Page 51 - Hampdens Monument Unveiled

of feudalism, how much in its old form -how much in its new -is
working in the spirit of our government, and in the structure
and arrangements of society. It is only then when looking at
what has been done to redeem Englishmen from political and
social degradation; it is only when resolving himself to be,
and to do, that the Englishman feels his worth.

With these views how animating, how purifying is the
contemplation of the mighty dead! The contemplation of the life
and labours of those who have gone before in the great work of
patriotism and of human love! Amidst degeneracy and declension,
amidst the suffering and degradation still inflicted by the
remains of old feudalism, and the not less grinding power of
the new, sordid, and debasing influence of the aristocracy of
wealth, we may yet exult in the past, and derive hope and stern
resolve for the future:-

Great men have been among us; hands that penned
And tongues that uttered wisdom -- better none :
HAMPDEN and SIDNEY, MARVEL, HARRINGTON,
Young Vane and others who called MILTON Friend.
These moralists could act and comprehend :
They knew how genuine glory was put on;
Taught us how rightfully a nation shone
In splendour : what strength was that would not bend,
But in magnanimous meekness.

England hath need of such at this hour. Never in our history
were MEN more wanted : never was so wide, so fair a field, for
the labours of good, great men : the nation groans to be
delivered ~ and is listening for a voice of power, rebuking
injustice, reproaching the weak, the frivolous, the wicked and
driving them, by the force of truth, from the polluted traffic
of the constitution, and from the haunts of their polluted
temple in the Houses of Legislation. How feeble and dwarfish,
how utterly corrupt and selfish do the men of this age, who
fill a prominent place in the eyes of our countrymen, appear
when compared with the men of the 17th century -with HAMPDEN
and Pym, with Eliot and Vane! Where is the English statesman
gone? Where are the English country gentlemen gone, before whom
corrupt and treacherous ministers quailed and regal pride bowed
its head!

Where? Our Ministers, wretched tricksters, whose rule of action
is a miserable and demoralising expediency! And he is esteemed
the most capable Minister, who, like a Roman Proconsul, can
raise the greatest amount of taxes from the people handed over
to him to be stripped and peeled! The high-hearted country
gentleman is gone: the class is almost extinct : he is either
become a tax eater himself, or his house and name are gone,