Hark! below the gates unbarring!

Tramp of men and quick commands! ""T is my lord come back from hunting.” And the Duchess claps her hands.

IX.

Slow and tired, came the hunters; Stopped in darkness in the court. "Ho, this way, ye laggard hunters !

To the hall ! What sport, what sport?"

F

ROM life without freedom, say, who would not fly?
For one day of freedom, O, who would not die?
Hark! - hark! 't is the trumpet! the call of the brave,
The death-song of tyrants, the dirge of the slave.
Our country lies bleeding, haste, haste to her aid;
One arm that defends is worth hosts that invade.

In death's kindly bosom our last hope remains, —
The dead fear no tyrants, the grave has no chains.
On, on to the combat! the heroes that bleed
For virtue and mankind are heroes indeed.
And O, even if freedom from this world be driven,
Despair not, at least we shall find her in Heaven.

T. Moore.

CXXII

I

THE IRISH-DISTURBANCE BILL.

Do not rise to fawn or cringe to this house. I do not

rise to supplicate you to be merciful towards the nation to which I belong, towards a nation which, though subject to England, yet is distinct from it. It is a distinct nation; it has been treated as such by this country, as may be proved by history, and by seven hundred years of tyranny.

2. I call upon this house, as you value the liberty of England, not to allow the present nefarious bill to pass. In it are involved the liberties of England, the liberty of the press, and of every other institution dear to Englishmen.

3. Against the bill I protest in the name of this Irish people, and in the face of Heaven. I treat with scorn the puny and pitiful assertions that grievances are not to be complained of, that our redress is not to be agitated ! for, in such cases, remonstrances cannot be too strong, agitation cannot be too violent, to show to the world with what injustice our fair claims are met, and under what tyranny the people suffer.

4. There are two frightful clauses in this bill. The one which does away with trial by jury, and which I have called upon you to baptize: you call it a court-martial, — a mere nickname; I stigmatize it as a revolutionary tribunal. What, in the name of Heaven, is it, if it is not a revolutionary tribunal?

5. It annihilates the trial by jury; it drives the judge from his bench, the man who, from experience, could weigh the nice and delicate points of a case; who could discriminate between the straightforward testimony and the suborned evidence; who could see, plainly and readily, the justice or injustice of the accusation.

6. It turns out this man who is free, unshackled, unprejudiced; who has no previous opinions to control the clear exercise of his duty. You do away with that which

THE IRISH-DISTURBANCE BILL.

299

is more sacred than the throne itself,- that for which your king reigns, your lords deliberate, your commons assemble.

7. If ever I doubted before of the success of our agitation for repeal, this bill, this infamous bill, the way in which it has been received by the house, the manner in which its opponents have been treated, the personalities to which they have been subjected, the yells with which one of them has this night been greeted, all these things dissipate my doubts, and tell me of its complete and early triumph.

8. Do you think those yells will be forgotten? Do you suppose their echo will not reach the plains of my injured and insulted country; that they will not be whispered in her green valleys, and heard from her lofty hills?

9. O, they will be heard there! Yes; and they will not be forgotten. The youth of Ireland will bound with indignation they will say, "We are eight millions; and you treat us thus, as though we were no more to your country than the isle of Guernsey or of Jersey!"

10. I have done my duty; I stand acquitted to my conscience and my country; I have opposed this measure throughout; and I now protest against it as harsh, oppressive, uncalled for, unjust, as establishing an infamous. precedent by retaliating crime against crime, -as tyrannous, cruelly and vindictively tyrannous.

Daniel O'Connell.

EXERCISE.

1. I do not rise to fawn or cringe to this house.

2. I do not rise to supplicate you to be merciful.

3. I call upon you not to allow this nefarious bill to pass.

4. I treat with scorn the puny and pitiful assertions that grievances

are not to be complained of.

5. I stigmatize it. [Set a mark of disgrace upon.]

6. That man could discriminate between the straightforward testimony and the suborned evidence.

7. All these things dissipate my doubts.

8. I have opposed this measure throughout.

9. It is harsh, oppressive, uncalled for, unjust.