Hence liberty, fweet liberty inspires
And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires.
Patient of conftitutional controul,

He bears it with meek manliness of foul;
But, if authority grow wanton, woe
To him that treads upon his free-born toe;
One ftep beyond the boundary of the laws
Fires him at once in freedom's glorious cause.
Thus proud prerogative, not much revered,

Is feldom felt, though fometimes feen and heard;
And in his cage, like parrot fine and gay,

Is kept to ftrut, look big, and talk away.
Born in a climate fofter far than our's,
Not formed like us, with fuch Herculean powers,
The Frenchman, eafy, debonnair and brisk,
Give him his lafs, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,
And laughs the fenfe of mifery far away.
He drinks his fimple beverage with a guft;
And, feafting on an onion and a cruft,
We never feel the alacrity and joy,

With which he shouts and carols Vive le Roy,
Filled with as much true merriment and glee,
As if he heard his king fay-Slave, be free.
Thus happiness depends, as nature shows,
Lefs on exterior things than moft fuppofe.

Vigilant over all that he has made,

Kind Providence attends with gracious aid;
Bids equity throughout his works prevail,
And weighs the nations in an even scale;
He can encourage flavery to a smile,

And fill with discontent a British ifle.

4. Freeman and slave then, if the case be such, Stand on a level; and you prove too much : If all men indifcriminately fhare

His foftering power, and tutelary care,

As well be yoked by defpotifm's hand,

As dwell at large in Britain's chartered land.

B. No. Freedom has a thousand charms to show, That flaves, howe'er contented, never know.

The mind attains beneath her happy reign

The growth, that nature meant she should attain;
The varied fields of fcience, ever new,

Opening and wider opening on her view,

She ventures onward with a profperous force,
While no base fear impedes her in her course.
Religion, richest favour of the skies,

Stands moft revealed before the freeman's eyes;
No fhades of fuperftition blot the day,
Liberty chases all that gloom away;
The foul emancipated, unoppreffed,

Free to prove all things and hold faft the beft,

Learns much; and to a thousand lift'ning minds
Communicates with joy the good she finds:
Courage in arms, and ever prompt to show
His manly forehead to the fierceft foe;
Glorious in war, but for the fake of peace,
His fpirits rifing as his toils increase,

Guards well what arts and industry have won,
And freedom claims him for her first-born fon.
Slaves fight for what were better caft away-
The chain that binds them, and a tyrant's sway;
But they, that fight for freedom, undertake
The nobleft caufe mankind can have at ftake :-
Religion, virtue, truth, whate’er we call
A bleffing-freedom is the pledge of all.
Oh liberty! the pris'ner's pleafing dream,
The poet's mufe, his paffion and his theme;
Genius is thine, and thou art fancy's nurse;
Loft without thee th' ennobling pow'rs of verfe;
Heroic fong from thy free touch acquires

Its cleareft tone, the rapture it inspires:

Place me,
where winter breathes his keenest air,
And I will fing, if liberty be there;

And I will fing at liberty's dear feet,

In Afric's torrid clime, or India's fierceft heat.

A. Sing where you please ; in such a caufe I grant

An English poet's privilege to rant;

But is not freedom-at leaft is not our's

Too apt to play the wanton with her pow'rs,
Grow freakish, and o'erleaping every mound,
Spread anarchy and terror all around?

B. Agreed. But would you fell or flay your horfe
For bounding and curvetting in his course;
Or if, when ridden with a careless rein,

He break away, and seek the distant plain ?
No. His high mettle, under good controul,
Gives him Olympic fpeed, and shoots him to the goal,
Let discipline employ her wholesome arts;
Let magiftrates alert perform their parts,
Not skulk or put on a prudential mask,
As if their duty were a defp'rate task;
Let active laws apply the needful curb
To guard the peace, that riot would disturb;
And liberty, preserved from wild excefs,
Shall raise no feuds for armies to suppress,
When tumult lately burft his prison door,
And fet plebeian thousands in a roar;
When he ufurp'd authority's just place,
And dared to look his master in the face;
When the rude rabble's watch-word was-destroy,
And blazing London feem'd a second Troy;
Liberty blush'd, and hung her drooping head,

Beheld their progress with the deepest dread;

Blushed, that effects like these she should produce,
Worse than the deeds of galley-flaves broke loose.
She lofes in fuch ftorms her very name,

And fierce licentioufnefs fhould bear the blame.
Incomparable gem! thy worth untold;

Cheap though blood-bought; and thrown away when fold,

May no foes ravish thee, and no false friend

Betray thee, while profeffing to defend ;
Prize it ye minifters; ye monarchs, spare;
Ye patriots, guard it with a mifer's care.

A. Patriots, alas! the few that have been found,
Where moft they flourish, upon English ground,
The country's need have scantily supplied,
And the laft left the scene, when Chatham died.

B. Not fo-the virtue ftill adorns our age,
Though the chief actor died upon the stage,
In him Demofthenes was heard again;
Liberty taught him her Athenian strain ;
She clothed him with authority and awe,
Spoke from his lips, and in his looks gave law.
His fpeech, his form, his action, full of grace,
And all his country beaming in his face,
He ftood, as fome inimitable hand

Would ftrive to make a Paul or Tully ftand.
No fycophant or flave, that dared oppose
Her facred caufe, but trembled when he rofe;