And when I urged the ransom once again

Of my wife's brother, then his cheek looked pale;
And on my face he turned an eye of death,
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more.
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontent
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous;
As full of peril and adventurous spirit,
As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hot. If he fall in, good-night! or sink or swim,
Send danger from the east unto the west,
So honor cross it from the north to south,
And let them grapple. O! the blood more stirs
To rouse a lion, than to start a hare.

Wor. (Aside.) Imagination of some great exploit
Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

Hot. Methinks it were an easy leap,

To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon;
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drown-ed honor by the locks;
So he that doth redeem her thence might wear,
Without a rival, all her dignities.

But out upon this half-faced fellowship!

Wor. (Aside.) He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend.

(Aloud.) Good cousin, give me audience for a while.

Hot. I cry you mercy.

Wor. Those same noble Scots,

That are your prisoners

Hot. I'll keep them all;

He shall not have a Scot of them, not one;

I'll keep them, by this hand.

Wor. You start away,

And lend no ear unto my purposes.
Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hot. Nay, I will; that's flat :

He said he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll hallo-Mortimer!

Nay, I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak

Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
To keep his anger still in motion.

Wor. Hear you, cousin, a word.

Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy,
Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke.
And that same sword-and-buckler Prince of Wales,
But that I think his father loves him not,
And would be glad he met with some mischance,
I'd have him poisoned with a pot of ale.

Wor. Farewell, kinsman! I will talk to you

When you are better tempered to attend.

Hot. Why, look you, I am whipped and scourged with rods,
Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke!

In Richard's time What do you call the place?
A plague upon't! it is in Gloucestershire;
'Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept,
His uncle York; where I first bowed my knee
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.
Wor. At Berkley Castle.

Hot. You say true.

Why, what a candy deal of courtesy

This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look, "when his infant fortune came to age,"
And, "gentle Harry Percy," and, "kind cousin!"
O, out upon such cozeners! Heaven forgive me!
Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.

Wor. Nay, if you have not, to't again;

I'll stay your leisure.

Hot. I have done, in faith.

Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' son your only help.
When time is ripe, which will be suddenly,
I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer,
Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once
(As I will fashion it,) shall happily meet,
To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms.

Hot. Uncle, adieu. O let the hours be short,
Till fields, and blows, and groans, applaud our sport!
FROM SHAKSPEARE.

XLIII.-HOTSPUR'S SOLILOQUY.

HOTSPUR, having joined the plot against the king, as hinted at in the preceding dialogue, corresponds with others upon the subject. In the following piece, he enters with a letter in his hand, upon the contents of which he comments as he reads them. It may be spoken alone, or in connection with the preceding.

"BUT for my own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house." He could be contented to be there! Why is he not then? In respect of the love he bears our house! He shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. "The purpose you undertake is dangerous."

Why, that's certain.

'Tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink. But I tell you, my lord Fool, out of this nettle danger, we pluck the flower safety. "The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you have named, uncertain; the time itself, unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great an opposition."

Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! Our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends, true and constant; a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation; an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my lord of York commends the plot, and the general course of the action.

By this hand, if I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myself; Lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? And are there not some of them set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king, and lay open all our proceedings. Oh! I could divide myself, and

go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skimmed milk with so honorable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king. We are prepared, I will set forward to-night.

FROM SHAKSPEARE.

XLIV.-PARTITION OF POLAND.

WHAT was the conduct of your own allies to Poland? Is there a single atrocity of the French in Italy, in Switzerland, in Egypt, if you please, more unprincipled and inhuman than that of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, in Poland? What has there been in the conduct of the French to foreign powers; what in the violation of solemn treaties; what in the plunder, devastation, and dismemberment of unoffending countries; what in the horrors and murders perpetrated upon the subdued victims of their rage in any district which they have overrun, worse than the conduct of those three great powers in the miserable, devoted, and trampled-on kingdom of Poland?

O, but you "regretted the partition of Poland!" Yes, regretted! You regretted the violence, and that is all you did. You united yourselves with the actors. You, in fact, by your acquiescence, confirmed the atrocity. But they are your allies; and though they overran and divided Poland, there was nothing, perhaps, in the manner of doing it, which stamped it with peculiar infamy and disgrace. The conqueror of Poland, perhaps, was merciful and mild! He was 66 as much superior to Bonaparte in bravery, and in the discipline which he maintained, as he was superior in virtue and humanity! He was animated by the purest principles of Christianity, and was restrained in his career by the benevolent precepts which it inculcates!" Was he?

Let unfortunate Warsaw, and the miserable inhabitants of the suburb of Praga in particular, tell! What do we understand to have been the conduct of this magnanimous hero, with whom, it seems, Bonaparte is not to be compared? He entered the suburb of Praga, the most populous suburb of Warsaw, and there he let his soldiery loose on the miserable, unarmed, and unresisting people! Men,

women, and children, nay, infants at the breast, were doomed to one indiscriminate massacre !

Thousands of
And for

them were inhumanly, wantonly butchered! what?

Because they had dared to join in a wish to meliorate their own condition as a people, and to improve their constitution, which had been confessed, by their own sovereign, to be in want of amendment. And such is the hero upon whom the cause of "religion and social order" is to repose! And such is the man whom we praise for his discipline and his virtue, and whom we hold out as our boast and our dependence; while the conduct of Bonaparte unfits him to be even treated with as an enemy! FROM FOX.

XLV. LEGISLATURE OF IRELAND.-No. I.

THIS and the following exercise are extracts from a speech delivered in opposition to a bill for abolishing the Legislature of Ireland. They may be spoken separately, or as one.

IN the most express terms I deny the competency of Parliament to abolish the Legislature of Ireland. I warn you, do not dare to lay your hand on the constitution. I tell you, that if, circumstanced as you are, you pass an act which surrenders the government of Ireland to the English parliament, it will be a nullity, and that no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it.

You are

You are

I make the assertion deliberately. I repeat it, and I call on any man who hears me, to take down my words. You have not been elected for this purpose. appointed to make laws and not legislatures. appointed to act under the constitution, not to alter it. You are appointed to exercise the functions of legislators, and not to transfer them. If you do so, your act is a dissolution of the government. You resolve society into its original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey you.

When you transfer, you abdicate, and the great original trust results to the people from whom it issued. Yourselves NEW EC. S.-10