that went before, and opened the way for all that was to follow after. The style of Canning was like the convex mirror, which scatters every ray of light that falls upon it, and shines and sparkles in whatever position it is viewed; that of Brougham was like the concave speculum, scattering no indiscriminate radiance, but having its light concentrated into one intense and tremendous focus. Canning marched forward in a straight and clear track; every paragraph was perfect in itself, and every coruscation of wit and genius was brilliant and delightful; it was all felt, and it was all at once. Brougham twined round and round in a spiral, sweeping the contents of a vast circumference before him, uniting and pouring them onward to the main point of attack. When he began, one was astonished at the wideness and obliquity of his course; nor was it possible to comprehend how he was to dispose of the vast and varied materials which he collected by the way; but as the curve lessened, and the end appeared, it became obvious that all was to be efficient there. Such were the rival orators, who sat glancing hostility and defiance at each other during the early part of the session of 1823- Brougham as if wishing to overthrow the secretary by a sweeping accusation of having abandoned all principle for the sake of office; and the secretary ready to parry the charge, and attack in his turn. An opportunity at length offered; and it is more worthy of being recorded, as being the last terrible and personal attack previous to that change in the measures of the cabinet, which, though it had been begun from the moment that Canning, Robinson, and Huskisson came. into office, was not at that time perceived, or at least not admitted and appreciated. Upon that occasion, the oration of Brougham was at the outset disjointed and ragged, and apparently without aim or application. He careered over the whole annals of the world, and collected every instance in which genius had degraded itself at the footstool of power, or in which principle had been sacrificed for the vanity or lucre of place; but still there was no allusion to Canning, and no connection, that ordinary men could discover, with the business before the house. When, however, he had collected every material which suited his purpose, when the mass had become big and black,—he bound it about and about with the cords of illustration and of argument; when its union was secure, he swung it round and round, with the strength of a giant and the rapidity of a whirlwind, in order that its impetus and effect might be the more tremendous; and while doing this, he ever and anon glared his eye, and pointed his finger, to make the aim and the direction sure. Canning himself was the first that seemed to be aware where and how terrible was to be the collision; and he kept writhing his body in agony, and rolling his eyes in fear, as if anxious to find some shelter from the impending bolt. The house soon caught the impression, and every man in it was glancing his eye fearfully, first towards the orator, and then towards the secretary. There was save the voice of Brougham, which growled in that under tone of thunder which is so fearfully audible, and of which no speaker of the day was fully master but himself- a silence, as if the angel of retribution had been opening, in the faces of all parties, the scroll of their private sins. A pen, which one of the secretaries dropped upon the matting, was heard in the remotest part of the house; and the visiting members, who often slept in the side galleries during the debate, started up as though the final trump had been calling them to give an account of their deeds. The stiffness of Brougham's figure had vanished; his features seemed concentrated almost to a point; he glanced towards every part of the house in succession, and sounded the death-knell of the secretary's forbearance and prudence. With both his clinched hands upon the table, he hurled at him an accusation more dreadful in its gall, and more torturing in its effects, than ever has been hurled at mortal man within the same walls. The result was instantaneouswas electric: it was as when the thunder-cloud descends upon some giant peak-one flash, one peal!the sublimity vanished, and all that remained was a small pattering of rain. Canning started to his feet, and was able only to utter the unguarded words, "It is false!"—to which followed a dull chapter of apologies. From that moment, the house became more a scene of real business than of airy display and of angry vituperation. LESSON CXLII. The Laborer. STAND up WILLIAM D. GALLAGHER. -erect! Thou hast the form And likeness of thy God!-Who more? Of daily life, a heart as warm And pure, as breast e'er wore. What then?-Thou art as true a man Who is thine enemy? The high In station, or in wealth the chief? If true unto thyself thou wast, What were the proud one's scorn to thee? A feather which thou mightest cast The light leaf from the tree. No: uncurbed passions, low desires, These are thine enemies thy worst; Thou art thyself thine enemy: The great! what better they than thou? As theirs is not thy will as free? Has God with equal favors thee True, wealth thou hast not 'tis but dust; But that thou hast, which, with thy crust Of both a noble mind. With this, and passions under ban, Thou art the peer of any man. 35 LESSON CXLIII. Passing Away. JOHN PIERPONT. Was it the chime of a tiny bell, That came so sweet to my dreaming ear,Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell That he winds on the beach, so mellow and clear, When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, And the moon and the fairy are watching the deep, She dispensing her silvery light, And he his notes, as silvery quite, While the boatman listens and ships his oar, To catch the music that comes from the shore? But no; it was not a fairy's shell, Blown on the beach, so mellow and clear; As I lay in my dream; yet was it a chime O, how bright were the wheels, that told Of the lapse of time, as they moved round slow! |