prosperousness? Oh, what a libel on the patriotism of those appointed to watch and guard that sacred stem, and to cherish the precious fruits which it has yielded in our common rights and liberties! The man who indulges, on whatever ostensible grounds, in imputations of this sort, displays more of the qualities of self-conceit and consummate effrontery, than shrewdness of intellect or integrity of heart. He slanders the living, and he vilifies the dead. Respect for the one, and veneration for the other, can have no place in his bosom. It is hazarding little to say of men of this stamp, that they pay a poor compliment to the virtue and good sense of the people whom they seek to cajole. But-much or little-I will venture to pronounce that the very public whose honest though sometimes misguided prejudices they would bend to their selfish purposes, will send back an indignant voice to rebuke their hollow pretensions, and silence or drown their worse than sillytheir atrocious accusations.

The most conclusive evidence of the efficacy of our frame of laws, is the gladsome picture of content and prosperousness spread abroad over the community: the means of social comfort so liberally provided and dispensed; the rapid accumulation and unmolested security of the gains of honest toil and enterprise; the many institutions, so blest and blessing in their character and influence, nourished into being by the self-same spirit which produced our combined system of law and government; the

multiform associations for the relief of human need and suffering, whether moral or physical, teeming on every hand; innumerable instrumentalities for the encouragement of the diversified "arts which make for peace;" establishments opened up for the dissemination of knowledge, the promotion of science, the dispersion of the blessings of religion; our seminaries and lyceums, our schools and colleges, our churches and temples;-Oh, these are the living witnesses-these the clustering fruits of the wisdom, piety and patriotism of our fathers, which distil the richest fragrance on their memory, and shed a grace and glory over New England. What though we boast no vine-clad, laughing shores, like the sunny regions of poetic song-some fairy "land of the rose and the myrtle," where nature wantons in exhaustless fertility, and pours forth her ripened stores disdainful of the aid of man? Ours is a soil which kindly repays the toils of culture; and human skill and painstaking exertion have developed no niggard resources; and beauty and luxuriance have been made to deck our rugged hills; and we have drawn "from the abundance of the seas, and the treasures hid in the sands." What though we boast no classic fields, no long-drawn line of storied generations, no pomp of heraldry nor race of kings? We can look back with pride on an honored lineage, deduced from a pious ancestry, and ennobled by Pilgrim blood. We can turn to a history brief but crowded, brightened with deeds of lofty heroism and virtues of pure

and spotless excellence. We can point to a shining roll of names, themselves the titles of a deathless renown, which children's children will revere and blazon, and

"Set them down with gold on lasting pillars."

And if we look abroad and take a wider survey, if we contemplate the mighty field of our Country's vigorous and successful enterprise, we behold a scene of surpassing magnificence and grandeur:-A people of yesterday, sprung from a feeble handful, and already grown to a great multitude-a nation of fifteen millions; the tide of population rapidly sweeping to the farthest west, destined ere long to cover a continent, its foremost wave even now touching the margin of the Pacific; the march of improvement corresponding with this unparalleled progression of the living mass; the triumphs of genius and art multiplying as by enchantment on every side; new springs of wealth bursting forth like fountains among all our valleys and hills; commerce gathering the offerings of fairest and richest climes; our ports stretching out their colossal arms into the deep, to welcome the fleets and embosom the tribute of a thousand foreign shores; our starry banner displayed with honor-alike under the burning line, along the "coral strand" of India, among the glaciers of the north, and the spicy isles of the east; our gallant eagle towering on strong pinion-at times, perchance, stooping its flight in placid skies,-but anon

careering upon the stormy blast, or soaring to a bolder, grander elevation.-Surveying these splendid results of the causes we have indicated, our hearts may naturally beat high, with a throb of patriotic exultation. But the emotion is tinged with a shade of sadness. We may rejoice indeed—gratefully rejoice. But can we refrain from trembling? Can we forget that proportionate to our ascendancy in the pride of privilege and advantage, will be the depth of our degradation and fall, if we prove false to our duties as citizens-false to those principles which have borne us onward and upward to our present height of national felicity and aggrandizement?

II. We are led to consider some qualifying circumstances in our otherwise bright and enviable condition.

With all that is exhilerating in the features of the times, there are-it cannot be disguised-signs which are discouraging. It is rith nations as with individuals, that prosperity, though ardently coveted, is often perverted into the means of harm. It is the parent of vice; and developes, even where it does not engender, many germs of mischief. In the long festival of peace which has smiled upon us, the very sunshine of our fortunes has hatched out a pernicious brood of evils. The political atmosphere is becoming charged with noxious miasmata, which threaten grievous distempers to society. The pub

lic mind-ever craving of excitement-in the absence of foreign disturbing causes, yields with morbid appetence to others of a domestic nature. Party animosity is rife. Religious feuds are fanned to exasperation. Political controversies are waged with increasing keenness and asperity. Schemes of selfish and unprincipled ambition are beginning to be openly avowed and shamelessly prosecuted. Principles, specious in theory but impracticable in operation, we see zealously propagated by heated and misguiding visionaries; a spirit of dark and sullen discontent with the established order of things plotting measures at war with our dearest institutions, and threatening if triumphant to upheave their old foundations, to reduce government to anarchy and society to its original chaos; a growing impatience in the minds of others who yet would recoil from the latter extreme, manifested nevertheless in their ill-disguised aversion, and sometimes downright uncalculating resistance to those just and salutary restraints of law, without which no wise nor well regulated freedom could possibly exist; a scornful indifference exhibited during outbursts of popular ferment, (alas, too frequent in these times!) to the dull delays of judicial redress,-that fiery impetuosity to execute justice, whereby justice herself has indeed been all but summarily executed-cut down by parricidal blows inflicted by men whose rights and liberties, in common with all classes of citizens, are alone safe when under her tutelary ægis.