ction of society to the wild fury and the squalid
necessities of the savage state. "This," he exclaimed, turning his full
front to the House, raising his hand, and throwing up his eyes to heaven
with the solemnity of an adjuration--"This we must resist, in the name
of that Omnipotent Disposer who has given us hearts to feel the
blessings of society, or we must acknowledge ourselves unworthy to hold
a name among nations. This we must resist--live or die. This system we
must meet by system--subtlety by sincerity--intrigue by
resolution--treachery by good faith-menace by courage. We must remember
that we have been made trustees of the honour of the past, and of the
hopes of the future. A great country like ours has no alternative but
to join the enemy of all order, or to protect all order--to league
against all government, or to stand forth its champion. This is the
moment for our decision. Empires are not afforded time for delay. All
great questions are simple. Shrink, and you are undone, and Europe is
undone along with you; be firm, and you will have saved the world!"

The feelings with which this lofty language was heard were intense. The
House listened in a state of solemn emotion, hour after hour, deeply
silent, but when some chord was so powerfully touched that it gave a
universal thrill. But those involuntary bursts of admiration were as
suddenly hushed by the anxiety of the House to listen, and the awful
sense of the subject. It was not until the great minister sat down that
the true feeling was truly exhibited; the applause was then unbounded--a
succession of thunder-peals.

I had now leisure to glance at the Opposition. Fox, for a while, seemed
good-humouredly inclined to give up the honour of the reply to some of
the popular speakers round him; but the occasion was too important to be
entrusted to inferior powers, and, on a general summons of his name, he
at length rose. The world is too familiar with the name of this
celebrated man to permit more than a sketch of his style. It has been
said that he had no style. But this could be said only by those who
regard consummate ability as an accident.

Of all the public speakers whom I have ever heard, Fox appeared to me
the most subtle--of course, not in the crafty and degrading sense of the
word; but in the art of approaching an unexpected case, he was a master.
He loitered, he lingered, he almost trifled by the way, until the
observer began to believe that he had