Page images
PDF
EPUB

SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.

1717-1797.

From Coxe's Memoirs of Walpole. Vol. IV.

p. 369.

Flowery oratory he despised. He ascribed to the interested views of themselves or their relatives, the declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, All those men have their price.*

EDMUND BURKE.

1730-1797.

On the French Revolution.

The cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone.

Vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

You had that action and counteraction, which in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers, draws out the harmony of the universe.†

* The political axiom, "All men have their price," is commonly ascribed to Walpole.

† Mr. Breen, in his "Modern English Literature," says: "This

Thoughts on the Present Discontents.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice, in a contemptible struggle.

First Letter on a Regicide Peace.

All those instances to be found in history, whether real or fabulous, of a doubtful public spirit, at which morality is perplexed, reason is staggered, and from which affrighted nature recoils, are their chosen and almost sole examples for the instruction of youth.

RICHARD HURD.

17201808.

Sermons. Vol. II. p. 287.

In this awfully stupendous manner, at which reason stands aghast, and faith herself is half confounded, was the grace of God to man at length manifested.

remarkable thought Alison the historian has turned to good account; it occurs so often in his disquisitions, that he seems to have made it the staple of all wisdom and the basis of every truth."

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

(Lady Elizabeth Hastings.) Though her mien carries much more invitation than command, to behold her is an immediate check to loose behavior; to love her was a liberal education.

MADAME ROLAND.

1775-1793.

O liberty! liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name.

PATRICK HENRY.

1736-1799.

Speech, March, 1775.

Give me Liberty, or give me death!

DANIEL WEBSTER.

1782-1852.

Speech, August 2d, 1826.

Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. Independence now and Independence for ever!

Speech on Hamilton, March, 1831.

He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet.*

Speech, May 7, 1834.

On this question of principle, while actual suffering was yet afar off, they (the Colonies) raised their flag against a power, to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared; a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.†

"He it was that first gave to the aw the air of a science. He found it a skeleton, and clothed it with life, color, and complexion: he embraced the cold statue, and by his touch it grew into youth, health, and beauty." - Lord Avonmore on Blackstone.

"I am called

The richest monarch in the Christian world;

The sun in my dominions never sets."

"Ich heisse

Der reichste Mann in der getauften Welt;

Die Sonne geht in meinem Staat nicht unter."

SCHILLER, Don Karlos, Act i. Sc. 6.

Speech, September 30, 1842.

Sea of up-turned faces.*

WILLIAM L. MARCY.

Speech in the United States Senate, January, 1832. They see nothing wrong in the rule that to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy.

RUFUS CHOATE.

Speech before the New England Society, New York, December 22, 1843.

The Puritans in the reign of Mary, driven from their homes, sought an asylum in Geneva, where they found a State without a King, and a Church without a Bishop.

*This phrase, generally supposed to have originated with Mr. Webster, is from Rob Roy, ch. 20.

« PreviousContinue »