of His servants and people in the late tragedy." Jurymen united in condemning and lamenting the de.usion to which they had yielded under the decision of the judges, and acknowledged that they had brought the reproach of wrongful bloodshed on our native land. Sewall, one of the judges, whose name lives freshly in the liberty-loving character of his descendant, [Hon. S. E. Sewall,] (applause,) and who had presided at the trials, stood up in his place at church, before the congregation, and implored the prayers of the people "that the errors he had committed might not be visited by the judgments of an avenging God on his country, his family, or himself." And now, in a manuscript diary of this departed judge, may be read, on the margin against the contemporary record of these trials, in his own handwriting, words of Latin interjection and sorrow: Væ, væ, va. Woe! woe! woe! (Sensation.)

The parallel between the law against witchcraft, and the Fugitive Act is not yet complete. It remains for our Legislature, the successor of that original General Court, to lead the penitential march. (Laughter.) In the slave cases there have been no jurymen to recant (laughter); and it is too much, perhaps, to expect any magistrate who has sanctioned the cruelty, to imitate the magnanimity of other days by public repentance. But it is not impossible that future generations may be permitted to read, in some newly exhumed diary or letter, by one of these unhappy functionaries, words of woe not unlike those which were wrung from the soul of Sewall. (Sensation.)

And now, fellow-citizens, one word in conclusion;

Be of good cheer. ("That's it.") I know well the difficulties and responsibilities of the contest; but not on this account do I bate a jot of heart or hope. (Applause.) At this time, in our country, there is little else to tempt into public life an honest man, who wishes, by something that he has done, to leave the world better than he found it. There is little else which can afford any of those satisfactions which an honest man can covet. Nor is there any cause which so surely promises final success. There is nothing good not a breathing of the common wind-which is not on our side. Ours, too, are those great allies

"exultations, agonies,

And love, and man's unconquerable mind.”

And there are favoring circumstances peculiar to the present moment. By the passage of the Nebraska Bill, and the Boston kidnapping case, the tyranny of the Slave Power has become unmistakably manifest, while, at the same time, all compromises with Slavery are happily dissolved, so that Freedom now stands face to face with its foe. The pulpit, too, released from ill-omened silence, now thunders for Freedom, as in the olden time. (Cheers.) It belongs to Massachusetts. -nurse of the men and principles which made the carliest Revolution - to vow herself anew to her ancient faith, as she lifts herself to the great struggle. Her place now, as of old, is in the van, at the head of the battle. (Sensation.) But to sustain this advanced position with proper inflexibility, three things are needed by our beloved Commonwealth, in all her departments of government-the same three

things, which once in Faneuil Hall, I ventured to say were needed by every representative of the North at Washington. The first is backbone (applause); the second is BACKBONE (renewed applause); and the third is BACKBONE. (Long continued cheering, and three cheers for "backbone.") With these, Massachusetts will be respected, and felt as a positive force in the National Government (applause), while at home, on her own soil, free at last in reality as in name (applause), all her people, from the islands of Boston to Berkshire hills, and from the sands of Barnstable to the northern line, will unite in the cry:

"No slave hunt in our borders — no pirate on our strand; No fetter on the Bay State; no slave upon her land."

THE POSITION AND DUTIES OF THE MERCHANT, ILLUSTRATED BY THE LIFE OF GRANVILLE SHARP.

AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

OF BOSTON, ON THE EVENING OF 15TH NOVEMBER, 1854.

MR. PRESIDENT, and GentlemeN OF THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION:

I HAVE been honored by an invitation to deliver an address, introductory to one of the annual courses of lectures, which your Association bountifully contributes to the pastime, instruction and elevation of our community. You know, sir, something of the reluctance with which, embarrassed by other cares, I undertook this service, yielding to a kindly and persistent pressure, which only a nature sterner than mine could resist. And now I am here to perform what I promised.

I am to address the Mercantile Library Association of Boston, numbering, according to your last report, two thousand and seventy-eight members, and possessing a library of more than fifteen thousand volumes. With so many members and so many books, yours is an institution of positive power. Two distinct features appear in its name. It is primarily an association of persons in mercantile pursuits; and it is, next, an association for the improvement of its members, par

ticularly through books. In either particular, it is entitled to regard. But it possesses yet another feature, more interesting still, which does not appear in its name. It is an association of YOUNG MEN, with hearts yet hospitable to generous words, and with resolves not yet vanquished by the trials and temptations of life. Especially does this last consideration fill me with a deep sense at once of the privilege and responsibility to which you have summoned me. I am aware that, according to usage, the whole circle of knowledge, thought and aspiration, is open to the speaker; but as often as I have revolved the occasion in my mind — even as the Greek poet, who hoped to sing of Atreus, was brought back to the strain of love—I have been brought back to a consideration of the peculiar character of your association; and I have found myself unwilling to touch any theme which was not addressed to them especially as merchants.

I might fitly speak to you of books; and here, while undertaking to consider the principles which should govern the student in his reading, it would be pleasant to dwell on the profitable delights, better than a "shower of cent. per cent. ;" on the society, better than fashion or dissipation; and on that completeness of satisfaction, outvying the possessions of wealth and power, and making "my library dukedom large · enough;" all of which are found in books. But I leave this theme. I might also fitly speak to you of young men, their claims and duties. And here again, while enforcing the precious advantages of Occupation, it would be pleasant to unfold and vindicate that reverence which antiquity wisely accorded to youth, as the season of promise and hope, pregnant with an unknown