Fixing at last, the fanguinary race

725

Spread from the Humber's loud-resounding shore,.
To where the Thames devolves his gentle maze,
And with fuperior arm the Saxon aw'd.
But Superftition first, and Monkish dreams,
And Monk-directed cloister-seeking kings,
Had ate away his vigour, ate away.

His edge of courage, and deprefs'd the foul.
Of conquering Freedom, which he once refpir'd. 730
Thus cruel ages pass'd, and rare appear'd
White-mantled Peace, exulting o'er the vale,
As when, with Alfred *, from the wilds fhe came
To polic'd cities and protected plains.

Thus by degrees the Saxon empire funk,
Then fet entire in Haftings' bloody field t.
Compendious war ! (on Britain's glory bent,
So Fate ordain'd) in that decifive day
The haughty Norman feiz'd at once an Isle,
For which thro' many a century in vain,
The Roman, Saxon, Dane, had toil'd and bled.
Of Gothic nations this the final burft;
And mix'd the genius of these people all,
Their virtues mix'd in one exalted stream,
Here the rich tide of English blood grew

full.

735

740

.745

Alfred the Great, renowned in war, and no lefs famous in peace, for his many excellent inftitutions, particularly that of juries.

The battle of Haftings, in which Harold II. the laft of the Saxon kings, was flain, and William the Conqueror made himself master of England.

750

A while My spirit flept; the land a while, Affrighted, droop'd beneath defpotic rage. Inftead of Edward's equal gentle laws *, The furious victor's partial will prevail'd. All proftrate lay; and in the fecret shade Deep ftung but fearful Indignation gnash'd His teeth. Of freedom, property, despoil'd, And of their bulwark, arms; with caftles crush'd, With ruffians quarter'd o'er the bridled land, The fhivering wretches, at the curfeu + found, 755 Dejected fhrunk into their fordid beds,

760

And thro' the mournful gloom of ancient times
Mus'd fad, or dreamt of better. Even to feed
A tyrant's idle fport the peasant starv'd :
To the wild herd the pasture of the tame,
The cheerful hamlet, fpiry town, was given,
And the brown foreft ‡ roughened wide around.
But this fo dead, fo vile fubmiffion, long
Endur'd not. Gathering force, My gradual flame
Shook off the mountain of tyrannic (way,
Unus'd to bend, impatient of controul,

766

Edward III. the Confeffor, who reduced the Weft-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 curfeu 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 penalty of fevere fine.

The New Foreft in Hampshire, to make which the country for above thirty miles in compass was laid wafte,

Tyrants themselves the common tyrant check'd.
The Church, by kings intractable and fierce,
Deny'd her portion of the plunder'd ftate,
Or tempted by the timorous and weak,

770

775

To gain new ground, first taught their rapine law.
The Barons next a nobler league began;
Both thofe of English and of Norman race,
In one fraternal nation blended now,
The nation of the Free! prefs'd by a band
Of patriots*, ardent as the fummer's noon
That looks delighted on, the tyrant see!
Mark! how with feign'd alacrity he bears
His ftrong reluctance down, his dark revenge,
And gives the Charter by which life, indeed, 780
Becomes of price, a glory to be man.

Thro' this and thro' fucceeding reigns affirm'd
These long-contested rights, the wholesome winds
Of Oppofition hence began to blow t,

And often fince have lent the country life. 786
Before their breath Corruption's insect-blights,

The darkening clouds of evil counsel, fly;

Or fhould they founding fwell, a putrid court,
A peftilential ministry, they purge,

And ventilated states renew their bloom.

On the 5th of June 1915, King John, met by the Barons, on Runnemede, figned the Great Charter of Liberties, or Magna Charta.

+ The league formed by the Barons, during the reign of John, in the year 1913, was the first confederacy made in England in defence of the nation's interest against the King.

Tho' with the temper'd monarchy here mix'd Ariftocratic fway, the people ftill,

800

Flatter'd by this or that, as intereft lean'd,
No full protection knew. For Me referv'd,
And for My Commons, was that glorious turn. 795
They crown'd My first attempt, in fenates rofe*,
The fort of Freedom! Slow, till then, alone,
Had work'd that general Liberty, that foul
Which generous Nature breathes,and which, when left
By Me to bondage was corrupted Rome,
I thro' the Northern nations wide diffus'd:
Hence many a people, fierce with Freedom, rush'd
From the rude iron regions of the North,
To Lybian deferts swarm protruding swarm,
And pour'd new spirit thro' a flavish world.
Yet o'er thefe Gothic states the king and chiefs
Retain'd the high prerogative of war,

And with enormous property engross'd

The mingled pow'r. But on Britannia's fhore,
Now prefent, I to raise My reign began
By raising the democracy, the third

805

810

The Commons are generally thought to have been first reprefented in parliament towards the end of Henry the Illd.'s reign. To a parliament called in the year 1264, each county was ordered to fend four knights, as reprefentatives of their refpective fhires; and to a parliament called in the year following, each county was ordered to fend, as their reprefentatives, two knights, and each city and borough as many citizens and burgeffes.. Till then, hiftory 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.

த

815

And broadest bulwark of the guarded state.
Then was the full, the perfect, plan disclos'd
Of Britain's matchlefs Conftitution, mixt
Of mutual checking and supporting powers,
King, Lords, and Commons; nor the name of Free
Deserving while the Vaffel-many droop'd:
For fince the moment of the whole they form,
So, as deprefs'd or rais'd, the balance they
Of public welfare and of glory cast.
Mark from this period the continual proof.

When kings of narrow genius, minion-rid,
Neglecting faithful worth for fawning slaves,
Proudly regardless of their people's plaints,
And poorly paffive of infulting foes,

Double, not prudent, obftinate, not firm,
Their mercy fear, neceffity their faith,
Inftead of generous fire, prefumptuous, hot,
Rash to refolve, and flothful to perform,

820

825

835

Tyrants at once and flaves, imperious, mean, 830
To want rapacious joining fhameful waste,
By counfels weak and wicked, easy rous'd
To paltry schemes of abfolute command,
To feek their fplendour in their fure difgrace,
And in a broken ruin'd people wealth;
When fuch o'ercaft the ftate, no bond of love,
No heart, no foul, no unity, no nerve,
Combin'd the loofe disjointed public, loft
To fame abroad, to happiness at home.
Volume II.

K