the name of enemies; the people with whom they have engaged this country in war, and against whom they now command our implicit fupport in every mealure of defperate hoftility: this people, despised as rebels, are acknowledged as enemies, are abetted against you; fupplied with every military ftore; their interefts confulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy! and our minifters dare not interpofe with dignity or effect. Is this the honor of a great kingdom? Is this the indignant spirit of England, who, but yesterday, gave law to the house of Bourbon ? My lords, the dignity of nations demands a decifive conduct in a fituation like this.

This ruinous and ignominious fituation, where we cannot act with fuccefs, nor fuffer with honor, calls upon us to remonstrate in the strongest and loudest language of truth, to rescue the ear of Majefty from the delufions which furround it. The defperate ftate of our arms abroad is in part known. No man thinks more highly of them than I do. I love and honor the English troops. I know they can achieve any thing except impoffibilities: and I know that the conqueft of English America is an impoffibility. You cannot, I venture to say it, you CANNOT conquer America.

Your armies, laft war, effected every thing that could be effected; and what was it? It coft a numerous army, under the command of a most able general, now a noble lord in this House, a long and laborious campaign, to expel five thousand Frenchmen from French America. My lords, you CANNOT conquer America. What is your prefent fituation there? We do not know the worft; but we know, that in three campaigns we have done nothing, and suffered much. We fhall foon know, and in any event have reason to lament, what may have happened fince.

As to conqueft, therefore, my lords, I repeat, it is impoffible. You may fwell every expenfe, and every effort, ftill more extravagantly; pile and accumulate every affistance you can buy or borrow; traffic and

barter with every little pitiful German prince, who fells his fubjects to the fhambles of a foreign power; your efforts are forever vain and impotent; doubly fo from this mercenary aid on which you rely. For it irritates, to an incurable refentment, the minds of your enemies, to overrun them with the mercenary fons of rapine and plunder: devoting them and their poffeffions to the rapacity of hireling cruelty! If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop remained in my country, I NEVER would lay down my arms; NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.

SCENE FROM THE TRAGEDY OF CATO.

Cato.

F

CATO, LUCIUS, and SEMPRONIUS.

ATHERS, we once again are met in council :
Cefar's approach has fummon'd us together,
And Rome attends her fate from our refolves.
How fhall we treat this bold, afpiring man?
Succefs ftill follows him, and backs his crimes:
Pharfalia gave him Rome, Egypt has fince
Receiv'd his yoke, and the whole Nile is Cefar's.
Why should I mention Juba's overthow,

And Scipio's death? Numidia's burning fands.
Still fmoke with blood. 'Tis time we should decree
What courfe to take. Our foe advances on us,
And envies us even Lybia's fultry deferts.

Fathers, pronounce your thoughts; are they ftill fix'd
To hold it out, and fight it to the last?

Or are your hearts fubdu'd at length, and wrought
By time and ill fuccefs to a fubmiffion?
Sempronius, fpeak.

Sempronius. My voice is still for war.
Heav'ns! can a Roman fenate long debate
Which of the two choose, flav'ry or death!
No; let us rife at once, gird on our fwords,
And at the head of our remaining troops,

Y

Attack the foe, break through the thick array
Of his throng'd legions, and charge home upon him.
Perhaps fome arm, more lucky than the reft,
May reach his heart, and free the world from bondage.
Rife, fathers, rife! 'tis Rome demands your help;
Rife, and revenge her flaughter'd citizens,
Or fhare their fate! The corpfe of half her fenate
Manure the fields of Theffaly, while we,
Sit here delib'rating in cold debates,

If we fhall facrifice our lives to honor,
Or wear them out in fervitude and chains.
Roufe up, for fhame! our brothers of Pharfalia
Point at their wounds, and cry aloud, To battle!
Great Pompey's fhade complains that we are flow,
And Scipio's ghoft walks unreveng'd among us.

Cato. Let not a torrent of impetuous zeal
Transport thee thus beyond the bounds of reafon.
True fortitude is feen in great exploits

That juftice warrants, and that wisdom guides.
All elfe is tow'ring frenzy and distraction.
Are not the lives of thofe who draw the fword
In Rome's defence entrusted to our care?

Should we thus lead them to the field of flaughter,
Might not th' impartial world with reafon fay,
We lavish'd at our death the blood of thousands,
To grace our fall, and make our ruin glorious?
Lucius, we next would know what's your opinion?
Luc. My thoughts, I must confefs are turn'd on peace.
Already have our quarrels fill'd the world

With widows, and with orphans. Scythia mourns
Our guilty wars, and earth's remoteft regions
Lie half unpeopled by the feuds of Rome.
'Tis time to fheathe the fword, and fpare mankind.
It is not Cefar, but the gods, my fathers;
The gods declare against us; repel

Our vain attempts. To urge the foe to battle,
Prompted by blind revenge, and wild defpair,
Were to refuse th' awards of Providence,
And not to reft in Heavn's determination.

Already have we shown our love to Rome;
Now let us fhow fubmiffion to the gods.
We took up arms, not to revenge ourselves,
But free the commonwealth; when this end fails,
Arms have no further use our country's cause,
That drew our fwords, now wrefts them from our hands,
And bids us not delight in Roman blood,
Unprofitably fhed. What men could do,

Is done already. Heav'n and earth will witness,
If Rome must fall, that we are innocent.
Cato. Let us appear nor rafh nor diffident ;
Immod'rate valour fwells into a fault;
And fear, admitted into public councils,
Betrays like treafon. Let us fhun them both.
Fathers, I cannot fee that our affairs

Are grown thus defp'rate: we have bulwarks round us ;
Within our walls are troops inur'd to toil

In Afric's heats, and feafon'd to the fun :
Numidia's fpacious kingdom lies behind us,
Ready to rife at its young prince's call.
While there is hope, do not diftruft the gods;
But wait at least till Cefar's near approach
Force us to yield. 'Twill never be too late
To fue for chains, and own a conqueror.
Why fhould Rome fall a moment ere her time?
No, let us draw our term of freedom out
In its full length, and fpin it to the laft;
So fhall we gain ftill one day's liberty:
And let me perish; but in Cato's judgment,
A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,
Is worth a whole eternity in bondage.

EXTRACT FROM AN ORATION, DELIVERED AT BOSTON, JULY 4, 1794, IN COMMEMORATION OF AMERICAN INDEPENDEnce.

A

you

MERICANS! have a country vast in extent; and embracing all the varieties of the most faBubrious climes: held not by charters wrested from unwilling kings, but the bountiful gift of the Author of nature. The exuberance of your population is daily divefting the gloomy wilderness of its rude attire, and fplendid cities rife to cheer the dreary defert.

You

have a government defervedly celebrated as "giving the fanctions of law to the precepts of reafon;" prefenting, inftead of the rank luxuriance of natural licentioufnefs, the corrected fweets of civil liberty. You have fought the battles of freedom, and enkindled that facred flame which now glows with vivid fervour through the greateft empire in Europe.

We indulge the fanguine hope, that her equal laws and virtuous conduct will hereafter afford examples of imitation to all furrounding nations. That the blifsful period will foon arrive when man fhall be elevated to his primitive character; when illuminated reason and regulated liberty fhall once more exhibit him in the image of his Maker; when all the inhabitants of the globe shall be freemen and fellow-citizens, and patriotifm itself be loft in univerfal philanthropy. Then shall volumes of incenfe inceffantly roll from altars infcribed so liberty. Then shall the innumerable varieties of the human race unitedly "worship in her facred temple, whofe pillars fhall reft on the remoteft corners of the earth, and whofe arch will be the vault of heaven."