When mufic bids undreading joys advance,

Swell the foft hour, and turn the fwimming dance:
When, to crown thefe, the focial sparkling bowl 105
Lifts the cheer'd fenfe, 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,

115

All-drunk with blood, the arguing fword supplies ; 110
The fword, 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, flops his rage;
Shall fword, and flame, and devastation cease,
To please with zeal, wild zeal! the God of Peace?
Nor less abufe has fcourg'd the civil state,
When a King's will became a nation's fate.
Enormous power! Nor noble, nor ferene;
Now fierce and cruel; now but wild and mean.
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.

120

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.

130

New courts of cenfure griev'd with new offence, Tax'd without power, and fin'd without pretence,

Explain'd, at will, each ftatute's wrested aim,
Till marks of merit were the marks of fhame;
So monftrous!-Life was the leveret grief,
And the worst death feem'd welcome for relief.
In vain the fubject fought redrels 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, fo fevere;
A land uncultur'd through polemic jars,
Rich!-but with carnage from inteftine wars;
The hand of Industry employ'd no more,
And Commerce flying to fome fafer fhore;
All Property reduc'd, to Power a prey,
And Senfe and Learning chac'd by Zeal away?
Who honours not each dear departed ghoft,
That ftrove for Liberty fo won, fo loft:
So well regain'd when god-like William rofe,
And first entail'd the bleffing 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 ftate!

The Muse 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 social laughs go round :

Ev'n then, when paufing mirth begins to fail,

The converse varies to the serious tale.

The tale pathetic speaks fome wretch that owes 165 To fome deficient law relieflefs woes.

What inftant pity warms thy generous breast!

How all the legislator stands 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 preferve, yet foftening mercy know:
Juftice fhall 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 beft affurance draw.

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

175

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

180

185

Thefe, and a thoufand gifts, thy thought acquires,
Which Liberty benevolent infpires.
From Liberty the fruits of law increase,
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, bless the land: 190
While there, the peafaut glads the grateful foil,

Here mark the shipwright, there the mason toil,

Hew, fquare, and rear, magnificent, the stone,
And give our oaks a glory not their own!

What life demands by this obeys her call,

195

And added elegance confummates all.
Thus ftately cities, ftatelier navies rife,
And spread our grandeur under distant skies.
From Liberty each nobler science sprung,
A Bacon brighten'd, and a Spenfer fung:

A Clarke and Locke new tracks of truth explore,
And Newton reaches heights unreach'd before.

200

What Trade sees Property that wealth maintain,
Which Industry no longer dreads to gain ;
What tender confcience kneels with fears refign'd, 205
Enjoys her worship, and avows her mind;
What genius now from want to fortune climbs,
And to fafe Science every thought sublimes;
What Royal Power, from his fuperior ftate,
Sees public happiness his own create;

210

But kens thofe patriot-fouls, to which he owes
Of old each fource, whence now each bleffing flows?
And if fuch spirits from their heaven defcend,
And blended flame, to point one glorious end;
Flame from one breaft, and thence to Britain fhine, 215
What love, what praise, O Walpole, then is thine ?

THE

VOLUNTEER LAUREAT.

A POE M.

ON HER

MAJESTY'S BIRTH-DAY, 1731-2.

NO. I.

TWICE twenty tedious moons have roll'd away,
Since hope, kind flatterer! tun'd my penfive lay,
Whispering, that you, who rais'd me from despair,
Meant, by your fmiles, to make life worth my care;
With pitying hand an orphan's tears to skreen
And o'er the motherlefs extend the queen.

'T'will be-the prophet guides the poet's strain !
Grief never touch'd a heart like your's in vain :
Heaven gave you power, because you love to bless;
And pity, when you feel it, is redress.

5

Two fathers join'd to rob my claim of one!
My mother too thought fit to have no fon!
The fenate next, whofe aid the helplefs own,
Forgot my infant wrongs, and mine alone!
Yet parents pityless, nor peers unkind,
Nor titles loft, nor woes myfterious join'd,

35

Strip me of hope-by heaven thus lowly laid,

To find a Pharaoh's daughter in the shade.

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