exiled from the world, yet where he could sometimes see his country's banner waving over the deep, but which would not, or could not, bring him aid!

Thus those four men, who, from the peculiar situation of their portraits, seemed to stand as the representatives of all those whom the world calls great-those four, who each in turn made the earth tremble to its very centre by their simple tread, severally died-one by intoxication, or, as some suppose, by poison mingled in his wine-one a suicide-one murdered by his friends-and one a lonely exile!" How are the mighty fallen !"-From FIELD'S 'Scrap Book.'

THE history of England is emphatically the history of progress. It is the history of a constant movement of the public mind, of a constant change in the institutions of a great society. We see that society, at the beginning of the twelfth century, in a state more miserable than the state in which the most degraded nations of the East now are. We see it subjected to the tyranny of a handful of armed foreigners. We see a strong distinction of caste separating the victorious Norman from the vanquished Saxon. We see the great body of the population in a state of personal slavery. We see the most debasing and cruel superstition exercising boundless dominion over the most elevated and benevolent minds. We see the multitude sunk in brutal ignorance, and the studious few engaged in acquiring what did not deserve the name of knowledge.

In the course of seven centuries the wretched and degraded race have become the greatest and most highly-civilized people that ever the world saw, have spread their dominion over every quarter of the globe, have scattered the seeds of mighty empires and republics over vast continents, of which no dim intimation had ever reached Ptolemy or Strabo, have created a maritime power which would annihilate in a quarter of an hour the navies

of Tyre, Athens, Carthage, Venice, and Genoa together, have carried the science of healing, the means of locomotion and correspondence, every mechanical art, every manufacture, everything that promotes the convenience of life, to a perfection which our ancestors would have thought magical, have produced a literature which may boast of works not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us, have discovered the laws which regulate the motions of the heavenly bodies, have speculated with exquisite subtility on the operations of the human mind, have been the acknowledged leaders of the human race in the career of political improvement.

The history of England is the history of this great change in the moral, intellectual, and physical state of the inhabitants of our own island. There is much amusing and instructive episodical matter; but this is the main action. To us, we will own, nothing is so interesting and delightful as to contemplate the steps by which the England of the Doomsday_Book, the England of the Curfew and the Forest Laws, the England of Crusaders, monks, schoolmen, astrologers, serfs, outlaws, became the England which we know and love, the classic ground of liberty and philosophy, the school of all knowledge, the mart of all trade.

The charter of Henry Beauclerk, the Great Charter, the first assembling of the House of Commons, the extinction of personal slavery, the separation from the See of Rome, the Petition of Right, the Habeas Corpus Act, the Revolution, the establishment of the liberty of unlicensed printing, the abolition of religious disabilities, the reform of the representative system, all these seem to us to be the successive stages of one great revolution; nor can we fully comprehend any one of these memorable events unless we look at it in connection with those which preceded and with those which followed it. Each of these great and ever-memorable struggles, Saxon against Norman, Villein against Lord, Protestant against Papist, Roundhead against Cavalier, Dissenter against Churchman, Manchester against Old Sarum, was, in its own order and season, a struggle, on the result of which were staked the dearest interests of the human race; and every man who, in the contest which in his time divided our country, distinguished himself on the right side, is entitled to our gratitude and respect.

But

We said that the history of England is the history of progress, and when we take a comprehensive view of it, it is so. when examined in small, separate portions, it may with more propriety be called a history of actions and reactions. We have often thought that the motion of the public mind in our country

resembles that of the sea when the tide is rising. Each successive wave rushes forward, breaks, and rolls back; but the great flood is steadily coming in. A person who looked on the waters only for a moment might fancy that they were retiring, or a person who looked on them only for five minutes might fancy that they were rushing capriciously to and fro; but when he keeps his eye on them for a quarter of an hour, and sees one sea-mark disappear after another, it is impossible for him to doubt of the general direction in which the ocean is moved. Just such has been the course of events in England. In the history of the national mind, which is, in truth, the history of the nation, we must carefully distinguish between that recoil which regularly follows every advance and a great general ebb. If we take short intervals-if we compare 1640 and 1660, 1680 and 1685, 1708 and 1712, 1782 and 1794,-we find a retrogression. But if we take centuries,-if, for example, we compare 1794 with 1660, or with 1685,-we cannot doubt in which direction society is proceeding.-MACAULAY.

BRITISH FREEDOM.

IT is not to be thought of that the flood
Of British freedom, which, to the open sea
Of the world's praise, from dark antiquity
Hath flowed, "with pomp of waters, unwithstood,"
Roused though it be full often to a mood
Which spurns the check of salutary bands,
That this most famous stream in bogs and sands
Should perish; and to evil and to good
Be lost for ever. In our halls is hung
Armoury of the invincible knights of old:
We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
That Shakspere spake; the faith and morals hold
Which Milton held. In everything we are sprung
Of earth's first blood, have titles manifold.

WORDSWORTH,

be divided, they should be disparted and moved into distinct and separated portions, which should be scattered and placed at a distance from each other, and in these different locations should gradually be formed into many varieties of mind, manners, and occupations, and be kept aloof from each other until these diversities were secured and established, and afterwards should only have that sort of intercourse, and those relations with each other, as the appointed economy of human affairs should make expedient for the accomplishment of the purposes of the Divine government.

The united population resisted this intention, and pursued their own schemes to prevent the ordained division and diffusion; and nothing less than a superhuman interposition could have cffectuated the separation. But when this was resolved upon, the mode chosen for realizing the Divine purpose was one simple, sagacious, and of irresistible operation.

Nothing unites associating mankind more naturally and more cordially than a similarity of language. It creates a social relationship wherever it exists; and the new race had continued, after the deluge, with this interesting and effective band of intellectual kindship. It was, therefore, to this that the Divine agency was directed. This mental chain of social alliance was broken up. A supernatural operation on their vocal organs and memorial associations-separating the sounds of their utterance from their sensorial ideas so far as to confound this connection, and to make certain portions unintelligible to the other--was put into action. The confusing effect was instantaneous, and the consequences decisive. Those who could understand each other would soon collect together, apart from the rest. Every onc would separate from those who were incomprehensible by him. The awful change would be felt to be a production of Divine power; and being accompanied by a declaration of the great purpose for which it was inflicted, the wiser individuals would soon concur in the counsels of their better judgment, indeed of obvious common sense, and would recommend an immediate obedience to the requisition of that Omnipotence which it was absurdity to oppose.

The mode of execution was easy, by all who were intelligible to each other, separating from those who were not so, and by these uniting into little societies who found they could harmonize together. As the combining sections would severally live most peaceably and comfortably by themselves, and therefore in a different locality from others, migrations of this sort would be resolved upon, and suitable stations would be selected, either according to such Divine suggestions as should be com

municated, or according to such natural agencies and circumstances as would then be operating to similar results. The Divine purpose was thus accomplished, of causing them to settle in different colonizations.—TURNER'S ' Sacred History.'

6

WHEN first America was discovered, the Spaniards were regarded by the Indians as divinities, and perhaps there was nothing which tended to give them this distinction more than their possessing weapons which, resembling the lightning and the thunder of heaven, sent death among them in a manner which they could not avoid or comprehend; and although the Christians are no longer considered as divine, yet the Indians are so little accustomed to, or understand the nature of, fire-arms, that it is natural to suppose the danger of these weapons is greater in their minds than the reality. Accustomed to war among themselves with the lance, it is a danger also that they have not been taught to encounter; for it is well known that men can learn to meet danger, and that they become familiar with its face, when, if the mask be changed, and it appear with unusual features, they again view it with terror. But even supposing that the Indians have no superstitious fear of fire-arms, but merely consider their positive effects, is it not natural that they should fear them? In Europe, or in England, what will people with sticks in their hands do against men who have fire-arms? Why, exactly what the naked Indians have been accused of doing-run away; and who would not run away?

But the life which the Indian leads cannot but satisfy any unprejudiced person that he must necessarily possess high courage. His profession is war, his food is simple, and his body is in that state of health and vigour, that he can rise naked from the plain on which he has slept, and proudly look upon his image, which the white frost has marked out upon the grass, without inconvenience. What can we 66 men in buckram " say to this?

The life of such a people must certainly be very interesting; and I always regretted very much that I had not time to throw off my clothes and pay a visit to some of the tribes, which I should otherwise certainly have done; as, with proper precautions, there would have been little to fear; for it would have been curious to have observed the young sporting about the plains