind, to bring what is useful to me from all parts of the earth. In China, men are gathering the tea-leaf for me; in the Southern States, they are planting cotton for me; in the West India Islands, and in Brazil, they are preparing my sugar and my coffee; in Italy, they are feeding silk-worms for me; at home, they are shearing sheep to make me

clothing powerful steam-engines are spinning and weaving for me, and making cutlery for me, and pumping the mines, that minerals useful to me may be procured.

2. My patrimony was small, yet I have locomotive engines running, day and night, on all the railroads, to carry my correspondence. I have canals to bring the coal for my winter fire. Then I have telegraphic lines, which tell me what has happened a thousand miles off, the same day of its occurrence; which flash a message for me in a minute to the bedside of a sick relative hundreds of miles distant; and I have editors and printers who daily send me an account of what is going on throughout the world, amongst all these people who serve me. By the daguer reotype I procure in a few seconds a perfect likeness of myself or friend, drawn without human touch, by the simple agency of light.

3. And then, in a corner of my house, I have books! — the miracle of all my possessions, more wonderful than the wishingcap of the Arabian Tales; for they transport me instantly not only to all places, but to all times. By my books I can con'jure up before me, to vivid existence, all the great and good men of old; and, for my own private satisfaction, I can make them act over again the most renowned of all their exploits. In a word, from the equator to the pole, and from the beginning of time until now, by my books I can be where I please.

4. This picture is not overcharged, and might be much extended; such being the miracle of God's goodness and providence, that each individual of the civilized millions that cover the earth may have nearly the same enjoyments as if he were the single lord of all!

CXXXIX.

STRONG DRINK MAKETH MEN FOOLS.

1. THIS gentleman and I

Passed but just now by your next neighbor's house,
Where, as they say, dwells one young Lionel,

An unthrift youth, his father now at sea,

And there, this night, was held a sumptuous feast.
In the height of their carousing, all their brains
Warmed with the heat of wine, discourse was offered
Of ships and storms at sea; when, suddenly,
Out of his giddy wildness, one conceives
The room wherein they quaffed to be a pinnace,
Moving and floating, and the confuseder noise
To be the murmuring of winds, gusts, mariners,

That their unsteadfast footing did proceed
From rocking of the vessel.

2 This conceived,

Each one begins to apprehend the danger,
And to look out for safety. Fly, saith one
Up to the main-top and discover. He
Climbs by the bed-post to the tester, there
Reports a turbulent sea and tempest towards,
And wills them, if they 'll save their ship and lives,
To cast their lading overboard. At this,
All fall to work, and hoist into the street,

As to the sea, what next comes to their hand
Stools, tables, tressels, trenchers, bedsteads, cups,
Pots, plate, and glasses.

3. Here a fellow whistles

They take him for the boatswain ; one lies struggling
Upon the floor, as if he swam for life;

A third takes the bass-viol for a cock-boat,
Sits in the hollow on 't, labors and rows,-
His oar, the stick with which the fiddler played;
A fourth bestrides his fellow, thinking to escape,
As did Arion, on the dolphin's back,

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Still fumbling on a gittern. The rude multitude,
Watching without, and gaping for the spoil

Cast from the windows, went by the ears about it.

4. The constable is called to atone the broil;
Which done, he, hearing such a noise within

Of imminent shipwreck, enters the house, and finds them
In this confusion; they adore his staff,

And think it Neptune's trident; and that he
Comes with his TritonsEI (so they call his watch)
To calm the tempest, and appease the waves;
And at this point we left them.

T. HEYWOOD.

CXL. THE LUTIST AND THE NIGHTINGALE.*

1 PASSING from Italy to Greece, the tales

Which poets of an elder time have feigned

To glorify their Tempe bred in me

Desire of visiting this Paradise.

To Thessaly I came, and living private,

Without acquaintance of more sweet companions

There are well-authenticated instances of singing-birds that have dropped down dead in the apparent effort to emulate the music producod from some instrument.

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