-arose that consciousness of greatness which led to their high excellence in all that adorns human life, and has rendered them in our memories, the grandest people among ancient nations.

Before we look at the picture of this memorable struggle as drawn, and preserved to us, in the beautiful word-painting of Herodotus; it will be necessary, for the sake of estimating aright the difficulty with which the indomitable children of Hellas had to contend, to present to ourselves a hasty preliminary sketchnamely, that of the old Persian power.

[The speaker then drew a graphic picture of the old Assyrian monarchy, of the wondrous Babylon, of Semiramis the conqueress, and Sardanapalus the voluptuous self-incendiary (one of the most effective actors, by the way, in his own epic, the well-known 'Purgatory of Suicides'); and passed, hastily, to a description of the Parthian, Median, Persian, Lydian, and other kingdoms, which arose out of the ruins of the larger monarchy. Cyrus was next brought on the scene, as founding the Persian grandeur; and Cambyses the despot and bigot, as extending it, not only to all the states which had been comprised in the old Assyrian empire, but to Egypt.

After the brief reign of the impostor, Smerdis the Magian, Darius was introduced as the monarch with whom the Greeks first came into open and determined collision. His Scythian expedition was first narrated; and then the insurrection of the Ionian and other Asiatic Greeks was depictured. The defeat of the insurrectionists being suppressed, the preparations of Darius for invading Greece were next told the despot's chief cause of quarrel being the fact that the Athenians had sent twenty ships to assist the Ionians. The characters of Miltiades, Aristides, and Themistocles, with the state of Athens, having been vividly presented -the battle of Marathon, where 10,000 Athenians and Platœans defeated twenty or thirty times their number, gave an effective finish to the discourse.

After a pause, and the performance of one of Haydn's symphonies by the little band of instrumentalists who are now improving greatly, at the Hall of Science— Mr. C. occupied another hour in an interesting review of the state of the continent, of political prospects at home, and concluded with one of his usual fervent exhortations to spread knowledge and cultivate hope and confidence for the triumph of democracy and brotherhood.]

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE SWISS REPUBLICS.

Fifth Period, concluded from page 42.

IN 1624, Louis XIII. of France sent an army to the Grisons, Berne and Zurich added their contingents, and a body of exiles, healed by Rudolph de Salis and Colonel Jenatsch, formed the vanguard. As they reached the frontier a general rising took place; the Austrians were expelled: the Valtellina, Chiavenna, and Bormio consented to pay tribute, but were permitted to govern themselves: the pope's troops garrisoned the Valtellina pre tempore, but Robustelli continued regent.

In 1628, the Austrians again occupied the ten jurisdictions and the Engadina, but at the peace of Cherasco, in 1630, they were induced by the French to withdraw. 'The Duke de Rohan then came to Coire as ambassador from France, and brought with him some troops, who assisted the Grisons in fortifying their passes towards the Tyrol. In 1635, war having broken out again between France and the Emperor, Rohan, at the head of a Grison force, crossed the Alps, and, after some sharp fighting, reconquered Valtellina, Chiavenna, and Bormio,

from the Austrians and Spaniards united. Bat the court of France now imperiously required that the Italian valleys should be governed according to the treaty of Monçɔn. The French envoy Lanier, an overbearing man, assumed the tone of a master in Coire, and talked of the Grisons as rebels. The Grison chiefs said among themselves, Austria takes and France lies; let us trust no foreign power, but seek help only from our own arms.'-Vieusseux, p. 166.

In February, 1636, several of the principal men of the leagues organised a conspiracy at Coire, and under their able leader, Colonel Jenatsch, the French were driven out. The Italian valleys again became subject to the Grisons; but they obtained a full amnesty, and the acknowledgment of the Catholic religion as that of the country. Austria, whose assistance had been sought and gained to overthrow the French, gave up her unjust claims, preserving seignorial rights in Engadina and the ten jurisdictions, which were afterwards redeemed for 75,000 florins.

The brave Colonel Jenatsch, two years afterwards, was murdered at the instigation, as was supposed, of Rudolph Planta, who thus avenged the death of his brother Pompey. Rudolph died some time after at his estates in Engadina.

Meantime the thirty years' war was raging in Germany. Its history forms no part of the purpose of this brief sketch; suffice it to say that it commenced in Bohemia, where the reformers, on the death of the Emperor Matthias in 1619, refused to acknowledge Ferdinand of Austria, and asserted their ancient right of electing a king. They chose Frederick, the Elector Palatine, son-in-law to James I. of England, and father of Prince Rupert-but his reign was of short duration. The war spread over the whole of Germany; the Protestants on the one hand, and Ferdinand of Austria on the other, were the extreme parties. The other Catholic princes, anxious to put down Protestantism, but desirous of maintaining their own independence against the power of Austria, formed the 'Catholic League,' and assisted Ferdinand at the same time that they controlled him. After experiencing many bitter reverses, the Protestants were aided by the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus-and afterwards by France, where Richelieu persecuted the French Huguenots, while in Germany he supported the Protestant cause—a species of inconsistency and insincerity which was considered at the time as a masterpiece of diplomacy; and which still meets with the approbation of some few modern politicians.

By the assistance of Wallenstein-who raised an army at his own expense for the emperor-the latter for some time supported his supremacy, but he was afterwards persuaded to have Wallenstein assassinated. At length, in 1648, the contest terminated, neither party was decidedly triumphant, but the Protestants had lost many states which once belonged to their interest; and the emperor, by expelling 30,000 families from Bohemia, and by curtailing the liberties of his Austrian subjects, laid the foundation for that decrepitude which is now so signally manifest throughout the Austrian dominions.

At the peace of Westphalia, on the 14th of October, 1648, the Swiss confederation was formally acknowledged as an independent state on which the empire had no further claim. Thus at length terminated the fraudulent attempt on the part of Austria to convert the dependence of the Swiss on the empire into a subjection to the archdukes-an attempt which ended not only in the frustration of the fraudulent claim, but in the loss to the empire, of claims at first not only undisputed, but just, useful, and indisputable. For the accomplishment of this independence the Swiss were indebted not merely to their sturdy patriotism, and to their unparalleled perseverance, but to the discrimination which led them to distinguish

between lawful and unlawful claims, and to the scrupulous honesty which prompted them to make pecuniary compensation for all rights which, however opposed to eternal justice, were yet sanctioned by custom or by positive agreement. The Swiss treated vested interests, not indeed as sacred and inviolable, but as worthy of respect. The right-divine to govern wrong was to be bought off with money, but was not to stand for ever in opposition to the eternal rights of man. Such at least was the principle applied by the citizens to the aristocracy-such was the principle by which Swiss independence was won. In the next period we shall see how, by refusing to admit this principle as the guide between themselves and the people, the burgher governments lost for their country that independence which she had so nobly won. J. D. COLLET.

WRITTEN FOR THE COMMEMORATION OF THE SECOND CENTENARY OF SWISS
NATIONALITY, Oct. 14, 1848.*

Closely stood the hedge of Austrian lances ;

Vainly shall we strive to break their force :
On their points one Switzer flings his corse,
And Patriot Victory through the gap advances.
So was Sempach's utmost need

Met by Arnold Winkelried.+

Graspeth he an armful of their spears:

Comrades! I will make a lane for you.'
In his heart the onset; Reaper true!
With thy sheaf of glory for eternal years.
Switzerland, for ever freed,

Honours Arnold Wikelried.

Late, when Austria's Jesuit inventionst

Sought to rend the Switzer bond in twain,
Ever as one man Switerland did strain

Her heart, and buried there the arm'd dissensions.
Came the true man, at her need,

Ochsenbein for Winkelried.§

So, whenever Freedom's peril calls,

Shall her hero rise to reap the time

Her prompt harvest man, whose faith sublime
Wears his sheaf of triumph ere he grandly falls.
Ever, at our country's need,

Be each one a Winkelried!

CLERICAL PLAGIARISM.

SPARTACUS.

ARCHDEACON CHURTON has published a letter, in which he proves that the work which goes under the name of Jeremy Taylor, entitled Contemplations on the State of Man,' is a forgery by some English writer, founded on a Spanish author of the seventeenth century. Another forgery to go by the side of Dr. Paley's "Natural Theology.' The clerical authors are being detected.

Held Oct. 25, in the rooms of the Whittington Club, late Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand. The music of the song composed by Miss Collet.

+ The battle of Sempach, one of the most memorable in Swiss annals, occurred in 1386. The battle was won through the devoted bravery of Winkelried, as described

above.

In the matter of the Sonderbund, last year.

§ Ochsenbein will be recollected as the leader of the Free Bands against the Jesuits of Lucerne, and afterwards President of the Swiss Diet when the Sonderbund was dissolved.

Mustrative Notices.

COMMON observation, we think, will sufficiently assure us of one broad melancholy truth, that the number of working men under the influence of our religious institutions, or in visible connection with them, does not in England bear the same proportion to the middle and upper classes as that which prevails in society at large. There are local exceptions, of course-wide distinctions to be kept in view: cities will differ much from villages-sea-ports and watering-places from manufacturing towns. But, on the whole, we believe there cannot be a reasonable doubt that, upon that large section of the social body passing under the designation of 'working men,' the means and appliances kept in action by existing ecclesiastical bodies have not produced effect, in the same ratio, as upon the middle classes. Worshipping congregations do not exhibit, in regard to this matter, a fair resemblance of the busy world. The recipients of weekly wages, the most numerous class of our countrymen, do not maintain their relative proportion in the houses of God.-Nonconformist.

The Times, No. 20.078, giving the speech of Bernard at the Club of the Hall Valentino, says 'It is at all events pleasing to find one of the most violent of the school of Socialists denounce all attempts at insurrection. To be sure he excepted one extreme case, which, if it ever occur, will scarcely be affected by the harangues of the president of the Valentino Club. The question is as to his sincerity in the advocacy of a peaceful agitation.' Why doubt it?

A correspondent of the Principality states that, on an average, there are at least five Welshmen occupying pulpits in the Established Church in every county in England, and there is hardly a town in England of any importance without a Welsh Dissenting minister in it.-Church and State Gazette, No. 362.

Mr. Fraser, of the 'Fraser Family,' commenced his introduction at John Street on Saturday evening, Jan. 20, by saying 'I have read in the Reasoner an article entitled 'What should the People Sing?'

Mr. Fleming is understood to be the editor of the new Commonwealth Magazine. Last week, the European residents of Alexandria had the satisfaction of hearing the tones of a full-sized bell belonging to a church just built by the Jesuits in this town. This is the first bell that has been heard to ring in the Ottoman Empire, and the Christians owe this concession entirely to Mehemet Ali's liberal policy. The Jesuits began their church long after the English had commenced theirs, and still the latter, from want of funds, has remained in its present half-finished state for the last two years.-Correspondent of the Times. [Would the Jesuits concede as much to the Turks where they dominate ?]

The Harbinger, No. 9, vol. 8, says :-'In the Western part of New York State, lives a saddler by the name of Le Fevre, who is one of the pillars of the church in his village, but withal somewhat famous for his keenness in making a bargain. A Missionary called on him to contribute to the spread of the gospel among the heathen. Our saddler was on hand at once: throwing down a three-dollar counterfeit bill, he expressed himself anxious to assist, and said the bill was of no use to him, but he calculated would pass among the heathen equal to the specie any how-seein' as how the poor divils weren't acquainted with a paper currency.'

The National Era, No 105, contains a song by W. D. G., the last line of which says 'Radicálos is God.'

According to Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper, No. 132, Chancellor G. H. Vernon has pronounced sentence of suspension for six months on the Rev. Mr. Hale, vicar of Harewood, and rector of Goldsborough, Yorkshire. His offence was using violent, personal, and improper language in the pulpit., On one occasion, when Viscount Lascelles was at church with his troop of Yeomanry, Mr. Hale specified him from the pulpit as a 'tawdry-laced, jacketed jackanapes and popinjay.' On another occasion, alluding to a grand dinner at the Earl of Harewood's, Mr. Hale said in his sermon: 'I took up the paper the other day, and saw a long account of what has been going on during the week. I saw they toasted the bishop of the diocese and the clergy, when one of my rev. brethren got up hiccupping drunk to return thanks.'

An Italian from London has been in Bideford, during the past week, vending models of the Virgin Mary and the Saints-which commodities, it is said, have commanded a ready sale among the Tractarian party in the Church. We hear that the models are of exquisite beauty, and fetch a guinea a piece.- North Devon Journal.

The new chapel, just erected by the congregation on the site of the old Mill-hill Chapel, Park-row, Leeds, in which Dr.Priestley was wont to officiate about a century ago, has been opened for divine worship. The new chapel is a very handsome edifice, and cost about £7000.

The first number of Thomas Cooper's 'Plain Speaker' has now reached a sale of nearly 7,000, and No. 2 is progressing rapidly. We learn with interest that the celebrated T.-J. Wooler, one of the veterans of Reform, and editor of the famous Black Dwarf' of Peterloo Massacre times, is to be a contributor to the third and future numbers of Mr. C.'s little periodical.

The friends of Mr. Vincent Heaford in England will be gratified to learn that he has settled in business in Albany, U.S. The following is a copy of his card, which has been handed to us by a friend: Heaford and Scattergood, House, Sign, and Furniture Painters, Grainers, Gilders, Glaziers, Paper Hangers, &c., 43, South Pearl Street, Albany. Portraits and Landscapes painted to order.

Pictures cleaned, restored, or copied.'

At the recent Westminster meeting to devise means for employing the poor, a Rev. Mr. Jones said 'God was a father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widow,' when a hollow voice answered 'no he isn't.'

The threats of the Pope to excommunicate the Romans has been received in a very unconcerned manner. Spiritual thunder, as well as military thunder, is

going out of fashion.

A short time ago, at a Wesleyan chapel situate in a pleasant village in Derbyshire, the preacher having 'sermonised' a little too long in the afternoon, on re-entering the pulpit in the evening he found placed in a conspicuous place the following laconic note: If we be Wesleyans, let us have Wesley's rule— that is, preach twenty minutes or half an hour.'-John o' Groat's Journal, No. 636.

A Working Man's Literary and Scientific Institution has been begun at the old 'Salem Chapel,' near the Obelisk, Waterloo Road, to which the subscription is only one penny per week.

G. J. H.