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I bore my captivity in silence, and wore the warrior's dress which your nation wear, that it made any alteration in my heart? No! I

cherished up the thought of revenge till the eventful day which made me a second time your prisoner; and now you charge me with murder, because I slew your chief;—had he been a common warrior, it would not have been so.

Your

nation's justice is mockery of justice: your people's deeds of war are acts of massacre and plunder; they fight with no motive of revenge and passion, but merely to satisfy their thirst for blood. Fathers! I have done. When I am dead, I hope you'll lay me on the earth, like an Indian chief ought to be; and I trust the Great Spirit will receive me into the everlasting hunting ground. Our nations have been hunted like beasts, our bows are broken, our tomahawks are bent, and our fires extinguished ;-a little longer, and the white man's persecutions will be at an end-the tribe of red warriors will cease to exist.

JUNIUS BRUTUS OVER THE DEAD BODY OF LUCRETIA.

YES, noble lady! I swear by this blood, which was once so pure, and which nothing but royal villany could have polluted, that I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, his wicked wife, and their children, with fire and sword; nor will I ever suffer any of that family, or of any other whatsoever, to be King in Rome. Ye Gods, I

call you to witness this my oath! There, Romans, turn your eyes to that sad spectacle-the daughter of Lucretius, Collatinus's wife-she died by her own hand. See there a noble lady, whom the lust of a Tarquin reduced to the necessity of being her own executioner, to attest her innocence. Hospitably entertained by her as a kinsman of her husband's, Sextus, the perfidious guest became her brutal ravisher. The chaste, the generous Lucretia could not survive the insult. Glorious woman! but once only treated as a slave, she thought life no longer to be endured. Lucretia, a woman, disdained a life that depended on a tyrant's will; and shall we, shall men, with such an example before our eyes, and after five-and-twenty years of ignominious servitude, shall we, through a fear of dying, defer one single instant to assert our liberty? No, Romans, now is the time; the favourable moment we have so long waited for is come. Tarquin is not at Rome. The patricians are at the head of the enterprise. The city is abundantly provided with men, arms, and all things necessary. There is nothing wanting to secure the success, if our own courage do not fail us. Can all these warriors, who have ever been so brave when foreign enemies were to be subdued, or when conquests were to be made to gratify the ambition and avarice of Tarquin, be then only cowards, when they are to deliver themselves from slavery? Some of you are perhaps intimidated by the army which Tarquin now commands: the soldiers, you imagine, will take the part of their general. Banish so groundless a fear. The love of liberty is natural to all men.

Your

fellow citizens in the camp feel the weight of oppression with as quick a sense as you that are in Rome: they will as eagerly seize the occasion of throwing off the yoke. But let us grant there may be some among them, who through baseness of spirit, or a bad education, will be disposed to favour the tyrant. The number of these can be but small, and we have means sufficient in our hands to reduce them to reason. They have left us hostages more dear to them than life. Their wives, their children, their fathers, their mothers, are here in the city. Courage, Romans! the Gods are for us; those Gods, whose temples and altars the impious Tarquin has profaned with sacrifices and libations made with polluted hands, polluted with blood, and with numberless unexpiated crimes committed against his subjects. Ye Gods, who protected our forefathers; ye Genii, who watch for the preservation and glory of Rome, do you inspire us with courage and unanimity in this glorious cause, and we will to our last breath defend your worship from profanation.

Livy.

THE SPEECH OF BRUTUS ON THE DEATH OF CESAR.

ROMANS, Countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause; and be silent, that you may hear. Believe me for mine honour, and have respect to mine honour, that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you

may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say, that Brutus's love to Cæsar was no less than his. If then that friend demand, why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves; than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen ? As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honour him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There are tears for his love, joy for his fortune, honour for his valour, and death for his ambition. Who's here so base, that would be a bondman ? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who's here so rude, that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who's here so vile, that will not love his country? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause for a reply. None ?-then none have I offended-I have done no more to Cæsar, than you should do to Brutus. The question. of his death is enrolled in the Capitol: his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death. Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony; who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth; as which of you shall not? With this I depart, that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

Shakspeare.

El

THE MISERIES OF THE COURT.

To one charge, however, which they bring against me, I must, no doubt, plead guilty,—I have not found favour with the courtiers, and I am no longer in office. My political habits; my principles; my popular feelings; the perpetual struggle of my life for the rights of my fellowcitizens; the determination which guides my public conduct that the interests of the people shall be the sole rule of the government; above all, my fixed and unalterable resolution that the Reform Bill shall bear its natural fruits, by giving this country at length a really cheap government, without which it is a useless and barren stock ;-all these things are the worst of crimes in the eyes of a court, and the result of them is, that I now meet my fellow-citizens in a private station, and absolutely independent in the performance of all my duties. Nor do I boast of having made any great sacrifice. If it were not somewhat late in the day for moralizing, I could tell of the prerogatives, not so very high,-the enjoyments, none of the sweetest, which he loses who surrenders place, oftentimes misnamed power. To be responsible for measures which others control, perchance contrive; to be chargeable with leaving undone things which he ought to have done, and had all the desire to do, without the power of doing; to be compelled to trust to those whom he knew to be utterly untrustworthy, and on the most momentous occasions, involving the interests of millions, implicitly to confide in quarters where common prudence forbade reposing a common confidence; to have schemes of

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