on this question between England and this Union. Some alternative from such a necessity must and will present itself. England cannot carry on her game of diplomatic procrastination any longer.* The question must soon be brought to a head,-by the State of Maine, if not by the two governments. But war!-between the the two nations of the earth the most closely knit together by the bands of a common origin, language and literature—the extent, intimacy and importance of their commercial intercourse-the proximity of their possessions on this continent-their close intellectual association, and their peculiar and sacred relations to the cause of civilization and freedom! It cannot be. We devoutly trust and believe that it can never again be, as most assuredly it never ought to be. We trust that the immediate present crisis may be passed in safety, by the exercise of that moderation and forbearance-by the one, if not by the other, of the two parties involved--which, under any circumstances, will be, and can alone be, truly worthy of the dignity and honor of either; and that afterwards Great Britain will apply herself more earnestly than heretofore, and in a more candid and just spirit, to the consideration of the plain merits of the case; and—either by satisfying Maine, by the fair purchase of a sufficient portion of the disputed territory to answer her purposes of convenience or by abandoning a pretension which she can now scarcely affect to justify-at length put an honorable termination to this unhappy controversy, which has so long been an open sore of irritation between both parties, and a discreditable scandal to the world at large.

* We do not mean, either in this passage, or in other strong expressions used in the course of this article, to impute a perpetual bad faith to the British Cabinet and its representatives in the prosecution of this controversy,-though that it had its origin in such ground we cannot have any doubt, from the plain face of the whole affair. The facility with which the mental and moral vision of men can be distorted, to any degree of obliquity, by the bias of intersest, and the straining effort of a zealous advocacy, has too often, within our own experience, proved the truth of the definition, that man is called a reasoning animal, because he has never any difficulty in finding a satisfactory reason, to his own mind, for following his own inclinations— to permit us to entertain, for a moment, so illiberal a sentiment, however difficult it may at times seem, in the present case, to discard it from the mind.

VOL. III. NO. IX.-SEPTEMBER.

STANZAS.

I know that thou wilt blame my words,
And others may perchance condemn,
But if I must thine anger bear,

I little care, or think of them;
And if thou blame, as blame thou must,
I will not at my fate repine,
But learn at last to love thy frown,

As I have loved all else of thine.

Yet chide not too severely, thou,

But think that while my fault is seen,
Thou canst not know how long, how deep,
The struggle in my breast hath been;
How reason, manhood, vainly strove
To set me from thy thraldom free,
Till reason, manhood, all were lost
In the absorbing thought of thee.

Then blame me not--nor thou-nor she,
Who hath endured a deeper wrong—
Whose name, forgotten in my heart,
Must be forbidden to my tongue.

Oh, blame me not-nor thou-nor she-
For hope too high, or broken vow,
For though the vow be broken, still,
God knows my hope is humbled now.

Farewell to her, to thee-and if,

Perchance, thy thought shall sometimes dwell

On one who sinned-yet did but that

For which the angels sinned and fell

Bethink thee if temptation less

Were more than Seraph strength could bear,

More deeply tempted, I, at least,

May claim the mercy of a tear.

MR. FORREST'S ORATION.*

THE time was, when the opponents of the democracy, exultingly asserted that within their ranks were to be found "all the religion, all the wealth, and all the learning of the country." The assertion had some color of truth to support it. When the two great antagonist principles began to develope themselves, the religion, the wealth, and the learning of the country, sought the alliance of that political party whose professed principles went far to acknowledge them, if not legally, at least potentially, as "'estates of the republic.

The desire for political power is one of the strongest passions of man, civilized, or savage, and it may be called the natural enemy of a practical administration of a republican form of government. To this passion may be traced all the distinctions that have been made or attempted in society. Who has not observed the mysterious influence of caste over the minds of men, and its astonishing moral force in controlling their actions? An ambitious individual member of a distinct class of society, seeks immunities and privileges for his class, and if successful, he establishes caste, the power and influence of which he himself shares, and is of course interested to perpetuate.

The clergy, as a class, had, in all countries, at the time our experiment of government commenced, showed themselves not exempt from the desire of power; indeed, it may be said, that a love of temporal authority as an adjunct of ecclesiastical prerogative, was their besetting sin, if not their ruling passion. The success of the voluntary system in religion, which was involved in our grand experiment in self-government, and to be tried with it, was considered doubtful,-perhaps, the most doubtful part of the whole.

Men were so accustomed to consider the Church as an establishment constituting a part of the State, and they had so little confidence in men's moral qualities, they did not conceive it possible to sustain religion without the patronage, protection, and coercion of the civil power in a government. It is no wonder that the clergy, who were then considered the representatives of the religious feelings of the country, with such passions and prejudices, attached themselves politically to those who were of congenial sentiments with them, who had the same deep distrust of man's moral fitness, in

* Oration delivered at the Democratic Republican Celebration of the sixty-second anniversary of the Independence of the United States, in the city of New York, fourth July, 1838, by Edwin Forrest, Esq.-New York. J. W. Bell.

a free and unshackled state of mental existence, to establish and maintain that order which constitutes good civil government. The case is far different at this day. The success of the voluntary system for the support of religion and religious institutions, is complete. The political connexion of religion with government, by those who wish to see it flourish "pure and undefiled," is no longer desired,―nay more, they would consider it pollution.

The same mind that adopts religion for its truth, its purity, and its simplicity, would be inclined, for the same reasons, to adopt the principles of democracy. The same mind that discovers the necessity of the penal sanctions of the law, to give adequate moral force to religion, is inclined to discover the necessity of some external, physical, independent power, to control man's moral conduct. The spirit of true religion, is nearly allied to the spirit of democracy, and is therefore, likely to have a kindred habitance with us.

It is indeed true, that the ostentatious professors of religion,those who are influenced more by phylacterian display, than humble zeal-those who can discover no elevation for themselves but through the depression of their fellows, are not found within the pale of the democracy. Neither, perhaps, may the majority of the clergy be found there, for with many of them the ruling passion, the love of power, is far from being subdued, and with some of them, as with emancipated Israel, there is a secret hankering after the delicious flesh-pots of idolatrous Egypt, the land of their former captivity. But the influence of the clergy is now confined to the appropriate sphere of their vocation, and they are no longer the representatives of the religious feelings of others. With the reform that we established, came also truer motives of man's individual accountability, and religion is now viewed as an individual concern, and each man thinks and acts for himself.

The claim of the anti-democratic party to the wealth of the country, will not be disputed, notwithstanding many remarkable exceptions, embracing the largest private fortunes that have ever been accumulated in this country, the evidence of its truth is every day exhib ited.

The money power is the militant power which is now waging war upon the democracy, with a fierceness of attack almost unprecedented in the annals of party strife. It is making a desperate effort to become the ruling power in the state--to place the destinies of this young and still vigorous republic in the enervating bonds of those whose essential creed, is, that man was created to accumulate wealth, and that government was designed to promote that end.

We do not say, that all who support that party have that object distinctly, and separately, as an object in view. We admit, that many of them sincerely believe, that democratic principles in general tend to the destruction of civil order, and they desire a change

in the administration, for the preservation and establishment of the policy which they hold indispensable to good civil government. It was ever so with them. They just as seriously believed that the success of the democratic party, when identified with JEFFERSON'S election, would cause the overthrow of religion, law and order; the fearful apprehension of an agrarian partition of their property disturbed the quiet of their slumbers, then, as now. No one will doubt

the sincerity of the political faith of the New England lady, who, when she heard of Jefferson's election, hid her bible to preserve it from doomed destruction; and in all charity we believe, that the panic-stricken disciples of that faith are just as sincere now; for the lesson of experience taught by the mild rule of democratic ascendency, has had no effect upon them, and if we may judge of the future by the past, will continue for ever to them, to be a lost lesson.

The ruling spirit of that party, however, as now exhibited, is wealth, and never was its power more tyrannically exercised. The degrading submission it exacts, in our commercial cities, from those who follow in its train; its iron proscription of the independent, who will not bend the suppliant knee in acknowledgement of its supremacy; and the actual vassalage it has established in the needy and aspiring, are at once the cause and the effect of its power. The influence it exercises is truly astonishing. The proposition, that the government is under no obligation to place its money in the hands of wealthy individuals, whether masked by a charter or not, that they may enjoy its benefits in private speculation, is so clear, so selfevident, that the time will come when it will be matter of surprise that it was ever disputed. Yet we discover the associated money power of the country exercising such an influence through all the ramifications of society, as to create quite an extended belief, that to deprive the wealthy of the use of the government funds, would be a public calamity! That government cannot be securely administered, unless banks participate in its administration!

The power of wealth, all-powerful as it is, has not had sufficient strength, to draw the literature of the country wholly into its sordid grasp. Mind, immortal mind, disdaining the association, has clung to those holy democratic principles, which allow it the exercise of its highest, noblest qualities. The success of democracy is the greatest conquest that mind ever achieved over matter, through the agency of man, and has opened a new page in moral history, for the profoundest and most exciting study of the philosopher. For such a student, a political association cannot be expected with him who places the chief good in life in the distinctions conferred by the glitter and pomp of wealth, and the enjoyments which it opens to those who are blessed with its possession. The one, in all his views and aspirations, is only "a little lower than the angels "-the other is