While the loud thunder rattling from his hand,
Auspicious, shook opponent Gallia's shore.

"Of this encounter glad, my way to land
I quick pursued, that from the smiling sea
Receiv'd me joyous. Loud acclaims were heard;
And music, more than mortal, warbling, fill'd
With pleas'd astonishment the laboring hind,
Who for a while the unfinish'd furrow left,
And let the listening steer forget his toil.
Unseen by grosser eye, Britannia breath'd,
And her aërial train, these sounds of joy,
Full of old time, since first the rushing flood,
Urg'd by Almighty Power, this favor'd isle
Turn'd flashing from the continent aside,
Indented shore to shore responsive still,
Its guardian she-the goddess, whose staid eye
Beams the dark azure of the doubtful dawn.
Her tresses, like a flood of soften'd light,
Through clouds embrown'd, in waving circles play.
Warm on her cheek sits beauty's brightest rose :
Of high demeanor, stately, shedding grace
With every motion. Full her rising chest;
And new ideas, from her finish'd shape,
Charm'd Sculpture taking might improve her art.
Such the fair guardian of an isle that boasts,
Profuse as vernal blooms, the fairest dames.
High shining on the promontory's brow,
Awaiting me, she stood; with hope inflam'd,
By my mixt spirit burning in her sons,
To firm, to polish, and exalt the state.

"The native Genii, round her, radiant smil'd.
Courage, of soft deportment, aspect calm,
Unboasting, suffering long, and, till provok'd,
As mild and harmless as the sporting child;
But, on just reason, once his fury rous'd,
No lion springs more eager to his prey:
Blood is a pastime; and his heart, elate,
Knows no depressing fear. That Virtue known
By the relenting look, whose equal heart
For others feels, as for another self:
Of various name, as various objects wake,
Warm into action, the kind sense within;
Whether the blameless poor, the nobly maim'd,
The lost to reason, the declin'd in life,
The helpless young that kiss no mother's hand,
And the grey second infancy of age,
She gives in public families to live,

A sight to gladden Heaven! whether she stands
Fair beckoning at the hospitable gate,
And bids the stranger take repose and joy;
Whether, to solace honest labor, she
Rejoices those that make the land rejoice;
Or whether to philosophy, and arts,
(At once the basis and the finish'd pride
Of government and life,) she spreads her hand;
Nor knows her gift profuse, nor seems to know,
Doubling her bounty, that she gives at all.
Justice to these her awful presence join'd,
The mother of the state! No low revenge,
No turbid passions in her breast ferment:
Tender, serene, compassionate of vice,
As the last woe that can afflict mankind,
She punishment awards; yet of the good
More piteous still, and of the suffering whole,
Awards it firm. So fair her just decree,
That, in his judging peers, each on himself
Pronounces his own doom. O, happy land!
Where reigns alone this justice of the free!
'Mid the bright group Sincerity his front,
Diffusive, rear'd; his pure untroubled eye

The fount of truth. The thoughtful Power, apart
Now, pensive, cast on Earth his fix'd regard,
Now, touch'd celestial, lanch'd it on the sky.
The Genius he whence Britain shines supreme,
The land of light, and rectitude of mind.
He too the fire of fancy feeds intense,
With all the train of passions thence deriv'd:
Not kindling quick, a noisy transient blaze,
But gradual, silent, lasting, and profound.
Near him Retirement, pointing to the shade,
And Independence, stood: the generous pair,
That simple life, the quiet-whispering grove.
And the still raptures of the free-born soul
To cates prefer, by virtue bought, not earn'd,
Proudly prefer them to the servile pomps,
And to the heart-embitter'd joys of slaves.
Or should the latter, to the public scene
Demanded, quit his sylvan friend awhile;
Nought can his firmness shake, nothing seduce
His zeal, still active for the common-weal;
Nor stormy tyrants, nor corruption's tools,
Foul ministers, dark-working by the force
Of secret-sapping gold. All their vile arts,
Their shameful honors, their perfidious gifts.
He greatly scorns; and, if he must betray
His plunder'd country, or his power resign,
A moment's parley were eternal shame :
Illustrious into private life again,

From dirty levees he unstain'd ascends,
And firm in senates stands the patriot's ground.
Or draws new vigor in the peaceful shade.
Aloof the bashful Virtues hover'd coy,
Proving by sweet distrust distrusted worth.
Rough Labor clos'd the train; and in his hand.
Rude, callous, sinew-swell'd, and black with tod
Came manly Indignation. Sour he seems,
And more than seems, by lawful pride assail'd;
Yet kind at heart, and just, and generous, there
No vengeance lurks, no pale insidious gall:
Ev'n in the very luxury of rage,

He softening can forgive a gallant foe;
The nerve, support, and glory of the land!
Nor be Religion, rational and free,

Here pass'd in silence; whose enraptur'd eye
Sees Heaven with Earth connected, human things
Link'd to divine: who not from servile fear,
By rites for some weak tyrant incense fit,
The god of Love adores, but from a heart
Effusing gladness, into pleasing awe
That now astonish'd swells, now in a calm
Of fearless confidence that smiles serene;
That lives devotion, one continual hymn,
And then most grateful, when Heaven's bounty most
Is right enjoy'd. This ever-cheerful power
O'er the rais'd circle ray'd superior day.

"I joy'd to join the Virtues whence my reign
O'er Albion was to rise. Each cheering each,
And, like the circling planets from the Sun.
All borrowing beams from me, a heighten'd zeal
Impatient fir'd us to commence our toils,
Or pleasures rather. Long the pungent time
Pass'd not in mutual hails; but, through the land
Darting our light, we shone the fogs away.

"The Virtues conquer with a single look.
Such grace, such beauty, such victorious light
Live in their presence, stream in every glance.
That the soul won, enamour'd, and refin'd,
Grows their own image, pure ethereal flame.
Hence the foul demons, that oppose our reign,
Would still from us deluded mortals wrap;

Or in gross shades they drown the visual ray, Or by the fogs of prejudice, where mix Falsehood and truth confounded, foil the sense With vain refracted images of bliss.

But chief around the court of flatter'd kings
They roll the dusky rampart, wall o'er wall
Of darkness pile, and with their thickest shade
Secure the throne. No savage Alp, the den
Of wolves, and bears, and monstrous things obscene,
That vex the swain, and waste the country round,
Protected lies beneath a deeper cloud.
Yet there we sometimes send a searching ray.
As, at the sacred opening of the morn,
The prowling race retire; so, pierc'd severe,
Before our potent blaze these demons fly,
And all their works dissolve.-The whisper'd tale,
That, like the fabling Nile, no fountain knows;
Fair-fac'd deceit, whose wily conscious eye
Ne'er looks direct. The tongue that licks the dust,
But, when it safely dares, as prompt to sting:
Smooth crocodile destruction, whose fell tears
Ensnare. The Janus face of courtly pride;
One to superiors heaves submissive eyes,
On hapless worth the other scowls disdain.
Cheeks that for some weak tenderness, alone,
Some virtuous slip, can wear a blush. The laugh
Profane, when midnight bowls disclose the heart,
At starving virtue, and at virtue's fools.
Determin'd to be broke, the plighted faith:
Nay more, the godless oath that knows no ties.
Soft-buzzing slander; silky moths, that eat
An honest name. The harpy hand, and maw,
Of avaricious Luxury; who makes
The throne his shelter, venal laws his fort,
And, by his service, who betrays his king.

66

Now turn your view, and mark from Celtic* night

To present grandeur how my Britain rose.

"Bold were those Britons, who, the careless sons Of Nature, roam'd the forest-bounds, at once Their verdant city, high-embowering fane, And the gay circle of their woodland wars: For by the Druidf taught, that death but shifts The vital scene, they that prime fear despis'd; And, prone to rush on steel, disdain'd to spare An ill-sav'd life that must again return. Erect from Nature's hand, by tyrant force, And still more tyrant custom, unsubdued, Man knows no master save creating Heaven, Or such as choice or common good ordain. This general sense, with which the nations I Promiscuous fire, in Britons burn'd intense, Of future times prophetic. Witness, Rome, Who saw'st thy Cæsar, from the naked land, Whose only fort was British hearts, repell'd, To seek Pharsalian wreaths. Witness, the toil, The blood of ages, bootless to secure, Beneath an empire's ‡ yoke, a stubborn isle, Disputed hard, and never quite subdued.

To stoop, retir'd; and to their keen effort
Yielding at last, recoil'd the Roman power.
In vain, unable to sustain the shock,
From sea to sea desponding legions rais'd
The wall immense and yet, on Summer's eve,
While sport his lambkins round, the shepherd's gaze,
Continual o'er it burst the northern storm,t
As often, check'd, receded; threatening hoarse
A swift return. But the devouring flood
No more endur'd control, when, to support
The last remains of empire, was recall'd
The weary Roman, and the Briton lay
Unnerv'd, exhausted, spiritless, and sunk.
Great proof! how men enfeeble into slaves.
The sword behind him flash'd; before him roar'd,
Deaf to his woes, the deep. Forlorn, around
He roll'd his eye, not sparkling ardent flame,
As when Caractacus to battle led
Silurian swains, and Boadicea¶ taught
Her raging troops the miseries of slaves.

"Then, (sad relief!) from the bleak coast that hears

The German ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong,
And yellow-hair'd, the blue-ey'd Saxon came.
He came implor'd, but came with other aim
Than to protect. For conquest and defence
Suffices the same arm. With the fierce race
Pour'd in a fresh invigorating stream;
Blood, where unquell'd a mighty spirit glow'd.
Rash war, and perilous battle their delight;
And immature, and red with glorious wounds,
Unpeaceful death their choice ;** deriving thence

*The wall of Severus, built upon Adrian's rampart, which ran for eighty miles quite across the country, from the mouth of the Tyne to Solway Frith.

† Irruptions of the Scots and Picts.

The Roman empire being miserably torn by the northern nations, Britain was for ever abandoned by the Romans, in the year 426 or 427.

§ The Britons applying to Etius, the Roman general, for assistance, thus expressed their miserable condition: "We know not which way to turn us. The barbarians drive us to the sea, and the sea forces us back to the bar. barians; between which we have only the choice of two deaths, either to be swallowed up by the waves, or butchered by the sword."

King of the Silures, famous for his great exploits, and accounted the best general Great Britain had ever produced. The Silures were esteemed the bravest and most powerful of all the Britons: they inhabited Herefordshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Monmouthshire, and Glamorganshire.

Queen of the Iceni: her story is well known. ** It is certain, that an opinion was fixed and general among them (the Goths) that death was but the entrance into another life; that all men who lived lazy and inac

scorn'd

* Great Britain was peopled by the Celte, or Gauls. The Druids, & nong the ancient Gauls and Britons, had the care and direction of all religious matters. The Roman empire.

§ Caledonia, inhabited by the Scots and Picts; whither a great many Britons, who would not submit to the Romans, retired

went into vast caves under ground, all dark and miry, full of noisome creatures usual to such places, and there for ever grovelled in endless stench and misery. On the contrary, all who gave themselves to warlike actions and enterprises, to the conquest of their neighbors and the slaughter of their enemies, and died in battle, or of violent deaths upon bold adventures or resolutions, went immediately to the vast hall or palace of Odin, their god of war, who eternally kept open house for all such guests. where they were entertained at infinite tables, in perpetual feasts and mirth, carousing in bowls made of the

A right to feast, and drain immortal bowls
In Odin's hall; whose blazing roof resounds
The genial uproar of those shades, who fall
In desperate fight, or by some brave attempt;
And though more polish'd times the martial creed
Disown, yet still the fearless habit lives.
Nor were the surly gifts of war their all.
Wisdom was likewise theirs, indulgent laws,
The calm gradations of art-nursing peace,
And matchless order, the deep basis still
On which ascends my British reign. Untam'd
To the refining subtleties of slaves,

They brought an happy government along,
Form'd by that freedom, which, with secret voice,
Impartial Nature teaches all her sons,

And which of old through the whole Scythian mass
I strong inspir'd. Monarchical their state,
But prudently confin'd, and mingled wise
Of each harmonious power: only, too much
Imperious war into their rule infus'd,
Prevail'd their general-king, and chieftain-thanes.

"In many a field, by civil fury stain'd,
Bled the discordant heptarchy;* and long
(Educing good from ill) the battle groan'd;
Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxons saw
Egbertt and Peace on one united throne.

No sooner dawn'd the fair disclosing calm Of brighter days, when, lo! the North anew, With stormy nations black, on England pour'd Woes the severest e'er a people felt. The Danish raven,‡ lur'd by annual prey, Hung o'er the land incessant. Fleet on fleet Of barbarous pirates unremitting tore The miserable coast. Before them stalk'd, Far-seen, the demon of devouring flame;' Rapine, and murder, all with blood besmear'd,

Without or ear, or eye, or feeling heart;

Thus cruel ages pass'd; and rare appear'd
White-mantled Peace, exulting o'er the vale,
As when with Alfred,* from the wilds she came
To polic'd cities and protected plains.
Thus by degrees the Saxon empire sunk,
Then set entire in Hastings't bloody field.

Compendious war! (on Britain's glory bent,
So Fate ordain'd) in that decisive day,
The haughty Norman seiz'd at once an isle,
From which, through many a century, in vain.
The Roman, Saxon, Dane, had toil'd and bled.
Of Gothic nations this the final burst;
And, mix'd with the genius of these people, all
These virtues mix'd in one exalted stream,
Here the rich tide of English blood grew full.

"Awhile my spirit slept; the land awhile, Affrighted, droop'd beneath despotic rage. Instead of Edward'st equal gentle laws, The furious victor's partial will prevail'd. All prostrate lay; and, in the secret shade, Deep-stung, but fearful, Indignation gnash'd His teeth. Of freedom, property, despoil'd. And of their bulwark, arms; with castles crush, With ruffians quarter'd o'er the bridled land; The shivering wretches, at the curfew sound Dejected shrunk into their sordid beds, And, through the mournful gloom, of ancient times Mus'd sad, or dreamt of better. Ev'n to feed A tyrant's idle sport the peasant starv'd: To the wild herd, the pasture of the tame, The cheerful hamlet, spiry town, was given, And the brown forest || roughen'd wide around.

"But this so dead, so vile submission, long Endur'd not. Gathering force, my gradual flame Shook off the mountain of tyrannic sway. Unus'd to bend, impatient of control, Tyrants themselves the common tyrant check'd

Of desolating famine, who delights

In grass-grown cities, and in desert fields;
And purple-spotted pestilence, by whom
Ev'n friendship scar'd, in sickening horror sinks
Each social sense and tenderness of life.
Fixing at last, the sanguinary race

Spread, from the Humber's loud-resounding shore,
To where the Thames devolves his gentle maze,
And with superior arm the Saxon aw'd.
But superstition first, and monkish dreams,
And monk-directed cloister-seeking kings,
Had ate away his vigor, ate away

His edge of courage, and depress'd the soul

Of conquering freedom, which he once respir'd.

Denied her portion of the plunder'd state,
Or, tempted, by the timorous and weak,
To gain new ground, first taught their rapine law.
The barons next a nobler league began,
Both those of English and of Norman race,
In one fraternal nation blended now,
The nation of the free!¶ press'd by a band
Of patriots, ardent as the Summer's noon
That looks delighted on, the tyrant see!
Mark! how with feign'd alacrity he bears
His strong reluctance down, his dark revenge,

* Alfred the Great, renowned in war, and no less f mous in peace for his many excellent institutions, par ticularly that of juries.

sure was the most honored and best entertained.

Sir William Temple's Essay on Heroic Virtue. *The seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, considered as being united into one common government, under a general in chief, or monarch, and by the means of an assembly general, or Wittenagemot.

† Egbert, king of Wessex, who, after having reduced all the other kingdoms of the heptarchy under his dominion, was the first king of England.

† Edward III. the Confessor, who reduced the West Saxon, Mercian, and Danish laws, into one body, which from that time became common to all England, under the name of the Laws of Edward.

§ The curfew bell (from the French couvrefeu,) which was rung every night at eight of the clock, to warn the English to put out their fires and candles, under the pen alty of a severe fine.

The New Forest, in Hampshire, t make which the country for above thirty miles in compass was laid waste.

or Magna Charta,

And gives the charter, by which life indeed Becomes of price, a glory to be man.

By counsels weak and wicked, easy rous'd To paltry schemes of absolute command,

affirm'd

These long-contested rights, the wholesome winds

Of opposition* hence began to blow,
And often since have lent the country life.
Before their breath corruption's insect blights,
The darkening clouds of evil counsel, fly;

Or, should they sounding swell, a putrid court,
A pestilential ministry, they purge,
And ventilated states renew their bloom.

And in a broken ruin'd people wealth:
When such o'ercast the state, no bond of love,
No heart, no soul, no unity, no nerve,
Combin'd the loose disjointed public, lost
To fame abroad, to happiness at home.

Aristocratic sway, the people still,

[left

Flatter'd by this or that, as interest lean'd,
No full perfection knew. For me reserv'd,
And for my commons, was that glorious turn.
They crown'd my first attempt,† in senates rose,
The fort of freedom! slow till then, alone,
Had work'd that general liberty, that soul,
Which generous Nature breathes, and which, when
By me to bondage was corrupted Rome,
I through the northern nations wide diffus'd.
Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rush'd
From the rude iron regions of the North,
To Libyan deserts, swarm protruding swarm.
And pour'd new spirit through a slavish world.
Yet, o'er these Gothic states, the king and chiefs
Retain'd the high prerogative of war,
And with enormous property engross'd
The mingled power.
But on Britannia's shore
Now present, I to raise my reign began
By raising the democracy, the third disclos'd
And broadest bulwark of the guarded state.
Then was the full, the perfect plan disclos'd
Of Britain's matchless constitution, mixt
Of mutual checking and supporting powers,
King, lords, and commons; nor the name of free
Deserving, while the vassal-many droop'd:
For since the moment of the whole they form,
So, as depress'd or rais'd, the balance they
Of public welfare and of glory cast.

Mark from this period the continual proof.

* The league formed by the barons, during the reign of John, in the year 1213, was the first confederacy made in England in defence of the nation's interest against the king.

†The Commons are generally thought to have been first represented in parliament towards the end of Henry the Third's reign. To a parliament called in the year 1264, each county was ordered to send four knights, as representatives of their respective shires; and to a parliament called in the year following, each county was or dered to send, as their representatives, two knights, and each city and borough as many citizens and burgesses. Till then, history makes no mention of them; whence a very strong argument may be drawn, to fix the original of the House of Commons to that era,

63

Amid the maze of state, determin'd kept
Some ruling point in view: when, on the stock
Of public good and glory grafted, spread
Their palms, their laurels; or, if thence they stray'd
Swift to return, and patient of restraint:
When legal state, pre-eminence of place,
They scorn'd to deem pre-eminence of ease,
To be luxurious drones, that only rob
The busy hive: as in distinction, power,
Indulgence, honor, and advantage, first;
When they too claim'd in virtue, danger, toil,
Superior rank; with equal hand, prepar'd
To guard the subject, and to quell the foe:
When such with me their vital influence shed,
No mutter'd grievance, hopeless sigh, was heard ;
No foul distrust through wary senates ran,
Confin'd their bounty, and their ardor quench'd:
On aid, unquestion'd, liberal aid was given:
Safe in their conduct, by their valor fir'd,
Fond where they led victorious armies rush'd;
And Cressy, Poitiers, Agincourt† proclaim.
What kings supported by almighty love,
And people fir'd with liberty, can do.

"Be veil'd the savage reigns, when kindred rage
The numerous once Plantagenets devour'd,
A race to vengeance vow'd! and when, oppress'd
By private feuds, almost extinguish'd lay
My quivering flame. But, in the next, behold!
A cautious tyrantý lent it oil anew.

"Proud, dark, suspicious, brooding o'er his gold As how to fix his throne he jealous cast His crafty views around; pierc'd with a ray, Which on his timid mind I darted full, He mark'd the barons of excessive sway, At pleasure making and unmaking kings;|| And hence, to crush these petty tyrants, plann'd A law, that let them, by the silent waste Of luxury, their landed wealth diffuse, And with that wealth their implicated power. By soft degrees a mighty change ensued, Ev'n working to this day. With streams, deduc'd From these diminish'd floods, the country smil'd. As when impetuous from the snow-heap'd Alps. To vernal suns relenting, pours the Rhine; While undivided, oft, with wasteful sweep, He foams along; but, through Batavian meads,

* Edward III. and Henry V.

Three famous battles, gained by the English over the French.

During the civil wars betwixt the families of York and Lancaster. § Henry VII.

The famous Earl of Warwick, during the reigns of Henry VL and Edward IV., was called the King-maker. ¶ Permitting the barons to alienate their lands.

2 R 2

Branch'd into fair canals, indulgent flows; Waters a thousand fields; and culture, trade, Towns, meadows, gliding ships, and villas mix'd, A rich, a wondrous landscape rises round.

"His furious son* the soul-enslaving chain,t Which many a doting venerable age

Had link by link strong-twisted round the land,
Shook off. No longer could be borne a power,
From Heaven pretended, to deceive, to void
Each solemn tie, to plunder without bounds,
To curb the generous soul, to fool mankind;
And, wild at last, to plunge into a sea

Of blood, and horror. The returning light,
That first through Wickliff streak'd the priestly
gloom,

Now burst in open day. Bar'd to the blaze,
Forth from the haunts of superstition crawl'd
Her motley sons, fantastic figures all;
And, wide-dispers'd, their useless fetid wealth
In graceful labor bloom'd, and fruits of peace.
"Trade, join'd to these, on every sea display'd
A daring canvas, pour'd with every tide

A golden flood. From other worlds were roll'd
The guilty glittering stores, whose fatal charms,
By the plain Indian happily despis'd,

Yet work'd his woe; and to the blissful groves,
Where Nature liv'd herself among her sons,
And innocence and joy for ever dwelt,
Drew rage unknown to Pagan climes before,
The worst the zeal-inflam'd barbarian drew.
Be no such horrid commerce, Britain, thine!
But want for want, with mutual aid, supply.

The commons thus enrich'd, and powerful grown,
Against the barons weigh'd. Eliza then,
Amid these doubtful motions, steady, gave
The beam to fix. She! like the secret eye
That never closes on a guarded world,
So sought, so mark'd, so seiz'd the public good,
That self-supported, without one ally,
She aw'd her inward, quell'd her circling foes.
Inspir'd by me, beneath her sheltering arm,
In spite of raging universal sway,¶
And raging seas repress'd, the Belgic states,
My bulwark on the Continent, arose.
Matchless in all the spirit of her days!
With confidence, unbounded, fearless love
Elate, her fervent people waited gay,
Cheerful demanded the long-threaten'd fleet,**
And dash'd the pride of Spain around their isle.
Nor ceas'd the British thunder here to rage:
The deep, reclaim'd, obey'd its awful call;
In fire and smoke Iberian ports involv'd,
The trembling foe ev'n to the centre shook
Of their new-conquer'd world, and skulking stole
By veering winds their Indian treasure home.

Meantime, peace, plenty, justice, science, arta, With softer laurels crown'd her happy reign.

"As yet uncircumscrib'd, the regal power, And wild and vague prerogative remain'd, A wide voracious gulf, where swallow'd oft The helpless subject lay. This to reduce To the just limit was my great effort.

"By means that evil seem to narrow man, Superior beings work their mystic will: From storm and trouble thus a settled calm, At last, effulgent, o'er Britannia smil'd.

"The gathering tempest, Heaven-commission'

came,

Came in the prince,* who, drunk with flattery, dreamt,
His vain pacific counsels rul'd the world;
Though scorn'd abroad, bewilder'd in a maze
Of fruitless treaties; while at home enslav'd,
And by a worthless crew insatiate drain'd,
He lost his people's confidence and love;
Irreparable loss! whence crowns become
An anxious burden. Years inglorious pass'd:
Triumphant Spain the vengeful draught enjoy'd
Abandon'd Frederickt pin'd, and Raleigh bled.
But nothing that to these internal broils,
That rancor, he began; while lawless sway
He, with his slavish doctors, tried to rear
On metaphysic, on enchanted ground.!
And all the mazy quibbles of the schools:
As if for one, and sometimes for the worst,
Heaven had mankind in vengeance only made.
Vain the pretence! not so the dire effect,
The fierce, the foolish discord thence deriv'd,
That tears the country still, by party-rage
And ministerial clamor kept alive.
In action weak, and for the wordy war
Best fitted, faint this prince pursu'd his claim:
Content to teach the subject herd, how great,
How sacred he! how despicable they!

"But his unyielding son these doctrines drank,
With all a bigot's rage (who never damps
By reasoning his fire;) and what they taught
Warm and tenacious, into practice push'd.
Senates, in vain, their kind restraint applied:
The more they struggled to support the laws,
His justice-dreading ministers the more
Drove him beyond their bounds. Tir'd with the
check

Of faithful love, and with the flattery pleas'd
Of false designing guilt, the fountain he
Of public wisdom and of justice shut.
Wide mourn'd the land. Straight to the voted and
Free, cordial, large, of never-failing source,
Th' illegal imposition follow'd harsh,
With execration given, or ruthless squeez'd
From an insulted people, by a band

Of the worst ruffians, those of tyrant power.
Oppression walk'd at large, and pour'd abroad