"Ruffians! pitiless as proud,

Heaven awards the vengeance due;
Empire is on us bestowed-

Shame and ruin wait for you!"

COWPER.

Boadicea, queen of a British tribe, called the Iceni, having been shamefully treated by the Romans in the reign of Nero, raised a general insurrection of the Britons against her oppressors, but was defeated. She died A.D. 61. Roman rods. The badge of office carried before Roman magistrates. It consisted of a bundle of rods, with an axe stuck in the middle. The rods indicated that the magistrate had the power of scourging; the axe, that he had the power of inflicting death. Boadicea had been subjected to the brutal punishment of scourging. Indeed, the Romans were in the habit of subjecting prisoners to scourging for the purpose of extorting a confession. Druid.—The Druids were the priests of the ancient Britons; they formed a distinct class of the people, and possessed great power and influence. They were, at the same time, the prophets or the seers of the people. The terrors of our tongues.-The Druids were believed to have the power of calling down Heaven's curse upon their enemies. In this case, the Druid could only weep; his resentment at the cruel treatment Boadicea had met with tied his tongue, and prevented him from giving utterance to the curse.

The Gaul is at her gates.--The reference is to the invasion of the Goths and other northern nations, who overran and broke up the Roman Empire. Byron has a similar thought in his famous lines on the Gladiator

"Shall he expire,

And unavenged? Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire."

Other Romans.-An allusion to the modern Italians, who have been more celebrated for their skill in music than for their prowess in arms.

Eagles. The eagle was the well-known Roman standard. The reference in the stanza is to the extensive possessions owned by Britain in every quarter of the globe.

QUESTIONS:-1. Who was Boadicea? 2. What were the "Roman rods"? 3. Who were the Druids? 4. Why is the Druid represented as sitting under an oak? 5. Why could the Druid only weep? 6. What is meant by "the terrors of our tongues"? 7. Who are meant by the "Gaul"? 8. Who were the "other Romans"? 9. For what were they to be celebrated? 10. What is the reference in the words "armed with thunder," and "clad with wings"? 11. What is the reference in the words, "Regions Cæsar never knew," &c.? 12. What contrast is drawn in the last stanza between the Roman Empire and that of Boadicea's progeny?

Rights that cost your sires their blood!
Men whose undegenerate spirit

Has been proved on field and flood :—

By the foes you've fought uncounted,
By the glorious deeds you've done,

Trophies captured-breaches mounted-
Navies conquered-kingdoms won!

Yet, remember, England gathers
Hence but fruitless wreaths of fame,
If the freedom of your fathers
Glow not in your hearts the same.

What are monuments of bravery,
Where no public virtues bloom?
What avail in lands of slavery,
Trophied temples, arch, and tomb?

Pageants let the world revere us
For our people's rights and laws,
And the breasts of civic heroes

Bar'd in Freedom's holy cause.

Yours are Hampden's, Russell's glory,
Sidney's matchless shade is yours,—
Martyrs in heroic story,

Worth a thousand Agincourts!

We're the sons of sires that baffled
Crown'd and mitred tyranny;
They defied the field and scaffold
For their birthright-so will we.
CAMPBELL.

Hampden.-A private gentleman of Buckinghamshire, who, in the reign of Charles the First, refused to pay the tax of ship-money, because he regarded the exaction of it, without the consent of Parliament, as illegal. He

joined the Parliament in the Civil War, and, early in the conflict, received a mortal wound at Chalgrove, in Berkshire, in 1643.

Russell.-Lord William Russell, belonging to the noble house of Bedford, entered, with Algernon Sidney and others, into a conspiracy (1683) for the purpose of securing the succession of Monmouth, the illegitimate son of Charles II., to the throne on the death of his father, This they did to prevent the re-establishment of Popery in England, which they dreaded might happen, if James, Duke of York, afterwads James II., a most bigoted Papist, should succeed. Unfortunately for them, a number of persons, without the knowledge of Russell and Sidney, formed at the same time a plot to kill the king. The two men were held as privy to the plot, and suffered the punishment of death.

Agincourt.-A victory was gained at this place by Henry

V. over the French in A.D. 1415. Like many other famous victories, it merely served to decide nothing. Crowned and mitred tyranny.—The allusion is to the despotic measures of the Stuart kings, who usually invoked the aid of the Church in their arbitrary attempts to crush the liberties of the people.

QUESTIONS:-1. Name some of the "rights" which cost our sires their blood. 2. What is meant by the phrase "field and flood"? 3. What evidence is given in the second stanza of the undegenerate spirit of the men of England? 4. On what will the value of these exploits depend? 5. What are "trophied temples"? 6. What is meant by "arch"? 7. What do trophied temples, &c., amount to in lands of slavery? 8. What are "pageants"? 9. To what ought we to look for respect? 10. Mention some of the heroes who have died for freedom. 11. Who was Hampden? 12. Who was Russell? 13. Who was Sidney? 14. What was Agincourt? 15. Name some of our martyrs. 16. Why are martyrs said to be worth a thousand Agincourts? 17. What "crowned and mitred tyranny" did our sires baffle? 18. What influence ought their conduct to have on us?

THIS truly handsome bird is spread over almost all portions of the globe, finding a livelihood wherever there are wide expanses of uncultivated ground, and only being driven from its home by the advance of cultivation, and the consequent inhabitance of the soil by human beings. It is a solitary bird, living in the wildest district that it can find, and