6. Impassioned Entreaty.

(1.) Extract from an Election Speech.

Gentlemen,-All these feelings are in my heart at this moment-they are various-they are conflictingthey are painful they are burthensome, but they are not overwhelming! And amongst them all, there is not one that bears the slightest semblance to despair. I trust myself once more in your faithful hands. I fling myself again on you for protection,-I call aloud to you to bear your own cause in your hearts,-I implore of you to come forward in your own defence; for the sake of this vast town and its people,—for the salvation of the middle and lower orders, for the whole industrious part of the whole country,-I entreat you by your love of peace,-by your hatred of oppression,-by your weariness of burthensome and useless taxation,-by yet another appeal, to which those must lend an ear who have been deaf to all the rest. I ask it for your families,-for your infants,—and if you I would avoid such a winter of horrors as the last!H. Brougham.

(2.) On the Reform Bill.

Rouse

My lords, I do not disguise the intense solicitude which I feel for the event of this debate; because I know full well that the peace of the country is involved in the issue. Beware, then, of your decision! not, I beseech you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people; alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire. As your friend, as the friend of order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant of my sovereign, I counsel you to assist with your utmost efforts in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the constitution. Therefore, I pray and exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear, by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order and our common country, I solemnly adjure you-I warn you-I implore you-

yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you-reject not this bill.-Lord Brougham.

7. Prayer.

(1.) Calm and earnest Supplication.

O Thou! whose balance does the mountains weigh,
Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey,

Whose breath can turn those wat'ry worlds to flame,
That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame;
Oh! give the winds all past offence to sweep,
To scatter wide, or bury in the deep!
Thy power, my weakness, may I ever see,
And wholly dedicate my soul to Thee ;-
Reign o'er my will: my passions ebb and flow
At Thy command, nor human motive know!
Through ev'ry scene of life, or peace or war,
Plenty or want, Thy glory be my care!
Grant I may ever, at the morning ray,
Open with prayer, and consecrate the day;
Tune Thy great praise, and bid my soul arise,
And with the mounting sun, ascend the skies.
Oh! may I pant for Thee in each desire,
And with strong faith foment the holy fire;
Stretch out my soul in hope, and grasp the prize
Which in Eternity's deep bosom lies;
At the great day of recompense, behold,
Devoid of fear, the fatal book unfold!
Then, wafted upward to the blissful seat,
From age to age my grateful song repeat;
My Light, my Life, my God, my Saviour, see,-
And rival Angels, in the praise of Thee!

(2.) A Poet's Prayer.

Young.

Jehovah! breathe upon my soul; my heart
Enlarge; my faith increase; increase my hope;
My thoughts exalt; my fancy sanctify,
And all my passions, that I near Thy throne

May venture, unreprov'd; and sing the Day,
Which none unholy ought to name, the Day
Of Judgment! greatest day, past or to come!
Day! which, deny me what Thou wilt, deny
Me home, or friend, or honourable name,-
Thy mercy grant, I thoroughly prepared,
With comely garment of redeeming love,
May meet, and have my Judge for Advocate.

Pollok.

VII.-Orations and other Popular Addresses.

Orations and popular addresses, although frequently availing themselves of argument or description for greater success, are generally impassioned, having for their aim the excitement of popular feeling. They require to be read with that energy, pathos, and earnestness, which indicate strong emotion in the speaker, and which are best calculated to arouse the feelings of the hearers. They sometimes require to be commenced, as in Anthony's Funeral Oration, with deliberation and discretion.

1. Condemnation of Agencies employed in the American War. But, my lords, who is the man, that in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms the tomahawk and scalping-knife of the savage?-to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant of the woods?—to delegate to the merciless Indian the defence of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of his barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for redress and punishment. But, my lords, this barbarous measure has been defended, not only on the principles of policy and necessity, but also on those of morality ; for it is perfectly allowable," says Lord Suffolk, "to use all the means that God and nature have put into our hands." I am

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astonished, I am shocked to hear such principles confessed; to hear them avowed in this House, in this country. My lords, I did not intend to encroach so much on your attention, but I cannot repress my indignation-I feel myself impelled to speak. My lords, we are called upon as members of this House, as men, as Christians, to protest against such horrible barbarity. -"That God and nature have put into our hands" What ideas of God and nature that noble lord may entertain, I know not, but I know that such detestable principles are equally abhorrent to religion and humanity. What! to attribute the sacred sanction of God and nature to the massacres of the Indian scalpingknife to the cannibal savage, torturing, murdering, devouring, drinking the blood of his mangled victims! Such notions shock every precept of morality, every feeling of humanity, every sentiment of honour. These abominable principles, and this more abominable avowal of them, demand the most decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend, and this most learned bench, to vindicate the religion, and to support the justice of their country. I call upon the Bishops to interpose the unsullied sanctity of their lawn-upon the Judges to interpose the purity of their ermine-to save us from this pollution. I call upon the honour of your Lordships, to reverence the dignity of your ancestors, and to maintain your own. I call upon the spirit and humanity of my country to vindicate the national character. I invoke the Genius of the Constitution. Spain can no longer boast preeminence in barbarity. She armed herself with blood-hounds to extirpate the wretched natives of Mexico; we, more ruthless, loose these dogs of war against our countrymen in America, endeared to us by every tie that can sanctify humanity. I solemnly call upon your lordships, and upon every order of men in the State, to stamp upon this infamous procedure the indelible stigma of public abhorrence. More particularly, I call upon the holy prelates of our

religion to do away with this iniquity; let them perform a lustration, to purify our country from this deep and deadly sin. My lords, I am old and weak, and at present unable to say more; but my feelings and indignation were too strong to have said less. I could not have slept this night in my bed, nor even reposed my head upon my pillow, without giving vent to my eternal abhorrence of such enormous and preposterous principles. Chatham.

2. Anthony's Address to the Roman Citizens over Cæsar's Body.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæsar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Cæsar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd it.
Here under leave of Brutus, and the rest
(For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men ;)
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me :
But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:

Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept : Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honourable man.

You all did see, that on the Lupercal,

I thrice presented him a kingly crown,

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?

Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honourable man.