out; why did not men believe, or imagine, or so much as dream that each flaming successor might in the same manner be extinguished? The answer must be found in ourselves. Man is not more certainly born to a frail and finite existence on earth, than to a heritage of passions; which, if not regulated by instruction and prudence, will tyrannize over his destinies. In the undisciplined man, you will find insatiable love of power, boundless ambition, anxious solicitude for perilous enterprize, and daring adventure; and all these inflamed by a passion for notoriety and the hope of doing deeds which shall fill the eye and move the tongue of the world. These passions have made men, heroes, chieftains, conquerors; while those who could be moved by nothing better, have been lured to their standard, some by the mere scent of blood, and others in the hope of plunder. One race of such men produces another. Alexander worshipped on the tomb of Achilles. Cæsar wept over the statue of Alexander. What were history, poetry, painting, sculpture? The monuments of conquest. Subjugated communities ceased to exist, and were forgotten. Nations were without experience, concerning the fate of those who had gone before them; and if a knowledge of that fate reached their leaders, it did but place more peril in their paths, and enhanced the glory of achievement: 'Short be my date, if deathless my renown.'

"If, from necessity, or any other cause, any thing like moral principle were found in the municipal relations of men, no such regulation had found its way into any code of nations. The teachings of wisdom, and the voice of inspiration, were alike unheeded by them. 'Sic utere tuo, ut non alienum Laedas, found no place even in the laws of Christian nations, until many centuries after the Saviour of the World had promulgated this same principle in the schools of Palestine. If, during the last eighteen centuries, the condition of nations is ameliorated, it is not because men, admonished by experience, have been deterred from violence by the fate of communities which had flourished by plunder, and been destroyed by reprisal.

I

"What then produced the wonderful difference between the ancient and modern states and kingdoms? What wrought Europe and the New World into a community of nations? What are the limits of this great family? The creed of Christianity; the parental theology, the hallowed morals of Him who, though illustriously the Son of the Most High; yet was on earth the meek and lowly messenger of peace and good will to nations. I have said this for no purpose of mingling sacred with secular things; but with the intention, after a notice of the great changes wrought in the character of nations, to state honestly the true philosophical cause of them. Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you.' 'He who takes the sword, shall perish by the sword.' These two divine aphorisms have, through the silent lapse of ages, come to the hearing of nations, and changed their character from piracy and plunder, to labor and economy; from a condition of hostility, to a state of peace and brotherhood, uniting under all their divers tongues in one common canon of petition to 'Our Father in Heaven.' The great code of nations has thus been settled; and by all Christian communities established on the principles of Christian reciprocity. By this code, conquest for acquisition is not admitted; plunder for subsistence, whether by many or few, is alike the crime of the robber or the pirate; slavery, the last perquisite of iron ages, war and despotism, have been gradually relinquished, and will be entirely removed from among all Christian people, whenever wisdom, humanity, and patriotism, can effect the removal, without peril to the peace of nations, or violence to the rules of private justice. If these principles should extend, and what shall prevent their extension ? if they do extend; and will they not, when the tongues, and pens, and types of so many millions are hourly laboring to pour them into the ear, or spread them before the eye of all nations? and if these many and mighty efforts may be successful, the trade of violence shall cease under the whole heaven; conquerors, if any arise, be chased like beasts of prey from the face of the earth; the world, so long a seat of war, conquest, slavery, and despotism, shall be made the dwelling-place of peace, freedom, and prosperity, un

der the dominion of that righteousness which not only exalts but preserves nations. Men are now gradually, in submission to the will of the Creator, coming into a condition of Labor. They have heard the voice of inspiration, read the record of experience, and learned the laws of the Eternal. By these, human subsistence is united to human labor. In ages gone by, they have been separated by fraud and violence; but when our whole race, looking to the infinite source of their existence, shall, as with one voice, say, 'Thy will be done,' the era of violence shall terminate, and the age of labor be universally established."

A class of philosophers would persuade us, that much of the labor of others, and especially that of instruction, is mere legendary idleness, and of no value or utility. Mr. Burges asks, if it is more laborious to till the field, than to toil in the acquisition and diffusion of science; to exercise the skill of handicraft, than to answer the requisitions of professional labor? Those who teach our infancy, those who instruct us from the cradle to the grave; the schoolmaster; the divine. "Pause a moment; what were our nature without these auxiliaries of the best acquisitions of this world, and the brightest hopes of another? Would you dismiss them from their labors ? Rather stop the plough, unbend the sail, throw the loom out of gear. Better than live without letters, morals, religion, that this were the last human generation. Let the shade of the forest again touch the margin of the ocean; and wild beasts once more prey or browse over every acre of the New World."

After a general discussion of the principles and details of this subject that is, the fountain of all national prosperity, the assurance given by the laws, that every citizen shall enjoy the emolument of his own labor-the Address concludes with these sentiments: "That when vain ambition and lawless avarice can no longer wage war, or lure nations to plunder; and time shall have consumed the last marble marked with the name of a conqueror, then, communities will have been counselled in the great doctrines of self-subsistence, and men become the true friends of their race. Nations, formed and sustained on the principles of Labor, will secure the establishment of justice, fa

cilitate the great mysteries of human toil, illustrate science, perfect arts, disseminate letters, purify morals, elevate piety." Read the history of those nations, and on their brightest page will be written an inscription, as beautiful as that on the monument which tells the traveller, of departed glory."

In the month of September, 1828, death again visited his family circle. His eldest son, Welcome Arnold, died in the twenty-eighth year of his age. He graduated at Brown University, received the first honors of his class, and entered his father's office to pursue the study of Law. Having finished the usual preparatory course, he was admitted to practice in Rhode-Island. To a fine mind, were united extensive classical accomplishments, a chastened taste in polite literature, and judgment matured beyond his years. As a lawyer, he was exact in the knowledge of the principles of his profession; courteous, and patient in application. As an advocate, he was remarkably successful, for one so young. He was the pride of his father, who had labored with assiduity to perfect his professional education; but while that father was anticipating the fruits of his care, how little did he know of the secrets of futurity.

In the brief period of fourteen months, Mr. Burges was called to mourn over the graves of four children; taken from him in the morning of life, full of promise and joy. Well might he exclaim, "Who knows the fate of his children's bones? Who hath the oracle of their ashes, and whither are they to be scattered?"

CHAPTER VI.

The claim of M. D'Auterive.--The debate upon it. -Mr. Burges's Speech.-Extracts.

A BILL was before the House of Representatives in January, 1829, for the relief of Marigny D'Auterive, together with an amendment proposed by a member from Louisiana, (Mr. Gurley,) "to pay for injury done to a slave, and for medical attendance upon him."

The claimant asked from the United States, ten hundred and ninety-four dollars. Of this sum, seven hundred and fifty-five dollars had been allowed by the Committee, and the balance rejected. Twenty-four dollars of this balance, was the amount of a private surgeon's bill, for attending and curing the claimant's slave "Warwick," who was wounded while working in the trenches before New-Orleans, on the first of January, 1815. The second item of the balance was fifteen dollars, for lost time, being one month, while Warwick was under the care of the surgeon. Two hundred dollars, the last item in the account, was claimed, because the slave was made so much less valuable by his wounds. The Committee on Claims rejected the surgeon's bill; because, all persons wounded in the service, if carried to the army hospital, are attended and cured, if they can be cured, by regular surgeons, without any private expense; but all who choose not to go there, when in their power, must be attended and cured at their own charge. The other items were rejected, because such persons, have never been considered as property in such cases, to be paid for by the United States.

The amendment offered by the member from Louisiana, restored these disallowed items to the account. Although the sum in question was exceedingly small, yet the principles directly involved, and those introduced into the debate, were perilous to