them; and with animating words, and many lessons of valour to a faint-hearted audience, bid them finally farewell, without purpose to return. And these two friendly expeditions, the last of any hither by the Romans, were performed, as may be gathered out of Beda, and Diaconus, the last two years of Honorius. [Queens' College, 1845.] THEY without made the sign agreed upon, and were answered by one of the sentinels from the wall; upon which they run to both places where they were to mount their ladders. By some accident, the other sentinel who was designed was not upon the other part of the wall, so that when the ladder was mounted there, the sentinel called out; and finding that there were men under the wall, ran towards the court of guard to call for help; and in his way met Morrice, who, finding him to be a wrong soldier, seemed not to believe him, but took him back with him to shew him the place, and carried him to the top of the wall, nearer, that they might listen; and from thence, being a very strong man, he made a shift to throw the soldier over the wall: and by this time they from without were got upon the wall from both places, and had made their signs to their friends at a distance. [Jesus College, 1845.] 127. INHABITANTS of Oporto!-The French troops having been expelled from this town by the superior gallantry and discipline of the army under my command, I call upon the inhabitants of Oporto to be merciful to the wounded and prisoners. By the laws of war they are entitled to my protection, which I am determined to afford them; and it will be worthy of the generosity and bravery of the Portuguese nation not to revenge the injuries which have been done to them on these unfortunate persons, who can only be considered as instruments in the hands of the more powerful, who are still in arms against us. I therefore call upon the inhabitants of this town to remain peaceably in their dwellings. I forbid all persons not military to appear in the streets with arms; and I give notice that I shall consider any person who shall injure any of the wounded or of the prisoners as guilty of the breach of my orders. [Jesus College, 1845.] 128. AND that no persons may imagine, from what we have now advanced, that we conceive events to happen by fatal necessity, because, as we have said, they are foreknown, we will explain this also. We have learned from the prophets, and declare it for a truth, that punishment and torments, as well as reward, will be given to every one according to his works. For if this is not so, but every thing takes place by irresistible necessity, then there is nothing at all in our own power. For if it is fated that one man must be good, and another bad, neither is the one to be praised, nor the other to be blamed. And again, if the human race hath no power, by its free will, to avoid the evil and to choose the good, it is not responsible for any actions of any kind. But that men do stand and fall by free will is thus shewn. We see that the conduct of the same man is different at different times. But if it was fated, that he should be either bad or good, he could never act so differently, nor change so frequently. Neither indeed would some be good, and some bad: since in that case, we should represent fate as the cause of evil, and at variance with itself: or else we must profess that opinion to be true, which we have before mentioned, that virtue and vice are nothing, but actions are reckoned to be good or bad by opinion only; which, as true reason plainly shews, is the greatest impiety and injustice. [Christ's College Scholarship, 1845.] 129. ENGLISHMEN must look to this as a species of contest from which, by the extraordinary favour of Divine Providence, we have been for a long series of years exempted. If we are now at length called upon to take our share in it, we must meet it with just gratitude for the exemptions we have hitherto enjoyed, and with a firm determination to support it with courage and resolution; we must shew ourselves worthy, by our conduct on this occasion, of the happiness which we have hitherto enjoyed, and which, by the blessing of God, I hope we shall continue to enjoy. We ought to have a due sense of the magnitude of the danger with which we are threatened; we ought to meet it in that temper of mind which produces just confidence, which neither despises nor dreads the enemy; and while on the one hand we accurately estimate the danger with which we are threatened at this awful crisis, we must recollect on the other hand what it is we have at stake, what it is we have to contend for. It is for our property, it is for our liberty, it is for our independence, nay, for our existence as a nation; it is for our character, it is for our very name as Englishmen, it is for every thing dear and valuable to man on this side of the grave. [St John's College, 1845.] 130. AT our first coming into the world, we are entirely guided by the impressions of sense, sensible pleasure being the infallible characteristic of present good, as pain is of evil. But by degrees, as we grow up in our acquaintance with the nature of things, experience informs us that present good is afterwards oft attended with a greater evil; and on the other side, that present evil is not less frequently the occasion of procuring to us a greater future good. Hence an alteration is wrought in our judgments, we no longer comply with the first solicitations of sense, but stay to consider the remote consequences of an action, what good may be hoped, or what evil feared from it, according to the wonted course of things. This obliges us frequently to overlook present momentary enjoyments, when they come in competition with greater and more lasting goods, though too far off, or of too refined a nature to affect our senses. [Trinity College, 1845.] 131. LET us not act like Cambyses' judges, who, when their approbation was demanded by the prince to some illegal measure, said, that, 'Though there was, a written law, the Persian kings might follow their own will and pleasure.' This was base flattery, fitter for our reproof than our imitation; and, as fear, so flattery taketh away the judgment. For my part, I shall shun both, and speak my mind with as much duty as any man to his majesty, without neglecting the public. But how can we express our affections while we retain our fears? or speak of giving, till we know whether we have any thing to give? For if his majesty may be persuaded to take what he will, what need we give? He, I must confess, is no good subject who would not willingly and cheerfully lay down his life, when that sacrifice may promote the interests of his sovereign, and the good of his commonwealth. But he is not a good subject, he is a slave, who will allow his goods to be taken from him against his will, and his liberty against the law of the kingdom. By opposing these practices, we shall but tread in the steps of our forefathers, who still preferred the public before their private interest, nay, before their very lives. It will in us be a wrong done to ourselves, to our posterities, to our consciences, if we forego this claim and pretension. [Trinity College, 1845.] 132. This You must know, there are two kinds of combating or fighting; the one by right of the laws, the other merely by force. That first way is proper to men, the other is also common to beasts: but because the first many times suffices not, there is a necessity to make recourse to the second; wherefore it behoves a prince to know how to make good use of that part which belongs to a beast, as well as that which is proper to a man. part hath been covertly shewed to princes by ancient writers; who say that Achilles and many others of those ancient princes were entrusted to Chiron the centaur, to be brought up under his discipline: the moral of this, having for their teacher one that was half a beast and half a man, was nothing else, but that it was needful for a prince to understand how to make his advantage of the one and the other nature, because neither could subsist without the other. 133. [St John's College Port Latin Exhibition, 1845.] To act as prosecutors, we ought to have no doubt, or hesitation, nothing trembling or quivering in our minds upon the occasion. We ought to be fully convinced of guilt, before we come to you. It is then our business to bring forward the proofs, to enforce |