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Nor can the prifon 'scape your searching eye,
Your ear still opening to the captive's cry.
Nor lefs was promis'd from thy early skill,
Ere power enforc'd benevolence of will!
To friends refin'd, thy private life adher'd,
By thee improving, ere by thee prefer'd.
Well hadft thou weigh'd what truth fuch friends afford,
With thee refigning, and with thee restor❜d.
Thou taught'ft them all extenfive love to bear,
And now mankind with thee their friendships fhare.
As the rich cloud by due degrees expands,
And showers down plenty thick on fundry lands,
Thy spreading worth in various bounty fell,
Made genius flourish, and made art excel.

How many, yet deceiv'd, all power oppose?
Their fears increafing, as decrease their woes;
Jealous of bondage, while they freedom gain,
And most oblig'd, most eager to complain.

But well we count our blifs, if weil we view,
When power oppreffion, not protection grew;
View prefent ills that punish diftant climes;
Or bleed in memory here from ancient times.

Mark firft the robe abus'd Religion wore,
Story'd with griefs, and stain'd with human gore!
What various tortures, engines, fires, reveal,
Study'd, empower'd, and sanctify'd by zeal ?

Stop here, my Mufe!-Peculiar woes defcry!

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Bid them in fad fucceffion ftrike thy eye!
Lo, to her eye the fad fucceffion springs!

She looks, the weeps, and, as the weeps, the fings.

See

See the doom'd Hebrew of his ftores bereft!

See holy murder justify the theft!

His ravag'd gold fome useless fhrine shall raise,
His gems on fuperftitious idols blaze!

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His wife, his babe, deny'd their little home, Stripp'd, ftarv'd, unfriended, and unpity'd roam. Lc, the Priest's hand the Wafer-God supplies!— A King by confecrated poison dies!

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See Learning range yon broad æthereal plain, From world to world, and god-like Science gain! Ah! what avails the curious fearch fuftain'd, The finish'd toil, the god-like Science gain'd? Sentenc'd to flames th' expansive wisdom fell, And truth from heaven was forcery from hell. See Reafon bid each myftic wile retire, Strike out new light! and mark !-the wife admire! Zeal fhall fuch herefy, like Learning, hate; The fame their glory, and the fame their fate.

Lo, from fought mercy, one his life receives! Life, worse than death, that cruel mercy gives : The man, perchance, who wealth and honours bore, Slaves in the mine, or ceafelefs ftrains the oar. So doom'd are these, and fuch perhaps, our doom, 95 Own'd we a Prince, avert it heaven! from Rome.

Nor private worth alone falfe Zeal affails; Whole nations bleed when bigotry prevails. What are fworn friendships? What are kindred ties? What's faith with herefy? (the zealot cries.) See, when war finks, the thundering cannon's roar ; When wounds, and death, and difcord are no more;

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When

When music bids undreading joys advance,

Swell the foft hour, and turn the swimming dance:
When, to crown these, the social sparkling bowl 105
Lifts the cheer'd sense, and pours out all the foul;
Sudden he fends red maffacre abroad;

Faithlefs to man, to prove his faith to God.
What pure perfuafive eloquence denies,

All-drunk with blood, the arguing sword supplies; 110
The sword, which to th' affaffin's hand is given!
Th' affaffin's hand!—pronounc'd the hand of heaven!
Sex bleeds with fex, and infancy with age;
No rank, no place, no virtue, ftops his rage;
Shall fword, and flame, and devastation cease,

To please with zeal, wild zeal! the God of Peace?
Nor lefs abuse has scourg'd the civil state,
When a King's will became a nation's fate.
Enormous power! Nor noble, nor ferene;

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Now fierce and cruel; now but wild and mean. 120

See titles fold, to raise th' unjust supply!
Compell'd the purchase! or be fin'd, or buy!
No public fpirit, guarded well by laws,

Uncenfur'd cenfures in his country's caufe.

See from the merchant forc'd th' unwilling loan! 125
Who dares deny, or deem his wealth his own?
Denying, fee! where dungeon-damps arife,
Difeas'd he pines, and unaffifted dies.

Far more than maffacre that fate accurft!.
As of all deaths the lingering is the worst.

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New courts of cenfure griev'd with new offence,

Tax'd without power, and fin'd without pretence,

Ex

Explain'd, at will, each statute's wrested aim,
Till marks of merit were the marks of shame;
So monstrous!-Life was the tevereft grief,
And the worst death feem'd welcome for relief.
In vain the subject fought redrefs from law,
No fenate liv'd the partial judge to awe :
Senates were void, and fenators confin'd
For the great caufe of Nature and Mankind;
Who kings fuperior to the people own;
Yet prove the law fuperior to the throne.

Who can review without a generous tear,
A Church, a State, so impious, so severe ;
A land uncultur'd through polemic jars,
Rich-but with carnage from intestine wars;
The hand of Industry employ'd no more,
And Commerce flying to fome safer shore ;
All Property reduc'd, to Power a prey,

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And Senfe and Learning chac'd by Zeal away? 150
Who honours not each dear departed ghost,
That ftrove for Liberty fo won, fo loft:
So well regain'd when god-like William rose,
And first entail'd the blessing George bestows ?
May Walpole ftill the growing triumph raise,
And bid thefe emulate Eliza's days;
Still ferve a Prince, who, o'er his people great,
As far tranfcends in virtue, as in state!

The Mufe pursues thee to thy rural feat;
Ev'n there fhall Liberty inspire retreat.
When folemn cares in flowing wit are drown'd,
And sportive chat and focial laughs go round :

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Ev'n then, when pausing mirth begins to fail,
The converfe varies to the ferious tale.

The tale pathetic fpeaks fome wretch that owes
To fome deficient law relieflefs woes.

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What inftant pity warms thy generous breast!
How all the legiflator ftands confess'd !

Now fprings the hint! 'tis now improv'd to thought!
Now ripe! and now to public welfare brought! 170
New bills, which regulating means bestow,
Juftice preserve, yet softening mercy know :
Justice shall low vexatious wiles decline,
And still thrive moft, when lawyers most repine,
Juftice from jargon fhall refin'd appear,

To knowledge through our native language clear.
Hence we may learn, no more deceiv'd by law,
Whence wealth and life their best affurance draw.

The freed Infolvent, with industrious hand,
Strives yet to fatisfy the juft demand:

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Thus ruthless men, who would his powers reftrain,
Oft what feverity would lofe obtain.

These, and a thousand gifts, thy thought acquires,
Which Liberty benevolent infpires.
From Liberty the fruits of law increase,

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Plenty, and joy, and all the arts of peace.
Abroad the merchant, while the tempefts rave,
Adventurous fails, nor fears the wind and wave ;.
At home untir'd we find th' aufpicious hand
With flocks, and herds, and harvests, blefs the land: 190
While there, the peasant glads the grateful soil,
Here mark the fhipwright, there the mason toil,

Hew,