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THE ACADEMICAL SPEAKER.

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him therefore be cut off at once from a city, where he has long lived an alien: the love of his country banished from his heart, and the people odious to his sight.

CLAIMS OF GREECE UPON AMERICA.

Extract from an Address, delivered in Boston, in behalf of the Greeks, by the Rev. S. E. Dwight.

THOUGH not called to plead the cause of Greece, before my assembled countrymen; yet, at the request of your committee, I am at this time allowed, my friends and fellow citizens, to urge her claims on you. But need I urge them? What heart does not throb, what bosom does not heave, at the very thought of Grecian Independence? Have you the feelings of a man, and do you not wish, that the blood of Greece should cease to flow and, that the groans and sighs of centuries should be heard no more? Are you a scholar; and shall the land of the muses ask your help in vain ? With the eye of the enthusiast do you often gaze at the triumphs of the arts; and will you do nothing to rescue their choicest relics from worse than Vandal barbarism? Are you a mother, rejoicing in all the charities of domestic life;—are you a daughter, rich and safe in conscious innocence and parental love; and shall thousands more, among the purest and loveliest of your sex, glut the shambles of Smyrna, and be doomed to a capacity inconceivably worse than death. Are you a Christian, and do you cheerfully contribute your property to christianize the heathen world? What you give to Greece is to rescue a nation of Christians from extermination, to deliver the ancient churches, to overthrow the Mohammedan imposture, to raise up a standard for the wandering tribes of Israel, and to gather in the harvest of the world. Are you an American citizen, proud of the liberty and independence of your country? Greece, too, is struggling for these very blessings, which she taught your fathers to purchase with their blood. And when she asks your help, need I urge you to bestow it? Where am I?— in the land of the Pilgrims-in a land of Independence-in a land of Freemen. Here, then, I leave their cause.

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DIALOGUE.

GESLER AND ALBERT.

[Gesler with a hunting pole.]

J. S. Knowles.

Ges. Alone-alone! and every step, the mist
Thickens around me! On these mountain tracts
To lose one's way, they say, is sometimes death!
What, hoa! Holloa! No tongue replies to me!
What thunder hath the horror of this silence!
I dare not stop the day, though not half run,
'Is not less sure to end his course; and night,
Dreary when through the social haunts of men
'Her solemn darkness walks, in such a place
'As this, comes wrapped in most appalling fear.'
I dare not stop-nor dare I yet proceed,
Begirt with hidden danger: if I take
This hand, it carries me still deeper into
The wild and savage solitudes I'd shun,
Where once to faint with hunger is to die:
If this, it leads me to the precipice,
Whose brink with fatal horror rivets him
That treads upon 't, till drunk with fear, he reels
Into the gaping void, and headlong down
Plunges to still more hideous death. Cursed slaves,
To let me wander from them! Hoa-holloa!-
My voice sounds weaker to mine ear; I've not
The strength to call I had, and through my limbs
Cold tremor runs-and sickening faintness seizes
On my heart. O Heaven, have mercy! Do not see
The color of the hands I lift to thee!

Look only on the strait wherein I stand,

And pity it! Let me not sink-Uphold!
Support me! Mercy!-Mercy!

[He stands stupified with terror and exhaustion. Albert enters with his hunting pole, not at first seeing Gesler.] Alb. I'll breathe upon this level, if the wind Will let me. Ha! a rock to shelter me!

Thanks to 't-a man! and fainting. Courage, friend!
Courage. A stranger that has lost his way-

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The way; the track I've come is harder far
To find.

Ges. The track you've come! what mean you?
Sure you have not been still farther in the mountains?
Alb. I've travelled from Mount Faigel.

Ges.

Alb. No one but HIM.

No one with thee?

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Alb. Ges.

I'll guide thee safe without.

Here's earnest for thee. Here-I'll double that,

Yea, treble it—but let me see the gate

Of Altorf. Why do you refuse the gold?

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I do not covet it;-and though I did,
It would be wrong to take it as the price

Of doing one a kindness.

Ges.

Thee that?

Alb.

Ges.

Ha!-who taught

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May be; but should

you

be

Alb.

An enemy-although I would not tell you

My father's name-I'd guide you safe to Altorf.

Will you follow me ?

Ges.

Ne'er mind thy father's name. What would it profit me to know 't? Thy hand;

We are not enemies.

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Advance your staff

As

you descend, and fix it well. Come on. Ges. What! must we take that step?

'Tis nothing! Come,

Alb.
I'll go before. Ne'er fear-Come on! come on!

DEFENCE OF DE WITT CLINTON.

Speech of Mr Cunningham in the Legislature of New York, against a resolution to expel De Witt Clinton from the Board of Canal Commissioners.

MR SPEAKER,-I rise, Sir, with no ordinary feelings of sur prise and astonishment at the resolution just read, as coming from the Senate. Sir, it ought to arouse the feelings of every honourable man on this floor. Its very approach is marked with black ingratitude and base design. I do not wish to speak disrespectfully of a co-ordinate branch of the legislature, nor to impute their acts to improper motives; but I hope I may be permitted to inquire, for what good and honourable purpose has this resolution been sent here for concurrence, at the very last moment of the session, while we are packing our papers and leaving our seats for our homes.

Is it to create discord amongst us, and to destroy that harmony and good feeling, which ought to prevail at our separation? We have spent more than three months in legislation, and not one word has been dropped, intimating a desire or intention to expel that honourable gentleman from the Board of Canal Commissioners.

Sir, De Witt Clinton was called to a place in that Board, by the united voice and common consent of the People of New York, on account of his peculiar and trancendent fitness to preside there, and by his counsel to stimulate and forward the great undertaking. His labour for years has been arduous and unceasing for the public good. He has endured slander and persecution from every direction like a Christian martyr; but steadfast in his purpose, he has pursued his course with a firm and steady step, until all is crowned with success, and the most flagrant of his opposers, in this House at least, sit still and in sullen silence.

For what, let me ask, has Mr Clinton endured all this? Is it for the sake of salary? No, Sir; it is for the honour and welfare of the State. It is from noble and patriotic views, for which he asks nothing, receives nothing, and expects nothing but the gratitude of his countrymen.

Now, Sir, I put the question to this honourable House to decide, upon the oath which they have taken, and upon their sense of propriety and of honour, whether they are

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