An anxious burden. Years inglorious pafs'd:
Triumphant Spain the vengeful draught enjoy'd: 965
Abandon'd * FREDERICK pined, and RALEIGH bled.
But nothing that to these internal broils, .
That rancour, he began; while lawless Sway
He, with his flavifh Doctors, try'd to rear
† On metaphyfic, on inchanted 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 fo the dire effect,

The fierce, the foolish difcord thence deriv'd, 975
That tears the country ftill, by party-rage-

And ministerial clamour kept alive.

In action weak, and for the wordy war

Beft fitted, faint this prince purfu'd his claim :-
Content to teach the subject-herd, how great,
How facred he! how defpicable they!

970

980

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 apply'd:
The more they struggled to fupport the laws,
His juftice-dreading ministers the more
Drove him beyond their bounds. Tir'd with the check

985

* Elector Palatine, and who had been chofen king of Bohemis, but was ftript of all his dominions and dignities by the em peror Ferdinand; while James the first, his father in law, being amufed from time to time, endeavoured to mediate a peace.

The monstrous and till then unheard-of doctrines of divine indefeasible hereditary right, paffive obedience, &c. The parties of Whig and Tory. $ Charles I.

Of

Of faithful Love, and with the flattery pleas'd
Of false defigning Guilt, the || Fountain he
Of public Wisdom and of Juftice shut.
Wide mourn'd the land. Strait to the voted Aid
Free, cordial, large, of never-failing fource,
Th' illegal impofition follow'd harsh,
With execration given, or ruthless squeez'd
From an infulted people, by a band
Of the worst ruffians, thofe of tyrant power.
Oppreffion walk'd at large, and pour'd abroad
Her unrelenting train: Informers, Spies,
Blood-hounds, that sturdy Freedom from the grove
Purfue; projectors of aggrieving schemes,
* Commerce to load for unprotected feas,

1000

To fell the ftarving many to the few,

And drain a thoufand ways th' exhaufted land. 1005
Even from that Place, whence healing Peace fhould flow,
And Gospel truth, inhuman bigots fhed
Their poifon round; and on the venal bench,
Instead of Justice, Party held the scale,
And Violence the fword. Afflicted years,
Too-patient, felt at last their vengeance full.
Mid the low murmurs of submissive fear,
And mingled rage, My HAMDEN rais'd his voice,
And to the Laws appeal'd; the laws no more
In Judgment fat, behov'd some other ear.
When instant from the keen resentive North,
By long Oppreffion, by Religion rous'd,

Parliaments.

990*

* Ship-money.

995

1010

1015

↑ Monopolies

The raging High-Church fermons of these times, infpiring at once a spirit of flavish submiffion to the court, and of bitter perfecution against those whom they call Church and State

Puritans.

The

The Guardian Army came. Beneath its wing,
Was call'd, tho' meant to furnish hostile aid,
The more than Roman fenate. There a flame 1020
Broke out, that clear'd, consum'd, renew'd the land.
In deep emotion hurl'd, nor Greece, nor Rome,
Indignant, bursting from a tyrant's chain,
While, full of Ms, each agitated foul
Strung every nerve and flam'd in every eye,
Had e'er beheld fuch light and heat combined !
Such heads and hearts! Such dreadful Zeal, led on
By calm majestic Wisdom, taught its course
What nufance to devour; such wisdom fir'd
With unabating zeal, and aim'd fincere
To clear the weedy State, restore the Laws,
And for the future to secure their sway.

1025

1030

This then the purpose of my mildest fons. But man is blind. A nation once inflam'd (Chief, should the breath of factious Fury blow, 1035 With the wild rage of mad Enthusiast swell'd) Not eafy cools again. From breast to breast, From eye to eye, the kindling paffions mix

In heightened blaze; and, ever wise and just,

High HEAVEN to gracious ends directs the storm, 1040 Thus in one conflagration BRITAIN wrapt,

And by Confufion's lawless fons defpoil'd, KING, LORDS, and COMMONS, thundering to the ground,

Succeffive, rufh'd-Lo! from their afhes rofe,
Gay-beaming radiant youth, the Phoenix-State. 1045
The grievous yoke of Vassalage, the yoke
Of private life, lay by thofe flames diffolv'd;
And, from the wasteful, the luxurious King,

At the Restoration.

t Charles II.

Was

1055

Was purchas'd † that which taught the young to bend
Stronger, reftor'd, the Commons tax'd the Whole,
And built on that eternal rock their power.
The Crown, of its hereditary wealth
Defpoil'd, on Senates more dependent grew ;
And they more frequent, more affur'd. Yet liv'd,..
And in full vigor fpread that bitter root,
The paffive Doctrines, by their patrons first..
Oppos'd ferocious, when they touch themselves.
This wild delufive Cant; the rash Cabal
Of hungry courtiers, ravenous for prey;
The Bigot, restless in a double chain ́.
To bind anew the land; the constant need
Of finding faithless means, or fhifting forms,
And flattering Senates, to supply his wafte;
These tore fome moments from the careless Prince,
And in his breast awak'd the kindred plan.
By dangerous foftnefs long be min'd his way;
By subtle arts, diffimulation deep; d
By sharing what Corruption fhower'd, profufe;
By breathing wide the gay licentious plague,
And pleasing manners, fitted to deceive.

1065

At laft fubfided the delirious joy,
On whofe high billow, from the faintly reign,
The nation drove too far. A penfion'd king,
Against his country brib'd by Gallic gold;
The Port pernicious fold, the Scylla fince
And fell Charybdis of the British feas;
Freedom attack'd * abroad, with furer blow
To cut it off at home; the § Saviour-League.
Of Europe broke; the progrefs even advanc'd

1051

1060

1070

1075

...!

t Court of Wards.

Dunkirk.

The war, in conjunction with France, against the Dutch § The Triple Alliance

tot. dra

37

Of

Of univerfal Sway, which to reduce
Such feas of blood and treafure BRITAIN Coft ;
The millions, by a generous people given,
Or fquander'd vile, or to corrupt, difgrace,
And awe the land with ‡ forces not their own,
Employ'd; the darling Church herself betray'd; 1095
All these, broad-glaring, ope'd the general eye,
And waked my Spirit, the refifting foul.

Mild was, at first, and half-asham'd the check
Of Senates, fhook from the fantastic dream

Of abfolute fubmiffion, tenets vile !
1090
Which flaves would blush to own, and which, reduc'd'
To practice, always honest nature shock.

Not even the mask remov'd, and the fierce front
Of Tyranny difclos'd; nor trampled laws;

Nor feiz'd each § badge of Freedom thro' the land;
Nor SIDNEY bleeding for th' unpublish'd Page; 1996
Nor on the bench avow'd Corruption plac'd,
And murderous Rage itself, in Jefferies' form
Nor endless acts of Arbitrary Power,

1080

Cruel, and false, could raise the public arm.
Diftrustful, scatter'd, of combining chiefs
Devoid, and dreading blind rapacious war,
The patient public turns not, till impell'd
To the near verge of ruin. Hence I rous'd
The Bigot king, and hurry'd fated on
His measures immature. But chief his zeal,
Out-flaming Rome herself, portentous fcar'd
The troubled nation: Mary's horrid days
To fancy bleeding rofe, and the dire glare

*

Ci 1100

1105

Under Lewis XIV.

A standing Army, raised without the confent of Parlia

ent.

The charters of corporations.

James II.

Of