Continued HARD task! exclaim the undisciplined, to lean
On Patience coupled with such slow endeavour,
That long-lived servitude must last for ever.
Perish the grovelling few, who, prest between
Wrongs and the terror of redress, would wean
Millions from glorious aims.
Our chains to sever

Let us break forth in tempest now or never!—
What, is there then no space for golden mean
And gradual progress?-Twilight leads to day,
And, even within the burning zones of earth,
The hastiest sunrise yields a temperate ray;
The softest breeze to fairest flowers gives birth:
Think not that Prudence dwells in dark abodes,
She scans the future with the eye of gods.

Concluded As leaves are to the tree whereon they grow
And wither, every human generation

Is to the Being of a mighty nation,

Locked in our world's embrace through weal and

woe;

Thought that should teach the zealot to forego
Rash schemes, to abjure all selfish agitation,
And seek through noiseless pains and moderation
The unblemished good they only can bestow.
Alas! with most, who weigh futurity
Against time present, passion holds the scales:
Hence equal ignorance of both prevails,
And nations sink; or, struggling to be free,
Are doomed to flounder on, like wounded whales
Tossed on the bosom of a stormy sea.

YOUNG ENGLAND—what is then become of Old, "Young
Of dear Old England? Think they she is dead, England”
Dead to the very name? Presumption fed
1845

On empty air!

That name will keep its hold
In the true filial bosom's inmost fold

For ever. The Spirit of Alfred at the head
Of all who for her rights watched, toiled and bled,
Knows that this prophecy is not too bold.
What-how! shall she submit in will and deed
To Beardless Boys-an imitative race,
The servum pecus of a Gallic breed?

Dear Mother! if thou must thy steps retrace,
Go where at least meek Innocency dwells;
Let Babes and Sucklings be thy oracles.

FEEL for the wrongs to universal ken
Daily exposed, woe that unshrouded lies;
And seek the Sufferer in his darkest den,
Whether conducted to the spot by sighs
And moanings, or he dwells (as if the wren
Taught him concealment) hidden from all eyes
In silence and the awful modesties

Of sorrow ;-feel for all, as brother Men!
Rest not in hope want's icy chain to thaw
By casual boons and formal charities;
Learn to be just, just through impartial law;
For as ye may, erect and equalise ;
And, what ye cannot reach by statute, draw
Each from his fountain of self-sacrifice!

Personal

service of Mankind 1842?

SERIES III

Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death

Suggested THIS Spot-at once unfolding sight so fair by the view of sea and land, with yon grey towers that still of Lancaster Rise Castle up as if to lord it over air

Might soothe in human breasts the sense of ill,
Or charm it out of memory; yea, might fill
The heart with joy and gratitude to God
For all his bounties upon man bestowed:
Why bears it then the name of "Weeping Hill"?
Thousands, as toward yon old Lancastrian Towers,
A prison's crown, along this way they past
For lingering durance or quick death with shame,
From this bare eminence thereon have cast
Their first look-blinded as tears fell in showers
Shed on their chains; and hence that doleful name.

www

TENDERLY do we feel by Nature's law

Give sym

it is most due

For worst offenders: though the heart will heave pathy where
With indignation, deeply moved we grieve,
In after thought, for Him who stood in awe
Neither of God nor man, and only saw,
Lost wretch, a horrible device enthroned
On proud temptations, till the victim groaned
Under the steel his hand had dared to draw
But O, restrain compassion, if its course,
As oft befalls, prevent or turn aside

Judgments and aims and acts whose higher source
Is sympathy with the unforewarned, who died
Blameless-with them that shuddered o'er his grave,
And all who from the law firm safety crave.

Who had betrayed their country. The stern word Feeling must

Afforded (may it through all time afford)

A theme for praise and admiration high.
Upon the surface of humanity

He rested not; its depths his mind explored;
He felt; but his parental bosom's lord
Was Duty,-Duty calmed his agony.
And some, we know, when they by wilful act
A single human life have wrongly taken,
Pass sentence on themselves, confess the fact,
And, to atone for it, with soul unshaken
Kneel at the feet of Justice, and, for faith
Broken with all mankind, solicit death.

bow to
Duty

Death is not Is Death, when evil against good has fought
the worst With such fell mastery that a man may dare
thing By deeds the blackest purpose to lay bare,

Is Death, for one to that condition brought,
For him, or any one, the thing that ought
To be most dreaded? Lawgivers, beware,
Lest, capital pains remitting till ye spare
The murderer, ye, by sanction to that thought
Seemingly given, debase the general mind;
Tempt the vague will tried standards to disown;
Nor only palpable restraints unbind,

But
upon Honour's head disturb the crown,
Whose absolute rule permits not to withstand
In the weak love of life his least command.

The Legis- Nor to the object specially designed, lator must Howe'er momentous in itself it be, look to Good to promote or curb depravity, consequences Is the wise Legislator's view confined.

His Spirit, when most severe, is oft most kind;
As all Authority in earth depends

On Love and Fear, their several powers he blends,
Copying with awe the one Paternal mind.
Uncaught by processes in show humane,
He feels how far the act would derogate
From even the humblest functions of the State;
If she, self-shorn of Majesty, ordain
That never more shall hang upon her breath
The last alternative of Life or Death.