; Cashmere's soft
shawls, to-day yet a luxury of the wealthiest, the diamonds of Golconda,
the gorgeous carpets of Lydia, the gold of Ophir and Saba, the aromatic
spices and jewels of Ceylon, and the pearls and perfumes of Arabia, the
myrrh, silver, gold dust, and ivory of Africa, as well as the amber of
the Baltic and the tin of Thule, appeared alike in their commerce,
raising them in turn to the dominion of the world, and undoing them by
too careless prosperity. The manner and the shape of one or the other
art, of one or other industry, has changed; the steam-engine has
replaced the rowing-bench, and cannon replaced the catapult; but, as a
whole, even your country, which you are proud to hear styled "the living
wonder of the world"--yes, even your country in the New World, and
England in the Old--England, that gigantic workshop of industry,
surrounded with a beautiful evergreen garden; yes, all the dominions of
the Anglo-Saxon race, can claim no higher praise of its prosperity, than
when we say, that you have reproduced the grandeur of those ancient
nations, and nearly equal their prosperity. And what has become of them?
A sad skeleton. What remains of their riches, of their splendour, and
of their vast dominions? An obscure recollection; a vain memory. Thus
fall empires; thus vanish nations, which have no better guardians than
their prosperity. But "we have," will you say, "we have a better
guardian--our freedom, our republican institutions; our confederation
uniting so many glorious stars into one mighty galaxy--these are the
ramparts of our present, these our future security."

Well, it would ill become me to investigate if there be nothing "rotten
in the state of Denmark," and certainly I am not the man who could feel
inclined to undervalue the divine power of liberty; to underrate the
value of your democratic institutions, and the vitality of your glorious
Union. It is to them I look in the solitary hours of meditation, and
when, overwhelmed with the cares of the patriot, my soul is groaning
under nameless woes, it is your freedom's sunny light which dispels the
gloomy darkness of despondency; here is the source whence the
inspiration of hope is flowing to the mourning world, that down-trodden
millions at the bottom of their desolation still retain a melancholy
smile upon their lips, and still retain a voice in their bleeding chest,
to thank the Almighty God that the golden thread of freedom is not yet
lost on ea