254 LINES BY A BOY AT SCHOOL. 



a state of almost continual disturbance and agitation ? How can it 

 be expected that a nation like the French can endure much longer 

 the yoke of the present government? How can it be ever possible 

 for Louis Philippe to become a national king after what has already 

 taken place, even if he were now willing to direct his domestic and fo- 

 reign policy on more liberal and more humane principles ? Would it 

 not be wise, and much better for himself arid for France, if the now 

 old, and indiscribably wealthy king of the French were to appoint a 

 truly liberal and popular regency, and then resign into its hands the 

 high post which through his selfishness and misconduct he has ren- 

 dered himself unworthy of? Under that regency the present hastily- 

 concocted charter could be calmly and deliberately remodelled on a 

 broader scale of national freedom, and of equal justice, granting to 

 at least 1,500,000 Frenchmen the right of electing the representatives 

 who are to legislate for a nation of more than 30,000,000 of subjects. 

 Then let the son of Louis Philippe, the present duke of Orleans, 

 offer himself a candidate for the national crown, and if the majority 

 of the chamber of deputies chosen by the 1,500,000 new electors 

 think him worthy of reigning over France, then he will deserve the 

 honourable appellation of national king, and France will then, and 

 not until then, enjoy the fruits of all the struggles and sacrifices 

 which for more than half a century it has endured, in order to obtain 

 its glorious independence, and its national freedom. If what we 

 humbly suggest and earnestly hope for should really take place, in 

 a very short time all disturbances and political agitation would cease 

 in our sister country, and Great Britain and France, united as they 

 already are by the similarity of their institutions and liberal princi- 

 ciples, will progressively bring civilization and freedom into every 

 quarter of the globe, and all despotic governments in a few years 

 will be obliged for their own interest and welfare to renounce 

 their unreasonable obstinate determination of ruling over their sub- 

 jects as if we were still living at the beginning of the modern civili- 

 zation of Europe. 



EPIGRAM, BY A BOY AT SCHOOL. 



TEMPUS FUGIT. 



THE school-boy, poring o'er his hated books, 

 Dreams but of happy home and summer flowers, 

 And wreathing myrtle groves, and purling brooks, 

 And chides the drowsy lazy-footed hours 

 That slowly bring the long-expected day, 

 "When, for a time, he throws those books away. 



But when his merry holidays are past 



(How long soe'er, their end must come at last), 



Ere yet the measure of his joy is full, 



With visage woe-begone, and tearful eyes, 



And hardly half-check'd sobs, and smothered sighs, 



" My time already out," the urchin cries. 



" Must I so soon go back again to school. 



Ah me ! how very, very quick time flies !" 



