that touch pitch will be defiled: the most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is, to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your company. Ver. partner. You have always been called a merciful man, Dog. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will; much more a man who hath any honesty in him. Ver. If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse, and bid her still it. 2 Wat. How, if the nurse be asleep, and will not hear us? Dog. Why then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying: for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it bààs, will never answer a calf when he bleats. Ver. 'Tis very true. Dog. This is the end of the charge. You, constable, are to present the prince's own person; if you meet the prince in the night, you may stay him. Ver. Nay, by'rlady that, I think, he cannot. Dog. Five shillings to one on't, with any man that knows the statutes, he may stay him: marry, not without the prince be willing: for, indeed, the watch ought to of fend no man; and it is an offence to stay a man against his will. Ver. By'rlady, I think, it be so. Dog. Ha, ha, ha! Well, masters, good night: an there be any matter of weight chances, call up me: keep your fellows' counsels and your own, and good night. Come, neighbour. SECTION LIX. EXTRACT FROM RINGAN GILHAIZE.....John Galt. MODERATION!-You, Mr. Renwick, counsel moderation -you recommend the door of peace to be still kept openyou doubt if the scriptures warrant us to undertake revenge; and you hope that our forbearance may work to repentance among our enemies. Mr. Renwick, you have hitherto been a preacher, not a sufferer; with you the resistance to Charles Stuart's government has been a thing of doctrine-of no more than doctrine, Mr. Renwickwith us it has been a consideration of facts. Judge ye therefore between yourself and us,-I say, between your self and us; for I ask no other judge to decide, whether we are not, by all the laws of God and man, justified in avowing that we mean to do as we are done by. And, Mr. Renwick, you will call to mind, that in this sore controversy, the cause of debate came not from us. We were peaceable christians, enjoying the shade of the vine and the fig-tree of the gospel, planted by the care and cherished by the blood of our forefathers, protected by the laws, and gladdened in our protection by the oaths and the covenants which the king had sworn to maintain. The Presbyterian freedom of worship was our property,―we were in possession and enjoyment, no man could call our right to it in question,-the king had vowed, as a condition before he was allowed to receive the crown, that he would preserve it. Yet, for more than twenty years, there has been a most cruel, fraudulent, and outrageous endeavour instituted, and carried on, to deprive us of that freedom and birthright. We were asking no new thing from government, we were taking no step to disturb government, we were in peace with all men, when government, with the principles of a robber and the cruelty of a tyrant, demanded of us to surrender those immunities of conscience which our fathers had earned and defended; to deny the gospel as it is written in the evangelists, and to accept the commentary of Charles Stuart, a man who has had no respect to the most solemn oaths, and of James Sharp, the apostate of St. Andrews, whose crimes provoked a deed, that but for their crimson hue, no man could have doubted to call a most foul murder. The king, and his crew, Mr. Renwick, are, to the indubitable judgment of all just men, the causers and the aggressors in the existing difference between his subjects and him. In so far, therefore, if blame there be, it lieth not with us nor in our cause. But, sir, not content with attempting to wrest from us our inherited freedom of religious worship, Charles Stuart and his abettors have pursued the courageous constancy with which we have defended the same, with more animosity than they ever did any crime. I speak not to you, Mr. Renwick, of your own outcast condition,-perhaps you delight in the perils of martyrdom; I speak not to those around us, who, in their persons, their substance, and their families, have endured the torture, poverty, and irremediable dishonour, they may be meek and hallowed men, willing to endure. But 1 call to mind what I am and was myself. I think of my quiet home,-it is all ashes. I remember my brave first-born,-he was slain at Bothwell-brigg. Why need I speak of my honest brother; the waves of the ocean, commissioned by our persecutors, have triumphed over him in the cold seas of the Orkneys; and as for my wife, what was she to you? Ye cannot be greatly disturbed that she is in her grave. No, ye are quiet, calm, and prudent persons; it would be a most indiscreet thing of you, you who have suffered no wrongs yourselves, to stir on her account; and then how unreasonable I should be, were I to speak of two fair and innocent maidens. It is weak of me to weep, though they were my daughters. O men and christians, brothers, fathers! but ye are content to bear with such wrongs, and I alone of all here may go to the gates of the cities, and try to discover which of the martyred heads mouldering there belongs to a son or a friend. Nor is it of any account whether the bones of those who were so dear to us, be exposed with the remains of malefactors, or laid in the sacred grave. To the dead all places are alike; and to the slave what signifies who is master. Let us therefore forget the past,-let us keep open the door of reconciliation,-smother all the wrongs we have endured, and kiss the proud foot of the trampler. We have our lives, we have been spared; the merciless bloodhounds have not yet reached us. Let us therefore be humble and thankful, and cry to Charles Stuart, O king, live forever !—for he has but cast us into a fiery furnace and a lion's den. In truth, friends, Mr. Renwick is quite right. This feeling of indignation against our oppressors is a most imprudent thing. If we desire to enjoy our own contempt, and to deserve the derision of men, and to merit the abhorrence of Heaven, let us yield ourselves to all that Charles Stuart and his sect require. We can do nothing better, nothing so meritorious, nothing by which we can so reasonably hope for punishment here and condemnation hereafter. But if there is one man at this meeting,-1 am speaking not of shapes and forms, but of feelings,-if there is one here that feels as men were wont to feel, he will draw his sword, and say with me, Wo to the house of Stuart ! Wo to the oppressors! And may a just God look with favour on our cause. 0 2 SECTION LX. SELIM EDWARD..... Thomson. Edward. WHENCE is it those barbarians here again, Your prince has done it. And you should hereafter Selim. If, king of England, in this weighty matter, Cool, steady, quiet, and dispassioned reason. Edw. Reason has judg'd, and passion shall chastise, (By his own hand and seal commission'd, sends him) Sel. The impious wretch who did assail thy life, Edw. False, utterly false ! the lie of guilty fear! You all are bigots, robbers, ruffians all! It is the very genius of your nation. Vindictive rage, the thirst of blood consumes you : To rob and murder in the name of heaven. Sel. Be patient, prince, be more humane and just. Of such malignant clay, but each may boast Reproach us, christian prince? What brought thee hither? The murderous trade, through their own countries spread Though this exceeds the purport of my message, Insulted in religion, bid thee think, O king of England, on the different conduct O hideous scene! my soul within me shrinks, Receiv'd to mercy, void of all defence, Trusting to plighted faith, to purchas'd safety Behold these naked wretches, in cold blood, Men, women, children-murder'd! basely murder'd !— |