the possession of irresponsible power, ruled over men as over the beasts of the field. Surely there was much in a degradation and wretchedness like this, rendering it fit for Him whose "tender mercies are over all his works," to show how a nation may be governed so as best to guard against such grievous and consuming ills.

But farther: let us look at the influence of freedom on those higher faculties of man which reach beyond his domestic enjoyments. The sentiment so beautifully expressed,

""Tis liberty alone that gives the flower

"Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume,"

is verified by the history of nations, whether ancient or modern. History never misleads. It "is Philosophy teaching by example." Let us turn to it, and learn in what countries and under what kind of government the intellectual and moral faculties which adorn and dignify our nature have been most happily developed.

Allow me here to quote from a work among the most able in our language, and well known as a most unbending advocate of royalty and rank for perfecting the body politic. "Civilized democracy," it tells us, "is the great moving power in human affairs; the source of the greatest efforts of human

genius; and when duly restrained from running into excess, the grand instrument of human advancement. Its grand characteristic is energy, and energy not rousing the exertions merely of a portion of society, but awakening the dormant strength of millions; not producing merely the chivalrous valor of the high bred cavalier, but drawing forth the might that slumbers in a peasant's arm. The greatest achievements of genius, the noblest efforts of heroism that have illustrated the history of the species have arisen from the influence of this principle. Thence the fight of Marathon and the glories of Salamis-the genius of Greece and the conquests of Rome-the heroism of Sempach and the devotion of Harlæm-the paintings of Raphael and the poetry of Tasso-the energy that covered with a velvet carpet the slopes of the Alps, and the industry which bridled the stormy seas of the German ocean. Why are the shores of the Mediterranean the scene to which the pilgrim from every quarter of the globe journeys to visit, at once, the cradles of civilization, the birthplace of arts, of arms, of philosophy, of poetry, and the scenes of their highest and most glorious achievements? Because freedom spread along its smiling shores; because the ruins of Athens and Sparta, of Rome and Carthage, of Tyre and Syracuse lie on its margin; because civilization advanc

ing with the white sails which glittered on its blue expanse, pierced, as if impelled by central heat, through the dark and barbarous regions of the Celtic race who peopled its shores.-What gave Rome the empire of the world, and brought the venerable ensigns, bearing the words, "Senatus populusque Romanus," (the senate and the people of Rome,) to the wall of Antoninus, and the foot of the Atlas, the waters of the Euphrates and the Atlantic ocean?-Republican Rome colonized the world; republican Greece spread the light of civilization along the shores of the Mediterranean. But Imperial Rome could never maintain the number of its own provinces; and the Grecian Empire slumbered on with a declining population for eleven hundred years.”*

Eloquent and glowing as these extracts may be regarded, they are not exaggerated or fanciful. They present a faithful picture of truth. There are but few green spots in our fallen world where man has ever made any great advancement in whatever most elevates his nature and improves his happiness. Among these, as we shall hereafter show, the land of the Hebrews stands first among ancient nations. But whether it be Palestine, Greece or Rome,

* Blackwood, January, 1836. The article from which the extracts are taken is entitled "The Future," and will amply repay a careful perusal.

of former ages; whether it be Genoa, Venice, Holland or England, of later times, the germ, at least, of civil freedom, was found in them all; and though its growth may at times have been retarded, and its beauty marred by unnatural restraints and entanglements, yet just in proportion as these antagonist forces were removed or overcome, did the struggling spirit of freedom impart a healthful activity to the noblest powers and aspirations of man. What an impulse, for instance, was given to knowledge and refinement in the free States of Italy, when they were liberated from tyranny? There, it may be said, learning and art first raised their heads, after their fearful overthrow by the invasion of the northern barbarians. What was Holland before she became freed from both ecclesiastical and civil domination? With few exceptions, the minds of her people were as stagnant as the waters in her boundless marshes. There was no nerve in the national arm to bridle the waves of the ocean from overflowing her shores; there were no fleets issuing from her ports to come back enriching her with the wealth of the world; no seminaries of learning teeming with a growth of intellect that rendered the divines, the physicians, the lawyers, the statesmen, the philosophers of Holland, the oracles of their day throughout the civilized world. But soon as she acquired her national inde

pendence and freedom, she raised herself to a first rank among nations in all these high attainments; and has enabled her descendants among us to look back upon her with high reverence for their “fatherland."

Or shall we look at another country to which, as a people, we can trace a more general ancestry? Mark the stages of progress made by England, as a birthplace of knowledge, refinement and high enterprise for public good; and you will see that just according as arbitrary power, whether in king or nobles, has been checked and over-ruled by the spirit of civil freedom in her people, her course has been onward. What was she before her Magna Charta was granted and signed as her first great step of disenthralment from bondage? Her curfew bell was rung every night, as if to proclaim the darkness that covered the land, and to remind her of the iron sceptre that controlled her every hour and her best enjoyments. But what has she become since that day of her first release; and especially since the seeds of liberty took their deep root in her soil during the commonwealth, and have become developed and embodied in her far-famed Bill of Rights? There she sits like a star in the lap of the ocean. Her name and her power are known wherever the sun shines; and her achievements have