rejects it. In vain you tell me of laws that sanction such a claim! There is a law above all the enactments of human codes-the same throughout the world-the same in all times; such as it was before the daring genius of Columbus pierced the night of ages, and opened to one world the sources of power, wealth, and knowledge, to another all unutterable woes such as it is at this day: it is the law written by the finger of God on the heart of man; and by that law, unchangeable and eternal-while men despise fraud, and loathe rapine, and hate blood-they shall reject with indignation the wild and guilty fantasy, that man can hold property in man! In vain you appeal to treaties, to covenants between nations! The covenants of the Almighty, whether the old covenant or the new, denounce such unholy pretensions. To these laws did they of old refer, who maintained the African trade; such treaties did they cite-and not untruly; for, by one shameful compact, you bartered the glories of Blenheim for the traffic in blood. Yet, in spite of law and of treaty, that infernal traffic is now destroyed, and its votaries put to death like other pirates. How came this change to pass? Not, assuredly, by Parliament leading the way! But the country at length awoke; the indignation of the people was kindled; it descended in thunder, and smote the traffic, and scattered its guilty profits to the winds. Now, then, let the planters beware!-let the Government at home beware!— let the Parliament beware! The same country is once more awake-awake to the condition of Negro slavery; the same indignation kindles in the bosom of the same people; the same cloud is gathering, that annihilated the slave trade: and if it shall descend again, they on whom its crash may fall will not be destroyed before I have warned them: but I pray that their destruction may turn away from us the more terrible judgments of God. THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, We buried him darkly at dead of night, No useless coffin enclosed his breast, Nor in sheet nor in shroud we wound him; Few and short were the prayers we said, We thought—as we hollowed his narrow bed, How the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head, Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone, But nothing he'll reck, if they let him sleep on But half of our heavy task was done When the clock struck the hour for retiring; And we heard the distant and random gun That the foe was sullenly firing. Slowly and sadly we laid him down, From the field of his fame fresh and gory! LORD NELSON. Horatio, son of Edmund and Catherine Nelson, was born Sep tember 29th, 1758, at Burnham Thorpe, in Norfolk, of which parish his father was rector. At an early age he was placed at the high school of Norwich, and in his twelfth year, Captain Suckling, his maternal uncle, having obtained a ship, young Nelson was, at his especial request, entered as a midshipman on On his return he was board the Raisonnable, of 64 guns. sent to the West Indies, and was subsequently received by his uncle on board the Triumph, till the expedition under Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, to the North Pole, which he accompanied in the humble capacity of Coxswain. In 1777 he passed the usual examination, and received his commission as second lieutenant of the Lowestoffe; and in 1778, being appointed to the Bristol, he rose by seniority to be first lieutenant. Having sailed in this vessel to the West Indies, he was intrusted with the command of the batteries of Port Royal, then threatened by D'Estaing; and after a series of the most gallant enterprises, he took the fort of San Juan, in the Gulf of Mexico, in which service he was so exhausted by fatigue, and by an attack of dysentery, as to be compelled to return to England in the Lion, commanded by Admiral Cornwallis. In 1781 Captain Nelson sailed in the Albemarle to the North; and it was in October, 1782, that he was first introduced to his late Majesty, then serving as a midshipman on board the Barfleur. In 1787 he married Mrs. Nisbet, of Nevis, and remained in England till 1793, when he was appointed to the Agamemnon, under Lord Hood, and eminently distinguished himself at Toulon, Bastia, and Calvi-rendering "services which," said Lord Hood, "I cannot sufficiently applaud." At the siege of Calvi he lost an eye; but his name was unnoticed in the "Gazette," of which he justly complained, adding, with a feeling of confidence fully justified by subsequent events," One day or other I will have a long gazette to myself." In 1796 he was raised to the rank of Commodore, and sailed to Port Ferrajo; and in 1797 was engaged under Sir John Jervis, in the victory off Cape St. Vincent, for his distinguished bravery in which action he was raised to the rank of rear-admiral, made a Knight of the Bath, and received the freedom of the city of London. On May 28th, 1797, Sir Joratio Nelson shifted his flag to the Theseus, and in the llant attack on the town of Santa Cruz received a shot in is right elbow, which rendered amputation requisite. Being forced to return home by illness consequent on this, he received a pension for his services. A spirit such as Nelson's could not long remain inactive, particularly when his country required his aid. In 1798 he sailed with a small squadron to watch the Toulon fleet, and after a long and active pursuit, baffled in his exertions by frequent storms and uncertain intelligence of the enemy's course, he at last engaged them in the Bay of Aboukir, and gained the splendid victory of the Nile, which united, as it was said in the House of Commons, all those qualities by which other victories had been most distinguished. For this he was created Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe, and for his subsequent services in Sicily, the king of Sicily conferred upon him the title of Duke of Bronte, with an estate of £3,000 per annum. After the appointment of Lord Keith to the command of the Mediterranean fleet, Lord Nelson returned home, from whence he sailed, under Sir Hyde Parker, to the North Sea; and on the 30th of March, 1801, effected without loss the passage of the Sound. Well prepared as the Danes were for defence, the battle of Copenhagen occasioned a similar display of courage, ability, and judgment, as the battle of the Nile. It was the most terrible of all engagements, and as complete as any victory on record. Its immediate effect was a treaty which ended the war, by annihilating the northern confederacy. Raised to the rank of viscount, in the full enjoyment of the rewards and honours he had so eminently deserve 1, Viscount Nelson obtained a short repose at his estate at Merton, in Surrey; but the peace being dissolved, the country, as it were by one feeling, destined him to the command of the naval force then being fitted out to engage the combined French and Spanish squadrons. On the 21st of October, 1805, he intercepted them off Cape Trafalgar, about sixty miles east of Cadiz, and the last memorable signal that he gave was received with an enthusiastic shout of applause by the whole fleet "ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS DUTY." He himself led the way by attacking in the VICTORY the Santissima Trinidada, of 136 guns; and setting the example he had recommended, that humanity after victory should distinguish the British fleet, he gave orders to cease firing on the Redoubtable, supposing she had struck. From this ship, which he had thus twice saved, he received his death wound. Wearing, against the advice of his officers, the stars of the different orders he had won, he became a mark for the riflemen, who lined the tops of their different vessels, thence taking their deadly aim. About a quarter after one, in the heat of the action, he was observed to fall on the deck, and, turning round to Captain Hardy, faintly exclaimed, "They have done for me at last, Hardy! my back-bone is shot through!" But even now, in pain and in the agonies of death, his presence of mind was still signally evinced; he issued his commands with the same calm judgment, and animated his men with the same E |