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whether it will allow to such a life the honours of old age, or endeavour to extend its duration. What are the grounds on which the plea of prescription usually rests? And in what cases is it, where any existing order of things, though violent and unjust in its original institution, had, by lapse of time, been so meliorated and softened down, and reconciled to the feelings of mankind-had so accommodated itself to the manners and prejudices, and interwoven itself with the habits of a country, that the remembrance of its original usurpation was lost, in the experience of present harmlessness or utility? Conquest was often of this nature. Violent and unjustifiable in its introduction, it often happened that the conquerors and the conquered became blended into one people, and that a system of common interest arose out of the conciliated differences of parties, originally hostile. But, was this the case with the Slave Trade? Was it in its outset only, that it had any thing of violence, of injustice, or of oppression?-Are the wounds which Africa felt in the first conflict, healed, and skinned over? Or, are they fresh and green, as at the moment when the first slave-ship began its ravages upon the coast? Are the oppressors and the oppressed so reconciled to each other, that no trace of enmity remains? Or, is it in reason, or in common sense, to claim a prescriptive right,not to the fruits of an ancient and forgotten crime, committed long ago, and traceable only in its consequences—but to a series of new violences, to a chain of fresh enormities, to cruelties continued-repeated; and of which every individual instance inflicted a fresh calamity, and constituted a fresh, a separate, and substantive crime? Certainly not;— and I cannot conceive, that, in refusing to sanction the continuance of such a system, the House will feel itself, in the smallest degree, impairing the respect due to the establishments of antiquity, or shaking the foundations of the British Constitution.

IX.-MR. SHERIDAN'S INVECTIVE AGAINST MR. HASTINGS.

HAD a stranger, at this time, gone into the province of Oude, ignorant of what had happened since the death of Sujah Dowla-that man who, with a savage heart, had still great lines of character; and who, with all his ferocity in war, had still, with a cultivating hand, preserved to his country the riches which it derived from benignant skies and a prolific soil;—if this stranger, ignorant of all that had happened in the short

interval, and observing the wide and general devastation, and all the horrors of the scene-of plains unclothed and brown-of vegetables burned up and extinguished-of villages depopulated and in ruins of temples unroofed and perishing-of reservoirs broken down and dry, he would naturally inquire, What war has thus laid waste the fertile fields of this once beautiful and opulent country?—what civil dissensions have happened, thus to tear asunder and separate the happy societies that once possessed these villages?-what disputed succession, what religious rage, has, with unholy violence, demolished those temples, and disturbed fervent, but unobtruding piety, in the exercise of its duties?-what merciless enemy has thus spread the horrors of fire and sword?-what severe visitation of Providence has dried up the fountain, and taken from the face of the earth every vestige of verdure?— Or, rather, what monsters have stalked over the country, tainting and poisoning, with pestiferous breath, what the voracious appetite could not devour?

To such questions, what must be the answer? No wars have ravaged these lands, and depopulated these villages-no civil discords have been felt-no disputed succession-no religious rage, no merciless enemy-no affliction of Providence, which, while it scourged for the moment, cut off the sources of resuscitation-no voracious and poisoning monsters;-no!-all this has been accomplished by the friendship, generosity, and kindness of the English nation. They have embraced us with their protecting arms, and, lo!-those are the fruits of their alliance. What, then! shall we be told, that, under such circumstances, the exasperated feelings of a whole people, thus goaded and spurred-on to clamour and resistance, were excited by the poor and feeble influence of the Begums? When we hear the description of the feverparoxysm-delirium, into which despair had thrown the natives, when, on the banks of the polluted Ganges, panting for death, they tore more widely open the lips of their gaping wounds to accelerate their dissolution; and, while their blood was issuing, presented their ghastly eyes to Heaven,—breathing their last and fervent prayer, that the dry earth might not be suffered to drink their blood, but that it might rise up to the throne of God, and rouse the eternal Providence to avenge the wrongs of their country:-Will it be said that this was brought about by the incantations of those Begums, in their secluded Zenana? or that they could inspire this enthusiasm and this despair, into the breasts of a people who

felt no grievance, and had suffered no torture? What motive, then, could have such influence in their bosom? What motive! That, which Nature—the common parent-plants in the bosom of man; and which, though it may be less active in the Indian than in the Englishman, is still congenial with, and makes part of, his being-That feeling, which tells him, that man was never made to be the property of man; but that when, through pride and insolence of power, one human creature dares to tyrannize over another, it is a power usurped, and resistance is a duty-That feeling, which tells him that all power is delegated for the good, not for the injury, of the people; and that, when it is converted from the original purpose, the compact is broken, and the right is to be resumedThat principle, which tells him, that resistance to power usurped is not merely a duty which he owes to himself and to his neighbour, but a duty which he owes to his God, in asserting and maintaining the rank which He gave him in the creation!-to that common God, who, where He gives the form of man, whatever may be the complexion, gives also the feelings and the rights of man-That principle, which neither the rudeness of ignorance can stifle, nor the enervation of refinement extinguish-That principle, which makes it base for a man to suffer, when he ought to act-which, tending to preserve to the species the original designations of Providence, spurns at the arrogant distinctions of man, and vindicates the independent quality of his race!

X.-MR. (LORD) BROUGHAM, ON THE STATE OF THE LAW. AFTER a long interval of various fortune, and filled with vast events, we are again called to the grand labour of surveying and amending our laws. For this task, it well becomes us to begird ourselves, as the honest representatives of the people. Despatch and vigour are imperiously demanded; but that deliberation, too, must not be lost sight of, which so mighty an enterprise requires. When we shall have done the work, we may fairly challenge the utmost approval of our constituents; for, in none other have they so deep a stake.

In pursuing the course which I now invite you to enter upon, I avow that I look for the co-operation of the king's government; and on what are my hopes founded? Men gather not grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles; but that the vine should no longer yield its wonted fruit-that the fig-tree should refuse its natural increase,-required a miracle to strike

it with barrenness. But, whether I have the support of the Ministers or no, to the House I look, with confident expectation, that it will control them, and assist me; if I go too far, checking my progress; if I go too fast, abating my speed; but heartily and honestly helping me, in the best and greatest work which the hands of the lawgiver can undertake. The course is clear before us; the race is glorious to run. You have the power of sending your name down through all times, illustrated by deeds of higher fame and more useful import than ever were done within these walls. You saw the greatest warrior of the age-conqueror of Italy-humbler of Germany-terror of the North-you saw him account all his matchless victories poor, compared with the triumph which you are now in a condition to win!-saw him contemn the fickleness of Fortune, while, in despite of her, he could pronounce his memorable boast-"I shall go down to posterity, with my code in my hand!" You have vanquished him in the field; strive now to rival him in the sacred arts of peace! Outstrip him as a lawgiver, whom, in arms. you overcame! The lustre of the Regency will be eclipsed by the more solid and enduring splendour of the Reign. The praise which false courtiers feigned for our Edwards and Harrys,-the Justinians of their day, will be the just tribute of the wise and the good, to that monarch under whose sway so mighty an undertaking shall be accomplished. Of a truth, sceptres are chiefly to be envied, for that they bestow the power of thus conquering and ruling. It was the boast of Augustus-it formed part of the glare, in which the perfidies of his earlier years were lost-that he found Rome of brick, and left it of marble; a praise not unworthy a great prince, and to which the present reign has its claims also. But how much nobler will be our sovereign's boast, when he shall have it to say, that he found law dear, and left it cheap; found it a sealed book,-left it an open letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the twoedged sword of craft and oppression,-left it the staff of honesty, and the shield of innocence! To me, much reflecting on these things, it has always seemed a worthier honour to be the instrument of making you bestir yourselves in this nigh matter, than to enjoy all that office can bestow-office, of which the patronage would be irksome incumbrance, the emoluments superfluous, to one, content, with the rest of his industrious fellow-citizens, that his own hands minister to his wants: and as for the power supposed to follow it—I have

lived nearly half a century, and I have learned that power and place may be severed. But, one power I do prize that of being the advocate of my countrymen here, and their fellow-labourer elsewhere, in those things which concern the best interests of mankind. That power, I know full well, no government can give—no change take away!

XI.-MR. (LORD) BROUGHAM, ON NEGRO SLAVERY.

I TRUST that, at length, the time is come, when parliament will no longer bear to be told that slave-owners are the best lawgivers on slavery; no longer suffer our voice to roll across the Atlantic, in empty warnings and fruitless orders. Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves. I deny his right-I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in re bellion against it. Be the appeal made to the understanding or to the heart, the sentence is the same-that rejects it! In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law, above all the enactments of human codes-the same, throughout the world—the same, in all times: such as it was, before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge; to another, all unutterable woes,—such is it at this day: it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternalwhile men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and hate bloodthey shall reject, with indignation, the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man!

In vain you appeal to treaties-to covenants between nations. The covenants of the Almighty, whether the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions. To these laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade. Such treaties did they cite-and not untruly; for, by one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in despite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass? Not, assuredly, by parliament leading the way: but the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was Kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware let their assemblies beware-let the government at home beware-let the parliament beware! The same

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