let two men come out of your ranks, and swear to me, in your name, that you will be faithful to your promises."

When the chieftain had finished his address, his soldiers, who had been leaning on their arms, and listening in reverential silence, instantly hailed its conclusion, with loud shouts, of "we will never desert you;" "we will never abandon you;" "we will share your fate, whatever it may be." Two men then moved out of each rank, as Reding had desired; and, giving their hands to their chief, confirmed the oath, their comrades had taken. This treaty of alliance between the chief and his soldiers was sworn in open day, and in one of the sublimest scenes in all Switzerland. A treaty, which, as the historian1 observes, bears marks of patriarchal manners, worthy the simplicity of the golden age. These brave men fought and bled with the resolution of heroes, and the enthusiasm of patriots; but fate having, for a time, decreed the subjugation of their country, they fought therefore in vain.

II.

As you are a friend to social order and uniformity of government, my Lelius, perhaps you may start at the now unfashionable name of liberty;-- the mother of the arts, of science, and philosophy; the friend of virtue, and the surest guardian of a people's happiness. Where liberty languishes, happiness never

1 Zschockle.

fails to wither away. Like the best of Indian rubies, it requires no polish: glowing with its own fire, the brilliancy it emits, is native in the quarry.

The revolution in a neighbouring state, which resembles a beautiful symphony to a wretched concerto, and the crimes, perpetrated during which, not all the waters of the Loire, the Seine, or the Rhone, can ever wash from the historic page, has weakened your national attachment to those greatest of all heaven's benefits, freedom of action and liberty of speech. You resemble the herb, called by the ancient naturalists, Zaclon; which being bruised and cast into wine, turned the wine to water, preserving the colour, but losing the strength and virtue of wine. But, my Lelius, Liberty, (the loss of which necessarily involves the ruin of the human mind), is not to be despised, because few, in these degenerated days, have any fixed regard for her. Nor is her character to be libelled, because vicious men, in all the wantonness of license, have formed so many schemes, and committed so many crimes, under the assumed privilege of her honourable name. How many an act of treachery has been perpetrated under the name of friendship: and how many a virtuous woman has fallen a sacrifice, at the fascinating shrine of love! In spite of all this, friendship is still the most exalted of the virtues: love is still the most delightful feeling of the heart: and since justice is the peculiar attribute of heaven, let liberty, ~pure, unadulterated, liberty,-be the idol of the good.

III.

Nobly, justly, and honourably, was it observed by one of the Jewish rabbins, that were the sea ink, and the land parchment, the former would not be able to describe, nor the latter to comprize, all the praises of Liberty. It is the rich prerogative of man! The mother of every virtue; and the truest friend, the only nurse of genius. And so natural is it to the human breast, that it is as difficult to eradicate, as it is to convert a circle into a square.

Shout, hiss, and abhor license, my Lelius, as much as you will: there is not an honest man in the country, who will not echo her disgrace. She is an harlot: and the worst and most execrable of harlots! But if you despise the character of a slanderer; if you respect the honour of your sister, and the chastity of your wife: if you would secure the uninterrupted possession of your property: and if you regard the interests of your children and the purity of your name: disregarding the caution of the worthless, and disdaining to shelter yourself under the despicable garment of neutrality, you will honour the character of Liberty in all times, and in all places, and claim its exercise, as an unalienable RIGHT. There is not a mendicant, who begs from door to door, that has not as clear, and as indisputable a title to this inheritance, as the proudest aristocrat, that, in his admiration of tyranny, ever disgraced the honours of ancestry. Nature implanted the desire: nature prompts us to command the exer

cise: and may he, who seeks, by any indirection, to deprive us of this invaluable inheritance, be the scorn of this world, and an outcast in the next! All other sins may be forgiven.—But the sin of ruining a whole people, for the sake of crawling on the mantle of an unworthy sovereign,-it is an offence, that kneels for mercy, even a thousand years!

Dion Cassius expressly marks the comparative characters of despotism and anarchy. "The times are certainly bad," says he," when men are not permitted to do what they please:-but they are much worse, when they are permitted to do every thing they please." The abuse of liberty produces anarchy, as naturally as despotism tends to the production of liberty. "We are content with alarms," said an Afghaun to Mr. Elphinstone; " we are content with discord; but we will not be content with a tyrant."

It was the opinion of Machiavel, that the froth and the dregs, as Voltaire distinguishes the upper and lower orders of society, contended only for the name; the middle classes for the essence of liberty. When therefore, my Lelius, you say, that the people have no honest regard for liberty, you are mistaken; and much mistaken. For truly has Pliny remarked,—and in his panegyric on Trajan too,-that people never love their prince so much, but that they love liberty

more.

In regard to the neutrality your friend, Priscus, recommends, let me remind you, that Solon' declared every man vicious, who, in any civil dissension, should

continue neuter. Aulus Gellius affirms the penalty to have been no less than the banishment of the delinquent, and the confiscation of his effects2: and Cicero3 once had the intention of proposing a law, that an offence of that kind should be esteemed capital. Hypocrites there are of liberty, who would stifle the occasional excesses of its more ignorant admirers, by imposing a nightmare upon all its sons; as the women of the Fox islands, to stifle the cries of their children, take them to the sea shore, and hold them in the water till they are dead. Like the legate of the sovereign pontiff, they become ambassadors of intrigue to palsy the liberty of action. But every country, that

Plutarch in Vit. Solon. The best defence of neutrality is that of Nepos in behalf of Atticus. This defence, however, fails, when we compare the character with human nature. The manner of associating Catullus with Lucretius, is exceedingly offensive in this writer, c. xii. 21. An argument employed afterwards by Luccan, in favour of men of prudence, seems to have had its due weight upon the accomplished Atticus."Let the affairs of others go on, as they will; it is my opinion, that it is our business to mind our own; to know our former and our present condition; and to know in what manner to act most agreeable to our interest." Boccalini says, that Bernardino Rota, a Neapolitan poet, won the affections of every one, by "not desiring to know, much less to busy himself in other men's affairs; by seeing and concealing the actions of his friends and companions; and by divulging those things only, which might purchase others glory and reputation: by applying himself to every one's humour; and by perfuming their ears with the essence of commendation."

2 Aulus Gell. Not. Att. 1. ii. c. 12.
3 Epist. ad Attic. iii. 1.

Adv. Parnass. lxvi.