PREFACE. THE practice which has been lately introduced into literature, of writing very long notes upon very indifferent verses, appears to me rather a happy invention, as it supplies us with a mode of turning stupid poetry to account; and as horses too heavy for the saddle may serve well enough to draw lumber, so poems of this kind make excellent beasts of burthen, and will bear notes, though they may not bear reading. Besides, the comments in such cases are so little under the necessity of paying any servile deference to the text, that they may even adopt that Socratic dogma, Quod supra nos, nihil ad nos." In the first of the following poems, I have ventured to speak of the Revolution in language which has sometimes been employed by Tory writers, and which is therefore neither very new nor popular. But however an Englishman may be reproached with ingratitude for depreciating the merits and results of a measure which he is taught to regard as the source of his libertieshowever ungrateful it might be in Alderman B-rch to question for a moment the purity of that glorious era to which he is indebted for the seasoning of so many orations-yet an Irishman, who has none of these obligations to acknowledge-to whose country the Revolution brought nothing but injury and insult, and who recollects that the book of Molyneux was burned, by order of William's Whig Parliament, for daring to extend to unfortunate Ireland those principles on which the Revolution was professedly founded-an Irishman may venture to criticise the measures of that period without exposing himself either to the imputation of ingratitude, or the suspicion of being influenced by any Popish remains of Jacobitism. No nation, it is true, was ever blessed with a more golden opportunity of establishing and securing its liberties for ever than the conjuncture of '88 presented to the people of Great Britain. But the disgraceful reigns of Charles and James had weakened and degraded the national character. The bold notions of popular right, which had arisen out of the struggles between Charles I. and his Parliament, were gradually supplanted by those slavish doctrines for which Lord H-kesb-ry eulogises the churchmen of that period; and as the Reformation had happened too soon for the purity of religion, so the Revolution came too late for the spirit of liberty. Its advantages accordingly were for the most part specious and transitory, while the evils which it entailed are still felt and still increasing. By rendering unnecessary the frequent exercise of prerogative-that unwieldy power which cannot move a step without alarm-it limited the only interference of the Crown, which is singly and independently exposed before the people, and whose abuses therefore are obvious to their senses and capacities. Like the myrtle over a certain statue in Minerva's temple at Athens, it skilfully veiled from their sight the only obtrusive feature of royalty. At the same time, however, that the Revolution abridged this unpopular attribute, it amply compensated, by the substi tution of a new power, as much more potent in its effects as it is more secret in its operations. In the disposal of an immense revenue and the extensive patronage annexed to it, the first foundations of this power of the Crown were laid; the innovation of a standing army at once increased and strengthened it, and the few slight barriers which the Act of Settlement opposed to its progress have all been gradually removed during the Whiggish reigns that succeeded; till at length the spirit of influence has become the vital principle of the state-whose agency, subtle and unseen, pervades every part of the constitution, lurks under all its forms, and regulates all its movements, and, like the invisible sylph or grace which presides over the motions of beauty, "Illam, quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia flectit, The cause of liberty and the Revolution are so habitually associated by Englishmen, that probably in objecting to the latter I may be thought hostile or indifferent to the former. But nothing can be more unjust than such a suspicion. The very object which my humble animadversions would attain is that, in the crisis to which I think England is hastening, and between which and foreign subjugation she may soon be compelled to choose, the errors and omissions of 1688 may be remedied; and that, as she then had a revolution without a reform, she may now seek a reform without a revolution. In speaking of the parties which have so long agitated England, it will be observed that I lean as little to the Whigs as to their adversaries. Both factions have been equally cruel to Ireland, and perhaps equally insincere in their efforts for the liberties of England. There is one name, indeed, connected with Whiggism of which I can never think but with veneration and tenderness. As justly, however, might the light of the sun be claimed by any particular nation, as the sanction of that name be assumed by any party whatsoever. Mr Fox belonged to mankind, and they have lost in him their ablest friend. With respect to the few lines upon Intolerance, which I have subjoined, they are but the imperfect beginning of a long series of essays, with which I here menace my readers, upon the same important subject. I shall look to no higher merit in the task than that of giving a new form to claims and remonstrances which have often been much more eloquently urged, and which would long ere now have produced their effect, but that the minds of some men, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more the stronger light there is shed upon them. CORRUPTION: AN EPISTLE. Νυν δ ̓ ἁπανθ' ὥσπερ εξ αγορας εκπεπραται ταυτα αντεισήκται δε αντί τούτων, ὑφ' ὧν απολωλε και νενοσηκεν ἡ ̔Ελλας. Ταυτα δ' εστι τι ; ζηλος, ει τις ειληφε τι γελως αν ὁμολογῃ· συγγνωμη τοις ελεγχομενοις μισός, αν τούτοις τις επιτιμα. ταλλα παντα, όσα εκ του δωροδοκειν ηρτηται. Demosth. Philipp. iii. BOAST on, my friend-though stript of all beside, Thy struggling nation still retains her pride : That pride which once in genuine glory woke When Marlborough fought, and brilliant St John spoke; That pride which still, by time and shame unstung, Outlives even Wh-tel-cke's sword and H-wk-sb'ry's tongue! Boast on, my friend, while in this humble isle Where honour mourns and freedom fears to smile, But by the baleful shadow she has thrown On all our fate, where, doom'd to wrongs and slights,* As wretched slaves that under hatches lie, Here those on deck extol the sun and sky! Boast on, while wandering through my native haunts, And feel, though close our wedded countries twine, Yet pause a moment-and if truth severe Can find an inlet to that courtly ear, Which loves no politics in rhyme but Pye's, If aught can please thee but the good old saws Of "Church and State," and "William's matchless laws," "By the total reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691," says Burke, "the ruin of the native Irish, and, in a great measure too, of the first races of the English, was completely accomplished." |