The calm gradations of art-nurfing peace,

And matchlefs Orders, the deep basis still

On which ascends my BRITISH REIGN. Untamed
To the refining fubtilties of flaves,

They brought an happy government along;

Form'd by that Freedom, which, with fecret voice,
Impartial Nature teaches all her fons,

692.

And which of old thro' the whole Scythian Mafs
I ftrong infpir'd. Monarchical their state,

69.5

But prudently confin'd, and mingled wife.

Of each harmonious power: only, too much,
Imperious war into their rule infus'd,

Prevail'd the General-King, and Chieftain-Thanes.
In many a field, by civil fury ftain'd,
Bled the difcordant ‡ Heptarchy; and long

700

(Educing good from ill) the battle groan'd;
Ere, blood-cemented, Anglo-Saxons law
Egbert and Peace on one united throne.
No fooner dawn'd the fair difclofing calm
Of brighter days, when lo! the North anew,
With stormy nations black, on ENGLAND pour'd
Woes the feverest e'er a people felt.

The Danish § Raven, lured by annual prey,
Hung o'er the land inceffant. Fleet on fleet

705.

710

The feven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons, confidered as being united into one common government, under a general in chief or monarch, and by the means of an assembly general or Wittenagemot.

Egbert king of Wessex, who after having reduced all the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy under his dominion, was the first king of England.

§ A famous Danish standard was called Reafan or Raven. TheDanes imagined that, before a battle, the Raven wrought upon this ftandard clap'd its wings or hung down its head, in token of victory or defeat.

Of

Of barbarous pirates unremitting tore

The miserable coaft. Before them stalk'd,
Far-feen, the Demon of devouring Flame;

Rapine, and Murder, all with blood befiear'd,
Without or ear, or eye, or feeling heart ;

715

While close behind them march'd the fallow Power

Of defolating Famine, who delights

In grass-grown cities, and in defart fields;

And purple spotted Peftilence, by whom

Even Friendship scared, in fickening horror finks 720
Each focial fenfe and tenderness of life.
Fixing at last, the fanguinary race
Spread, from the Humber's loud-refounding fhore,
To where the Thames devolves his gentle maze,
And with fuperior arm the Saxon aw’d.

1 But Superftition first, and Monkish dreams,
And monk-directed, cloy fter-seeking kings,,
Had eat away his vigor, eat away

725

His edge of Courage, and deprefs'd the foul
Of conquering Freedom, which he once refpir'd. 736.
Thus cruel ages pafs'd; and rare appear'd

! White-mantled Peace, exulting o'er the vale,·
As when with + ALFRED, from the wilds fhe came
To police'd cities and protected plains.

Thus by degrees the Saxon empire funk,

Then fet intire in

*

Haftings bloody field.

Compendious war! (on BRITAIN's glory bent,
So fate ordain'd) in that decifive day,

735

+ ALFRED the Great, renowned in war, and no lefs famous in peace for his many excellent institutions, particularly that of Juries.

* The battle of Haftings, in which Harold II. the last of the Saxon kings, was slain, and William the Conqueror made himself mafter of England.

The haughty Norman feiz'd at once an isle,

For which, thro' many a century, in vain,

740

The Roman, Saxon, Dane, had toil'd and bled.

Of Gothic nations this the final burft;

And, mix'd the genius of thefe people all;

'Their virtues mix'd in one exalted stream,
Here the rich tide of English blood grew full.
A while my Spirit slept ; the land a while,
Affrighted, droop'd beneath despotic 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, defpoil'd,
And of their bulwark, Arms; with Castles crush'd,-
With Ruffians quarter'd o'er the bridled land;

745

750

The fhivering wretches, at the + Curfew found,
Dejected fhrunk into their fordid beds,

755

And, thro' the mournful gloom of antient times,
Mus'd fad, or dreamt of better.

Even to feed

A tyrant's idle fport the peafant ftarv'd:..

To the wild herd, the pafture of the tame,
The chearful hamlet, fpiry town, was given,
And the brown +foreft roughen'd wide around..
But this fo dead, fo vile fubmiffion, long

760

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 Curfew 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 a fevere fine.

+ The New Foreft in Hampshire; to make which, the coun try for above thirty miles in compass was laid waste.

Endur'a

Endur'd not. Gathering force, My gradual flame
Shook off the mountain of tyrannic fway.
Unus'd to bend, impatient of controul,

Tyrants themselves the common tyrant.check'd.
The Church, by Kings intractable and fierce,
Deny'd her portion of the plunder'd state,
Or tempted, by the timorous and the weak,
To gain new ground, first taught their rapine law.
The Barons next a nobler league began,

Both those of English and of Norman race,

'In one fraternal nation blended now,

765

770

The Nation of the Free! prefs'd by a + band
Of Patriots, ardent as the fummer's noen
That looks delighted on, the Tyrant fee!
Mark! how with feign'd alacrity he bears
His strong reluctance down, his dark revenge,
And gives the CHARTER, by which life indeed.
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,

And often fince have lent the country life.

Before their breath Corruption's infect-blights,

The darkening clouds of evil counsel fly;
Or fhould they founding fwell, a putrid court,
A peftilential ministry they purge,

775

780

-785

And ventilated ftates renew their bloom.

790

Tho' with the temper'd Monarchy here mix'd

† On the 5th of June 1215, 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 1213, was the first confederacy made in England in defence of the nation's interest against the king. Ariftocratic

Ariftocratic fway, the People ftill,

795

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.
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 Mɛ to bondage was corrupted Rome,
'I thro' the Northern nations wide diffus'd.
Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rulh'd
From the rude iron regions of the North,
To Lybian defarts (warm protruding swarm,
And pour'd new spirit thro' a flavish world.
Yet, o'er these Gothic ftates, the King and Chiefs
Retain'd the high prerogative of war,

And with enormous property engross'd

805

810

The mingled power. But on BRITANNIA's fhore
Now prefent, I to raise My reign began.
By railing the Democracy, the third
And broadeft bulwark of the guarded state.
Then was the full, the perfect plan disclos'd
OF BRITAIN'S matchless Constitution, mix'd
Of mutual checking and fupporting powers,
KING, LORDS and COMMONS; nor the name of Free

815

The commons are generally thought to have been first reprefented in parliament towards the end of Henry the third's reign. To a parliament called in the year 1264, each county was ordered to fend four knights, as representatives of their respective shires: 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 ftrong argument may be drawn, to fix the original of the Houfe of Common's to that aera.

Deferving