MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
163 
ever struggled for human rights and the perpetuity of human 
freedom and bury the glorious galaxy of stars too deep in 
degradation to excite the contempt of the pettiest despot that 
grovels beneath the ban of human hatred. It is not at home, 
surrounded by local influences, and blinded by the zeal of 
party, that we can appreciate the terrible immensity, the 
utter madness of this proposition. Go abroad, ye who would 
lightly cast away the priceless heritage of liberty, and stud} 
well the operation of other governments ; feel but for a singlt 
day the crushing effects of religious intolerance and military 
despotism ; mingle with the suffering masses that no longei 
breathe their woes, but hope against hope in the very darkness 
of despair; behold the misery that you would bring upon the 
heads of a happy and prosperous people, and ask yourselves, 
Is it well to talk of disunion ? Roam from the North to the 
South ; linger among the mouldering monuments of the past; 
ponder over the powev and the weakness of man, what he has 
been, what he might be, and what he is; behold the fairest 
lands that ever breathed the charm of romance over the pages 
of history now waste and desolate ; look back from out the 
gloom of human depravity upon your own free and happy 
country, rising to the zenith of its prosperity, spreading its 
genial influences over the whole face of the earth ; and say, 
would you be no longer a nation of freemen ? Would you 
aspire to a page in future history as that people who have 
fallen lower than ever yet man has fallen ? 
Whatever may be the evils under which we labor at home, 
let us hope that they are but temporary ; they are dust in the 
balance compared with the evils that afflict the nations of 
Europe. Let us bear them patiently, and look to the healing 
influences of time for the remedy. Above all, let us never 
cease to cherish, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, the 
memory of those immortal men who have bequeathed to us 
the blessings of an enlightened and liberal system of govern¬ 
ment. 
