and of anxiety. No man that carries his lusty thews and sinews into the market of labour, is uninterested in the state and prospects of a population, whose teeming numbers, driven from home by the results of a disorganized society, outwork his strength and undersell his toil in every corner of the kingdom. Viewed in all lights and aspects, Ireland is covered over with claims to our attention. Regard it as an integral portion of our common country, for whose good and glory every one that hears me, feels his breast grow warm with sympathetic ardour; whose prosperity, from the bottom of my soul I believe, is the one aim and object of all our efforts, however different the paths that we pursue! Look to its demands upon our gratitude! Thence came the mighty Captain (under his military character ever to be named with veneration) who struck down the Eagle in her pitch of pride, and scattered into fragments the power of our great antagonist. Thence thronged many a battalion to the British standard, and whole tides of generous and gallant blood were poured out for our safety and repose. And need I tell you to glance again at the causes it suggests for our solicitude? I have struck that chord already. It will vibrate in all hearts. Unhappy Ireland! She came from the hands of her Creator, one of the brightest gifts of God to man. When the primeval waters first rolled away from the surface of the earth, there arose not a fairer spot upon her wide circumference; an isle more richly dight with all that could provide for the ornament of nature or the felicity of man. Fancy might conceive the fairy spirits of her own mythology crowding round the nascent isle, and showering on her head the choicest gifts of their beneficence. But at the last came one malignant power to counteract the whole. Above the object of her hate she breathed the fatal spell-misgovernment. Too subtle and successful has been the working of that spell. For centuries of a half-civilized existence, under every mode of government, and every variety of adminis tration, the peace and happiness of Ireland have been the victims of misrule. Her condition is the great opprobrium of British policy, and the perpetual problem of the British legislator. And of all the curses entailed by misgovernment on Ireland, the most deadly and enduring is religious animosity. In that land, of all beneath the sun, religious animosity has struck the deepest root. It is enough of itself to convert every blessing to a bane. It lies in wait for every opportunity to dash the hopes of patriotism, and keep back the dawnings of a better day. And now, when the first promise of happier times is just seen to flush on the horizon; when the great foundation-boon of a liberal system for the education of the people is proffered by the Ministry, again religious animosity uprears her ugly head, and scowls defiance on a measure that merits to be hailed with an acclaim of universal joy. COLUMBUS ON FIRST BEHOLDING AMERICA. GOD of my sires! o'er ocean's brim Raise, comrades! raise your holiest hymn, See o'er the bosom of the deep, She gaily lifts her summer charms, As if at last she long'd to leap From dark oblivion's arms. What forms, what lovely scenes may lye Around each solitary hill A rich magnificence is hurl'd, We come with hope our beacon bright, Ne'er pined with fonder hearts, to see Around me was the boundless flood, As measureless and vast; Yet in the air and on the sea, The voice of the Eternal One Breathed forth the song of hope to me, And bade me journey on. My bark! the winds are fair unfurl'd The mightiest states shall pass away, Their mouldering grandeur cannot last; But thou, fair land! shalt be for A glory, when they're past: aye As now thou look'st in youthful bloom, When earth grows old and states decline, So thou shalt flourish o'er their tomb, Tired freedom's peaceful shrine. Spain! though I'm not of thine, thou❜lt claim Rome conquer'd, but enslaved each land, What have the proudest conquerors rear'd But I-'mid empires prostrate hurl'd, 'Mid all the glories time has rent Will raise no column, but a world, OTHELLO'S APOLOGY FOR HIS MARRIAGE. MOST potent, grave, and reverend signiors- The very head and front of my offending And little of this great world can I speak, Of my whole course of love; what drugs, what charms, What conjurations, and what mighty magic (For such proceeding am I charged withal) I won his daughter with! Her father loved me-oft invited me; I ran it through, even from my boyish days Of hair-breadth 'scapes in the imminent deadly breach; And sold to slavery; of my redemption thence; All these to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline; But still the house-affairs would draw her thence; Devour up my discourse. Which I observing, Took once a pliant hour, and found good means And often did beguile her of her tears, That my youth suffer'd.—My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs! She swore,-In faith 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful! She wish'd she had not heard it; yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man. She thank'd me; |