Doge. I speak to Time and to Eternity, Upon you! Ye blue waves! which bore my banner, I perish, but not unavenged: far ages And show these eyes, before they close, the doom When she, who built 'gainst Attila a bulwark, Shedding so much blood in her last defence, Then, when the few who still retain a wreck Of their great fathers' heritage shall fawn With some large gondolier or foreign soldier, When all the ills of conquer'd states shall cling to thee, When these and more are heavy on thee, when Meanness and weakness, and a sense of woe 'Gainst which thou wilt not strive, and dar'st not mur mur, Have made thee last and worst of peopled deserts, Then, in the last gasp of thine agony, Amidst thy many murders, think of mine! Thou den of drunkards with the blood of princes! Thus I devote thee to the infernal gods! Thee and thy serpent seed! [Here the Doge turns and addresses the Executioner. Slave, do thine office! Strike, as I struck the foe! WHAT IS WAR? (RIGHT HON. JOHN BRIGHT.) What is war? I believe that half the people that talk about war have not the slightest idea of what it is. In a short sentence it may be summed up to be the combination and concentration of all the horrors, atrocities, crimes, and sufferings of which human nature on this globe is capable. But what is even a rumour of war? Is there anybody here who has anything in the funds, or who is the owner of any railway stock; or anybody who has a large stock of raw material or of manufactured goods? The funds have recently gone down 10 per cent. I do not say that the fall is all on account of this danger of war, but a great proportion of it undoubtedly is. A fall of 10 per cent. in the funds is nearly £80,000,000 sterling of value; and railway stock having gone down 20 per cent. makes a difference of £60,000,000 in the value of the railway property of this country. Add the two£140,000,000 and take the diminished prosperity and value of manufactures of all kinds during the last few months, and you will under-state the actual loss to the country now if you put it down at £200,000,000 sterling. But that is merely a rumour of war. That is war a long way off-the small cloud no bigger than a man's hand what will it be if it comes nearer and becomes a fact! And surely sane men ought to consider whether the case is a good one, the ground fair, the necessity clear, before they drag a nation of nearly thirty millions of people into a long and bloody struggle, for a decrepit and tottering empire,* which all the nations in Europe cannot long sustain. *Turkey. Spoken before the outbreak of the Crimean War. Well, if you go into war now, you will have more banners to decorate your cathedrals and churches. Englishmen will fight now as well as they ever did; and there is ample power to back them, if the country can be but sufficiently excited and deluded. You may raise up great generals. You may have another Wellington, and another Nelson too; for this country can grow men capable of every enterprise. Then there may be titles, and pensions, and marble monuments to eternise the men who have thus become great ;-but what becomes of you and your country, and your children? an of Speaking here, however, to such an audienceaudience probably, for its numbers, as intelligent and as influential as ever was assembled within the walls of any hall in this kingdom-I think I may put before you higher considerations even than those of property and the institutions of your country. I may remind you duties more solemn, and of obligations more imperative. You profess to be a Christian nation. You make it your boast even-though boasting is somewhat out of place in such questions you make it your boast that you are a Christian people, and that you draw your rule of doctrine and practice, as from a well pure and undefiled, from the lively oracles of God, and from the direct revelation of the Omnipotent. You have even conceived the magnificent project of illuminating the whole earth, even to its remotest and darkest recesses, by the dissemination of the volume of the New Testament, in whose every page are written forever the words of peace. Within the limits of this island alone, every Sabbath-day, 20,000, yes, far more than 20,000 temples are thrown open, in which devout men and women assemble to worship Him who is the "Prince of Peace.” Is this a reality or is your Christianity a romance, and your profession a dream? No; I am sure that your Christianity is not a romance, and I am equally sure that your profession is not a dream. It is because I believe this that I appeal to you with confidence, and that I have hope and faith in the future. I believe that we shall see, and at no very distant time, sound economic principles spreading much more widely amongst the people; a sense of justice growing up in a soil which hitherto has been deemed unfruitful; and—which will be better than all-the churches of the United Kingdom, the churches of Britain, awaking as it were from their slumbers, and girding up their loins to more glorious work, when they shall not only accept and believe in the prophecy, but labour earnestly for its fulfilment, that there shall come a time-a blessed time-a time which shall last forever when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." DEATH OF LORD NELSON. (ROBERT SOUTHEY.) It had been part of Nelson's prayer, that the British fleet might be distinguished by humanity in the victory he expected. Setting an example himself, he twice gave orders to cease firing on the Redoubtable, supposing that she had struck, because her guns were silent; for, as she carried no flag, there was no means of instantly ascertain ing the fact. From this ship, which he had thus twice spared, he received his death. A ball fired from her mizzen-top, which, in the then situation of the two vessels, was not more than fifteen yards from that part of the deck where he was standing, struck the epaulette on his left shoulder, about a quarter after one, just in the heat of action. He fell upon his face, on the spot which was covered with his poor secretary's blood. Hardy, who was a few steps from him, turning round, saw three men raising him up. They have done for me at last, Hardy," said he. "I hope not," cried Hardy. "Yes!" he replied; "my back-bone is shot through. now, not for a moment losing his presence of mind, he observed, as they were carrying him down the ladder, that the tiller-ropes, which had been shot away, were not 66 Yet even |