CI.-SPEECH ON THE REFORM BILL.

BROUGHAM.

[Henry Brougham, Lord Brougham, was born in Edinburgh in 1778, and died in 1868. He was eminent as a statesman, orator, lawyer, and man of letters. He was Lord Chancellor of England from 1830 to 1834. The following extract is from a speech delivered by him in favor of the reform bill, in the House of Lords, in October, 1831.]

1. MY LORDS: I do not disguise the intense solicitude. which I feel for the event of this debate, because I know full well that the peace of the country is involved in the issue. I cannot look, without dismay, at the rejection of the measure.

2. But grievous as may be the consequences of a temporary defeat, for temporary it can only be,-its ultimate and even speedy success is certain. Nothing can now stop it. Do not suffer yourselves to be persuaded, that even if the present ministers' were driven from the helm, any one could steer you through the troubles which surround you, without reform. But our successors would take up the task in circumstances far less auspicious ❜. Under them you would be fain to grant a bill, compared with which, the one we now proffer you is moderate indeed.

3. Hear the parable of the Sibyl,* for it conveys a wise and wholesome moral. She now appears at your gate, and offers you mildly the volumes, the precious volumes, of wisdom and peace. The price she asks is reasonable — to restore the franchise, which, without any bargain, you ought voluntarily to give. You refuse her terms, her moderate terms: she darkens the porch no longer.

*The Sibyls were prophetic women of Greece and Rome. The most celebrated one of them offered for sale to Tarquin, an early king of Rome, nine books of prophecies. When the king, on account of the high price, refused to buy them, the Sibyl threw three into the fire, and on a second refusal, three more, after which the king, alarmed, paid for the three remaining the price asked for the whole.

ures.

4. But soon for you cannot do without her wares — you call her back. Again she comes, but with diminished treasThe leaves of the book are in part torn away by lawless hands, in part defaced with characters of blood. But the prophetic maid has risen in her demands. It is parliaments by the year—it is vote by the ballot - it is suffrage by the million!

5. From this you turn away indignant, and for the second time she departs. Beware of her third coming for the treasure you must have; and what price she may next demand, who shall tell? It may even be the mace which rests upon that woolsack.

6. What may follow your course of obstinacy, if persisted in, I cannot take upon me to predict, nor do I wish to conjecture. But this I know full well, that, as sure as man is mortal, and to err is human, justice deferred enhances the price at which you must purchase safety and peace; nor can you expect to gather in another crop than they did who went before you, if you persevere in their utterly abominable husbandry, of sowing injustice and reaping rebellion.

7. But among the awful considerations that now bow down my mind, there is one which stands preeminent above the rest. You are the highest judicature' in the realm; you sit here as judges, and decide all causes, civil and criminal, without appeal. It is a judge's first duty never to pronounce sentence, in the most trifling case, without hearing. Will you make this the exception?

8. Are you really prepared to determine, but not to hear, the mighty case upon which a nation's hopes and fears hang? You are. Then beware of your decision!

9. Rouse not, I beseech you, a peace-loving, but a resolute people; alienate not from your body the affections of a whole empire. As your friend, as the friend of my order, as the friend of my country, as the faithful servant

of my sovereign, I counsel you to assist, with your uttermost efforts, in preserving the peace, and upholding and perpetuating the constitution.

10. Therefore, I pray and I exhort you not to reject this measure. By all you hold most dear, by all the ties that bind every one of us to our common order and our common country, I solemnly adjure you, I warn you, I implore you, yea, on my bended knees, I supplicate you— reject not this bill.

1 MIN'JS-TERS.

Here, heads of the

different departments of the government.

• ÂU-SPICIOчs. Favorable; prosperous; fortunate.

• FRANCHISE. A right reserved to the people by the constitution; as, "the elective franchise."

1 SUFFRAGE. Vote; right of voting.

before magistrates as the ensign of authority.

6 WOOL'SACK (wâl'-). The seat of the lord chancellor of England in the House of Lords, being a large, square bag of wool, without back or arms, covered with red cloth. JU'DI-CA-TURE. Court of justice; a tribunal.

7

MACE. An ornamental staff carried 8 AL'IEN-ĀTE (-yen-). Estrange.

CII. ODE TO THE SEA-SERPENT.

1. FROM what abysses of the unfathomed sea Turnest thou up, Great Serpent, now and then, If we may venture to believe in thee,

And affidavits' of seafaring men?

2. What whirlpool gulf to thee affords a home?

Amid the unknown depths, where dost thou dwell! If-like the mermaid, with her glass and combThou art not what the vulgar call a "sell."

3. Art thou, indeed, a serpent, and no sham?
Or, if no serpent, a prodigious" eel, -
An entity, though modified by flam',
A basking-shark, or monstrous kind of seal?

4. I'll think that thou a true ophidian art;
I cannot say a reptile of the deep,

Because thou dost not play a reptile's part;
Thou swimmest, it appears, and dost not creep.

5. Art thou a giant adder, or huge asp,

And hast thou got a rattle at thy tail?
If of the boa species, couldst thou clasp
Within thy folds, and suffocate, a whale?

6. How long art thou? Some sixty feet, they say,

And more; but how much more they do not know: I fancy thou couldst reach across a bay,

From head to head, a dozen miles or so.

7. Scales hast thou got, of course; - but what's the weight?

On either side 'tis said thou hast a fin,

A crest, too, on thy neck, deponents state,
A saw-shaped ridge of flabby, dabby skin.

8. If I could clutch thee in a giant's grip,

Could I retain thee in that grasp sublime? Wouldst thou not quickly through my fingers slip, Being all over glazed with fishy slime?

9. Hast thou a forkéd tongue, and dost thou hiss If ever thou art bored with Ocean's play? And is it the correct hypothesis "

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That thou by gills or lungs dost breathe thy way?

10. What spines, or spikes, or claws, or nails, or fin,
Or paddle, ocean-serpent, dost thou bear?

What kind of teeth show'st thou, when thou dost grin?
A set that probably would make one stare.

11. What is thy diet? Canst thou gulp a shoal 8 Of herrings? Or hast thou the gorge' and room To bolt fat porpoises and dolphins, whole,

By dozens, e'en as oysters we consume?

12. Art thou alone, thou serpent, on the brine,
The sole surviving member of thy race?
Is there no brother, sister, wife, of thine,
But thou alone afloat on Ocean's face ?

13. If such a calculation may be made,

Thine age at what a figure may we take?
When first the granite mountain-stones were laid,
Wast thou not present there and then, old snake ?

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14. What fossil saurians 1o in thy time have been? How many mammoths crumbled into mould? What geologic periods hast thou seen,

Long as the tail thou doubtless canst unfold?

15. As a dead whale, but as a whale, though dead,
Thy floating bulk a British crew did strike;
And, so far, none will question what they said,
That thou unto a whale wast very like.

16. A flock of birds, a record, rather loose,

Describes as hovering o'er thy lengthy hull;
Among them, doubtless, there was many a goose,
And, also, several of the genus gull.

1 ÅF-FI-DÃ'VỊT. A declaration on oath, 6 DE-PO'NENT. One who gives testigenerally in writing.

mony under oath.

2 PRO-DIG'IOUs (-dij'us). Very great; 7 HY-PŎTH'E-SIS. A supposition.

enormous; monstrous.

8 EN TI-TY. Being; existence.

4 FLAM. Fancy; whim.

ō Q-PHID'I-AN. Serpent.

8 SHOAL. A multitude; a crowd.

9 GÖRGE. Throat; gullet.

10 SÂU RI-AN. A reptile having scales

and four legs, as the lizard.