so earnestly
endeavoring to tear down and blot from the face of the earth. Men's
minds do not eagerly grasp and sternly pursue an abstract idea divorced
from every consideration of self-interest, such as this would be. Even
the greatest of moral principles are indebted to self-interest for their
success, and without it the sublimest of creeds, the loftiest of
principles would soon wither and die for lack of support. With every
blessing that heart could wish in the present, and with no hope through
change of bettering their condition in a practical point of view in the
future, the idea of a great Southern empire, based upon such uncertain
possibilities, would soon have disappeared from the Southern mind, even
if it had ever existed.

Nay; the true cause is beneath and behind all these, taking its rise
from the very foundations of English society in the dark ages, from the
establishment of classes and distinctions of rank. In English history
this principle reached its culmination in the wars of the Parliament,
that great political tempest which changed the whole destiny and guided
the future of that powerful nation, making it, as it is to-day, the
dominant race of the old world. Its greatest development, however, was
reserved for our day and our land. The England of the subsequent era was
a new government, a new people. She reaped her harvest of good from her
gigantic struggles, and so must we reap our harvest from ours. From the
moment when the first settlers set foot upon our shores our inevitable
destiny was foreshadowed; the seeds of the 'Great Rebellion' were even
then deeply implanted, and all causes have since that day worked
together for its fulfilment. We too must be purified by fire and sword;
and may we not hope that our beloved country may emerge from the
slaughter, the ruin, and the conflagration, more prosperous, more
powerful than ever before, and casting off the slough of impurity that
has for long years been hardening upon her, renovated and redeemed by
the struggle, sweep majestically on to a purer and nobler destiny than
even our past has given promise of, and attain a loftier position than
any nation on earth has yet acquired?

The intimate relation of the feudal ages, between baron and retainer,
established at first upon principles of individual safety and the public
weal, soon degenerated into that of noble and serf. That which at first
was but an honorable distinction between knight service on the