ON STRENGTHENING THE GERMAN ARMY 119

our disposal, and if we have the weapons for it, then this new law constitutes a reinforcement of the guarantees of peace, a reinforcement of the league of peace, that is precisely as strong as if a fourth great power with an army of seven hundred thousand men had joined the alliance. This powerful reinforcement will also, I believe, have a quieting effect upon our own countrymen, and will lessen in some degree the nervousness of our public opinion, our stock-market, and our press. I hope it will act upon them as a sedative when they clearly comprehend that, from the moment at which this law is signed and published, the men are there.

I do not believe that any disturbance of the peace is in immediate prospect; and I ask you to deal with the law that lies before you, independently of any such idea or apprehension, simply as a means for making the great force which God has lodged in the German nation completely available in the event of our needing it. If we do not need it, we shall not call for it. We seek to avoid the chance of needing it.

We Germans fear God, but nothing else in the world; and it is the fear of God that makes us love and cherish peace. But whoever, despite this, breaks it, will find that the warlike patriotism that in 1813, when Prussia was weak, small, and exhausted by plunder, brought her whole population under her banners, has to-day become the common heritage of the whole German nation; and whoever attacks the German nation will find it united in arms, and in every soldier's heart the firm faith that "God will be with us."

THE EXTENSION OF THE FRANCHISE

WILLIAM E. GLADSTONE

Taken from a political speech delivered in the Amphitheatre at Liverpool, England, April 6, 1866.

We have framed a measure in the strictest spirit of moderation. We do not desire-nay, we should be the first to resist-sudden and violent and sweeping changes. But our measure provides for a progressive enlargement of the popular franchise, with due regard to the state and the circumstances of the country. Having produced that measure, framed in a spirit of moderation, we hope to support it in a spirit of decision. We have a great responsibility; we are conscious of it; and we do not intend to flinch from it and from what it entails.

We have passed the Rubicon; we have broken the bridge; we have burnt the boats behind us. We have advisedly cut off from ourselves the means of retreat; and having done this, we hope that we have done our duty to the Crown and to the nation. We beseech you, gentlemen, and we beseech all reflecting Englishmen in whose hands, by the well-understood Constitution of this country, the ultimate settlement of these great issues is lodged, to consider what the future is to be. You can not doubt that there is, on the part of the masses of the community, a forward and onward movement, a forward and onward movement, not only safe and harmless, but infinitely profitable, if only you deal with it wisely and in time.

THE REPEAL OF THE UNION

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Read the signs of the period in which we live. The voice that once spake as never man spake rebuked those that were then in authority, because they could not discern the signs of the times. Let this great nation be wise, and be wise, too, in due season. Let it not, through a dallying indecision or through the influence of a weak and cowardly apprehension, refuse to grant a boon which, if granted now, will be received as a boon in a spirit of grateful affection, and will tend to increase the attachment of the people to its laws, its institutions, and its rulers.

THE REPEAL OF THE UNION

DANIEL O'CONNELL

The great speech on the "Act of Union," from which this extract is taken, was spoken at what was, without doubt, the largest mass meeting ever held. "It was computed by reliable witnesses, not at all favorable to the cause which O'Connell espoused, that no fewer than a quarter of a million persons must have been present. They came from all parts of the country round, under the guidance of their parish priests." The speech was delivered August 15, 1843, on the hill of Tara, an ancient seat of the Irish Kings, situated in County Meath, twenty-one miles northwest of Dublin. In the early days, "the assembly of Tara "of Parliament-was held here every third year.

-a sort

Ireland is roused from one end to the other. Her multitudinous population has but one expression and one wish, and that is for the extinction of the Union. and the restoration of her nationality. I have come

here, not for the purpose of making a school-boy's attempt at declamatory eloquence, not to exaggerate the historical importance of the spot on which we now stand; but this it is impossible to conceal or deny, that Tara is surrounded by historical reminiscences which give it an importance worthy of being considered by everyone who approaches it for political purposes, and an elevation in the public minds which no other part of Ireland possesses. We are standing upon Tara of the Kings; the spot where the monarchs of Ireland were elected, and where the chieftains of Ireland bound themselves, by the most solemn pledges of honor, to protect their native land against the Dane and every stranger.

On this spot I have a most important duty to perform. I here protest, in the name of my country and in the name of my God, against the unfounded and unjust Union. My proposition to Ireland is that the Union is not binding on her people. It is void in conscience and in principle, and as a matter of constitutional law I attest these facts. Yes, I attest, by everything that is sacred, the truth of my assertions. There is no real Union between the two countries, and my proposition is that there was no authority given to anyone to pass the Act of Union. Neither the English nor the Irish Legislature was competent to pass that Act, and I arraign it on these grounds. One authority alone could make that Act binding, and that was the voice of the people of Ireland.

My next impeachment of the Union is its destructive and deleterious effect upon the industry and pros

WHAT IS A MINORITY ?

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WHAT IS A MINORITY?

JOHN B. GOUGH

In answer to the taunt that the temperance agitators were in a minority.

What is a minority? The chosen heroes of this

There is not a social,

earth have been in a minority. political, or religious privilege that you enjoy to-day that was not bought for you by the blood and tears and patient sufferings of the minority. It is the minority that have vindicated humanity in every struggle. It is a minority that have stood in the van of every moral conflict, and achieved all that is noble in the history of the world.

You will find that each generation has always been busy in gathering up the scattered ashes of the martyred heroes of the past, to deposit them in the golden urn of a nation's history. Look at Scotland, where they are erecting monuments-to whom? To the Covenanters. Ah, they were in a minority! Read their history, if you can, without the blood tingling to the tips of your fingers. These were the minority that, through blood and tears and bootings and scourgings, dyeing the waters with their blood and staining the heather with their gore, fought the glorious battle of religious freedom.

If a man stand up for the right, though he eat, with the right and the truth, a wretched crust; if he walk with obloquy and scorn in the by-lanes and streets, while falsehood and wrong ruffle it in silken attire, let him remember that wherever the right and the truth