EXTRACT FROM 'LETTERS OF FABIUS ON THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.'

Dickinson.

AMERICANS, who have the same blood in their veins as Englishmen, have, it seems, very different heads and hearts. We shall be enslaved by a president, senators, and representatives, chosen by ourselves, and continually rotating within the period of time assigned for the continuance in office of members in the house of commons ? 'Tis strange:

but, we are told, 't is true. It may be so. As we have our all at stake, let us inquire, in what way this event is to be brought about.

Is it to be before, or after a general corruption of manners? If after, it is not worth attention. The loss of happiness then follows of course. If before, how is it to be accomplished? Will a virtuous and sensible people choose villains or fools for their officers? Or if they should choose men of wisdom and integrity, will these lose both or either, by taking their seats? If they should, will not their places be quickly supplied by another choice? Is the like derangement again, and again, and again, to be expected? Can any man believe, that such astonishing phænomena are to be looked for?

Was there ever an instance, where rulers, thus selected by the people from their own body, have, in the manner apprehended, outraged their own tender connexions, and the interests, feelings, and sentiments of their affectionate and confiding countrymen? Is such a conduct more likely to prevail in this age of mankind, than in the darker periods that have preceded? Are men more disposed now than formerly, to prefer uncertainties to certainties, things perilous and infamous to those that are safe and honourable?

Can all the mysteries of such iniquity be so wonderfully managed by treacherous rulers, that none of their enlightened constituents, nor any of their honest associates, acting with them in public bodies, shall ever be able to discover the conspiracy, till at last, it shall burst with destruction to the whole federal constitution? Is it not ten thousand times less probable, that such transactions will happen, than it is, that we shall be exposed to innumerable calamities, by rejecting the plan proposed, or even by delaying to accept it?

Let us consider our affairs in an another light. Our difference of government, participation in commerce, improve

ment in policy, and magnitude of power, can be no favorite objects of attention to the monarchies and sovereignties of Europe. Our loss will be their gain-our fall, their rise

-our shame, their triumph. Divided, they may distract, dictate, and destroy. United, their efforts will be waves dashing themselves into foam against a rock.—May our national character be an animated moderation, that seeks only its own, and will not be satisfied with less.

SPEECH OF THE DUKE OF ARGYLE.

It was proposed in the British Parliament, to deprive the city of Edinburgh of certain privileges, because a mob in that city had put to death one l'orteous, a minion of the British Government. In the course of the debate on this bill, the Duke of Argyle took a spirited part. To the insinuation of the Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, that he had stated himself, in the case, rather as a party, than as a judge, he made the following re ly:

I APPEAL to the house-to the nation-if I can be justly branded with the infamy of being a jobber, or a partisan. Have I been a briber of votes?-a buyer of boroughs ?— the agent of corruption for any purpose, or on behalf of any party? ?-Consider my life; examine my actions in the field and in the cabinet, and see where there les a blot, that can attach to my honour. I have shown myself the friend of my country-the loyal subject of my king. I am ready to do so again, without an instant's regard to the frowns or smiles of a court. I have experienced both, and am prepared with indifference for either.

I have given my reasons for opposing this bill, and have made it appear that it is repugnant to the international treaty of union, to the liberty of Scotland, and, reflectively to that of England, to common justice, to common sense, and to the public interest.

Shall the metropolis of Scotland, the capital of an independent nation, the residence of a long line of monarchs, by whom that noble city was graced and dignified-shall such a city, for the fault of an obscure and unknown body of rioters, be deprived of its honors and its privileges-its gates and its guards?-and shall a native Scotchman tamely behold the havoc? I glory, my Lords, in opposing such unjust rigour, and reckon it my dearest pride and honour, to stand up in defence of my native country, while thus laid open to undeserved shame and unjust spoliation.

ABSALOM'S DREAM.

Hillhouse.

METHOUGHT I stood again, at dead of night,
In that rich sepulchre,* viewing, alone,
The wonders of the place. My wondering eyes
Rested upon the costly sarcophage

Reared in the midst. I saw therein a form
Like David; not as he appears, but young
And ruddy. In his lovely tinctured cheek
The vermil blood looked pure and fresh as life
In gentle slumber. On his blooming brow
Was bound the diadem. But, while I gazed,
The phantasm vanished, and my father lay there,
As he is now, his head and beard in silver,
Sealed with the pale fixed impress of the tomb.
I knelt and wept. But when I thought to kiss
My tears from off his reverend cheek, a voice
Cried, Impious! hold!-and suddenly there stood
A dreadful and refulgent form before me,
Bearing the Tables of the Law.

It spake not, moved not, but still sternly pointed
To one command, which shone so fiercely bright,
It seared mïne eyeballs. Presently I seemed
Transported to the desolate wild shore

Of Asphaltites, night, and storm, and fire,
Astounding me with horror.

All alone

I wondered; but where'er I turned my eyes,

On the bleak rocks, or pitchy clouds, or closed them,
Flamed that command.

Then suddenly I sunk down, down methought,

Ten thousand cubits, to a wide

And travelled way, walled to the firmament

On either side, and filled with hurrying nations;
Hurrying, or hurried by some spell,

Toward a portentous adamantine gate,
Towering before us to the empyrean.
Beside it Abrabam sat, in reverend years

And gracious majesty, snatching his Seed

From its devouring jaws. When I approached,

He groaned forth, Parricide! and stretched no aid—

*According to Josephus, the sepulchres of the Kings of Israel were filled with immense treasures. The riches left by David are said to have exceeded £300,000,000 sterling.

To me alone, of all his children. Then,

What flames, what howling fiery billows caught me,
Like the red ocean of consuming cities,

And shapes most horrid; all, methought, in crowns
Scorching as molten brass, and every eye
Bloodshot with agony, yet none had power
To tear them off. With frantic yells of joy,
They crowned me too, and with the pang, I woke.

N. A. Review.

IN the great Lancastrian school of the nations, liberty is the lesson, which we are appointed to teach. Masters we claim not, we wish not, to be; but the Monitors we are of this noble doctrine. It is taught in our settlement, taught in our revolution, taught in our government; and the nations of the world are resolved to learn.

It may be written in sand and effaced, but it will be written again and again, till hands, now fettered in slavery, shall boldly and fairly trace it, and lips, that now stammer at the noble word, shall sound it out in the ears of their despots, with an emphasis to waken the dead. Some will comprehend it and practise it at the first; others must wrestle long with the old slavish doctrine; and others may abuse it to excess, and cause it to be blasphemed awhile in the world. But it will still be taught, and still be repeated, and must be learned by all; by old and degenerate communities, to revive their youth; by springing colonies, to hasten their progress.

With the example before them of a free representative government-of a people governed by themselves, it is no more probable that the nations will long bear any other, than that they should voluntarily dispense with the art of printing, or the mariner's compass.

It is therefore plainly no age for Turks to be stirring.

Fatigued as they are with the Holy Alliance, it were preposterous to suppose they can long submit to a horde of Tartarian infidels. The idea that the most honourable, the most responsible, the most powerful office in the state, can, like a vile heir-loom, follow the chance of descent, is quite enough to task the forbearance of this bold and busy time.

What then shall become of viziers and sultans, when ministers are bewildered in their cabinets, and kings are shaken on their thrones? Instead of arming their misbelieving hosts against a people, who have taken hold of liberty, and who will be free, let them rejoice that great and little Bucharia are still vacant, and take up their march for the desert.

THE EDUCATION OF THE POOR.

Smith.

THE education of the poor, sifts the talents of a country, and discovers the choicest gifts of nature in the depths of solitude and in the darkness of poverty; for Providence often sets the grandest spirits in the lowest places, and gives to many a man a soul far better than his birth, compelling him to dig with a spade, who had better wielded a sceptre. Education searches every where for talents; sifting among the gravel for the gold, holding up every pebble to the light, and seeing whether it be the refuse of Nature, or whether the hand of art can give it brilliancy and price.

There are no bounds to the value of this sort of education. I come here to speak upon this occasion; when fourteen or fifteen youths, who have long participated of your bounty, come to return you their thanks. How do we know that there may not be, among all these, one who shall enlarge the boundaries of knowledge-who shall increase the power of his country by his enterprise in commercewatch over its safety in the most critical times, by his vigilance as a magistrate-and consult its true happiness by his integrity and his ability as a senator?

On all other things there is a sign, or a mark ;—we know them immediately, or we can find them out; but man, we do not know; for one man differeth from another man, as heaven differs from earth;—and the excellence that is in him, education seeks for with vigilance and preserves with care. We might make a brilliant list of our great English