conditions of society may be so altered as to make it idle to contend for a principle which no longer has any practical force, but these changed conditions of society have not annihilated one original truth.

The application of these postulates to the present situation of our country is obvious. The people of the South maintained, as their fathers maintained before them, that certain principles were essential to the perpetuation of the Union according to the original Constitution. Rather than surrender their convictions they took up arms to defend them. The appeal was vain. Defeat came, and they accepted it, with its consequences, just as they would have accepted victory, with its fruits. They have sworn to maintain the government as it is now constituted. They will not attempt again to assert their views of state sovereignty by an appeal to the sword. None feel this obligation to be more binding than the soldiers of the late Confederate armies. A soldier's parole is a sacred thing, and the men who are willing to die for a principle in time of war are the men of all others most likely to maintain their personal honor in time of peace.

But it is idle to shut our eyes to the fact that this consolidated empire of states is not the Union established by our fathers. No intelligent European student of American institutions is deceived by any such assumption. We gain nothing by deceiving ourselves.

And if history teaches any lesson, it is this, that a nation cannot long survive when the fundamental principles which gave it life originally are subverted. It is true republics have often degenerated into despotism. It is also true that after such transformation they have for a time been characterized by a force, a prosperity, and a glory never known in their earlier annals; but it has always been a force which absorbed and obliterated the rights of the citizen, a prosperity which was gained by the sacrifice of individual independence, a glory which was ever the precursor of inevitable anarchy, disintegration, and ultimate extinction.

If then it be asked how are we to escape the catastrophe, I answer, by a voluntary return to the fundamental principles upon which our republic was originally founded. And if it be objected that we have already entered upon one of those po

litical revolutions which never go backward, then I ask, who gave to any one the authority to say so? or whence comes the infallibility which entitles any one to pronounce a judgment so overwhelming? Why may there not be a comprehension of what is truly politic, and what is grandly right, slumbering in the hearts of our American people-a people at once so practical and emotional, so capable of great enterprise and great magnanimity-a patriotism which is yet to awake and announce itself in a repudiation of all unconstitutional invasion of the liberties of the citizens of any portion of this broad Union? When we remember the awful strain to which the principles of other constitutional governments have been subjected in the excitement of revolutionary epochs, and how, when seemingly submerged by the tempest, they have risen again and reasserted themselves in their original integrity, why should we despair of seeing the ark of our liberties again resting on the summit of the mount, and hallowed by the benediction of Him who said, "Behold, I do set My bow in the cloud!"

And now standing before this statue, and, as in the living presence of the man it represents, cordially endorsing, as I do, the principles of the political school in which he was trained and in defence of which he died, and unable yet even to think of our dead Confederacy without memories unutterably tender, I speak not for myself, but for the South, when I say it is our interest, our duty and determination, to maintain the Union, and to make every possible contribution to its prosperity and glory, if all the states which compose it will unite in making it such a Union as our fathers framed, and in enthroning above it, not a Cæsar, but the Constitution in its old supremacy.

If ever these states are welded together in one great fraternal, enduring Union, with one heart pulsating through the entire frame as the tides throb through the bosom of the sea, it will be when they all stand on the same level, with such a jealous regard for each other's rights that when the interests or honor of one is assailed, all the rest, feeling the wound, even as the body feels the pain inflicted on one of its members, will kindle with just resentment at the outrage, because an injury done to a part is not only a wrong, but an indignity offered to the whole. But if that cannot be, then I trust the day will never dawn when the Southern people will add degradation to

defeat, and hypocrisy to subjugation. by professing a love for the Union which denies to one of their states a single right accorded to Massachusetts or New York-to such a Union we will never be heartily loyal while that bronze hand grasps its sword-while yonder river chants the requiem of the sixteen thousand Confederate dead who, with Stuart among them, sleep on the hills of Hollywood.

But I will not end my oration with an anticipation so disheartening. I cannot so end it because I look forward to the future with more of hope than of despondency. I believe in the perpetuity of republican institutions, so far as any work of man may be said to possess that attribute. The complete emancipation of our constitutional liberty must come from other quarters, but we have our part to perform, one requiring patience, prudence, fortitude, faith.

The bronze figures

A cloud of witnesses encompass us. on these monuments seem for the moment to be replaced by the spirits of the immortal men whose names they bear.

As if an angel spoke, their tones thrill our hearts.

First, it is the calm voice of Washington that we hear: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens."

Then Henry's clarion notes arouse us: "Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings: give us that precious jewel, and you may take all the rest!"

Then Jefferson speaks: "Fellow-citizens, it is proper you should understand what I deem the essential principles of government. Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. The support of state governments in all their rights, as the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor as the sheetanchor of our peace at home and safety abroad; the supremacy of the civil over military authority; the honest payment of our debts and sacred preservation of the public faith. And should we wander from these principles in moments of error and

alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty and safety."

And last it is Jackson's clear, ringing tone to which we listen: "What is life without honor? Degradation is worse than death. We must think of the living and of those who are to come after us, and see that by God's blessing we transmit to them the freedom we have enjoyed."

Heaven, hear the prayer of our dead, immortal hero!

GEORGE FREDERICK HOLMES

[1820-1897]

THE

HENRY E. SHEPHERD

HE subject of our sketch, George Frederick Holmes, was born at Straebrock, Demerara, British Guiana, August 2, 1820. Young Holmes sprang from that sturdy and vigorous Northumbrian race which has in all time borne up the banner of England, and glorified her name in the world of material development, as well. as intellectual and spiritual achievement. His mother was Mary Ann Pemberton, daughter of Dr. Stephen Pemberton; his father was Joseph Henry Hendon Holmes, F.S.A., Advocate of the Bar of Demerara, Proctor of Vice Admiralty and Judge Advocate to the forces of Demerara and Essequibo. The boy was the eldest son of his parents and when an infant, two years of age, he accompanied them on a visit to the home of his maternal grandfather, Dr. Stephen Pemberton, and his maiden daughter Miss Elizabeth Pemberton. Upon her return to her South American home, his mother entrusted the child to the care of his grandfather and his aunt. He was placed in one of the foremost schools at Sunderland, in the historic country palatine of Durham, and from the first displayed that insatiable love of knowledge in all her complex forms, and that power of appropriating and assimilating her treasures which was perhaps the most strongly marked characteristic of his strange, eventful history.

At the dawning age of six, he was reading Latin and Greek. His record recalls such infantile prodigies as Coleridge, John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Taylor. Among his youthful contemporaries were many who in later days won fame in literature, at the bar, in the church, in arms, and in the drama. Tom Taylor, the playwright, of whom he always spoke with genuine affection, was his early comate, and his correspondent during the long years of his residence in America.

His school life at Sunderland, brilliant as it was, was the prelude to his career at the University, where he won in December, 1836, the prize scholarship. His university education did not extend beyond a single session. An act, inspired by a sense of grateful appreciation toward the aunt whose heir he was understood to be, and which the most uncharitable judgment can regard as nothing