the woods of America, the sands of Africa, or the islands of the South Sea: weigh your sufferings with theirs, and balance your enjoyments against theirs; and your heart must be insensible indeed, not to send up to heaven the devoutest aspirations of gratitude. Contemplate the poor Indian bowed down to the earth, and almost resembling the brute creation in his ideas and propensities, through his deep ignorance of letters, of arts, and religion. How are his days disturbed with civil discord, and his nights broken by the inroads of his revengeful neighbours! He lives upon the precarious supply of the passing day,— he is behind the ant in the provision he lays up in store against a day of want. His hut is his all,-and he knows not but when he returns from the chace, this may be in ashes, and his wife and children lie bleeding around, through the cruelty of some fierce neighbouring clan. In his distress he has no arm of law to protect or avenge him, nor has he any religion to afford him consolation. His terrors sometimes compel him to bow down to a stock or a stone, or to worship a phantom: but he knows not God, nor the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

How different your condition, my brethren, in this favoured land of civilization and law,—of protection and peace! You have "bread to the full," you are secured from the inroads of oppression and revenge,-you sit in quiet surrounded

with the blessings of plenty and domestic peace,you have many social comforts; and above all, you have a religion which teaches you to know God as your Father, and his own Son as your Redeemer,—a religion which can support you under the heaviest pressure of affliction, deprive the grave of its gloom, and brighten your departing hour with the prospect of immortal glory.

Next compare your situation under a patriot monarch, and so benign and just a government with the present and past state of the whole continent of Europe,-especially with that of France. Here indeed discontent has plotted treason, here the cry of reform has long tried to produce a revolution,-here the cant and hackneyed shout of liberty, would long ago have introduced anarchy and wretchedness, had not a kind Providence prevented. But blessed be God, we have still true British liberty uncorrupted by French refinements: we have seen that those who have "promised us this liberty, were themselves the slaves of corruption."* But look at the Continent,-look at France bursting the bonds of society for a fancied liberty! What has been the fruit they have gathered from this tree so delightful in theory? They have manured its roots with widows' tears, mangled carcases, and human blood: but alas its leaves, instead of

* 2 Pet. ii. 19.

being "healing to the nations," have scattered around a deadly pestilence, which has almost depopulated Europe, and convulsed and destroyed all her kingdoms except our own. Black treason and civil war, invading armies and destructive battles have desolated the towns and villages throughout all Europe. Thousands have been hurried to prison and then to a scaffold, without a jury to defend, or a counsellor to plead for

them...

How different your case in this happy isle! No foreign foe has entered your gates and set your towns on fire,-your King still lives, notwithstanding all the plots of those who would ruin your happiness. A good government still protects your persons and property, in spite of the endeavours of the wicked to overturn it. During the protracted period of your beloved monarch's reign, you have not felt the anxious fear of despotic arrest or arbitrary imprisonment, nor suffered the horrid suspence of a public execution. You have not seen your plains laid waste, your towns burned," the garments rolled in blood," the streets and fields strewed with the murdered bodies of your fathers, your husbands, your brothers, and sons.-You have heard the sound only of the warrior,-but no weapon has been drawn. The brave host of your patriotic defenders, (under Providence), has kept a foreign enemy from your shores.

If your gratitude to heaven is not yet excited, turn your eyes again to the continent :-Behold the cruelties of the fierce marauder,-the seizure of property, the subversion of order,—the conflagrations of cities,-the desolation of countries, the tearing away of chaste virgins,—of affectionate wives,― of beloved daughters from the bosoms of weeping and distracted parents and husbands, and all the brutal violence of victorious barbarity. Such has been the case, and a cruel despot still directs and insults the misery of thousands, yea, of millions. What far different scenes in this country! Here, a governor of a district* is publicly executed in the most disgraceful manner, for too severe treatment of a private soldier. Here, the meanest subject who acts well, is protected in his rights and property, and his life is as secure as that of the sovereign. Here, justice is impartially dispensed,-here, true religion is promoted and established, and every man is allowed to worship God, in the manner most pleasing to his views and feelings, or most satisfactory to his judgment. Here, a pious monarch sets the example to his subjects of domestic virtue and public piety,-of moderation and temperance, of humanity and charity, of fidelity to his engagements, and a firm adherence to his conscience. His crown rests on the summit of a pyramid, whose base is the people, and whose superstructure

* Governor Wall.

is the nobles. He so rules in the hearts of all, that he cannot be thrown from his elevation, but by the destruction of the whole edifice. Long may the Almighty preserve to us this blessing. May we learn righteousness from his continued goodness, and not provoke his indignation like the ungodly nations around, by our love of folly, our infidelity, our dissipation, our irreligion and sin, lest he be provoked, as in the case of other kingdoms, to destroy "both us and our king." This day, let us all unite in sincere and fervent gratitude to heaven for his abounding and continued mercies to us as a nation, and "set up our Ebenezer, or stone of help," and say, as Samuel of old, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped

us.'

Secondly. Let me implore you to trace with gratitude the hand of God's providence interposing in behalf of this kingdom, in frustrating the designs of our enemies, and in the repeated victories wę have gained by sea and land. "There is a God that ruleth in the earth." No success happens but by his blessing, no disaster takes place but by his permission. This is a consideration the most animating and consolitary that can possibly chear us in this dreary and distracted world. How did the infidels on the continent plot the destruction of this land, as well as the rest of Europe! God permitted them to succeed on the

#1 Sam. vii. 12.