Beneath a Tyrant’s lewd capricious reign: Virtue and freedom were rever’d no more, And the stern virtues sought a genial shore:(6) A new found world! by nature’s bounty grac’d With pow’rs stupendous;--and by wisdom plac’d, Where, undebauch’d by regal sway, might rise A pure Republic: to console the wise, And teach the good, that heaven, this simple plan, As yet, designs to staunch the woes of man: When all shall know, from liberty what flows, And share the bliss that _equal law_ bestows. But God, in wrath, the benefit suspends; And k--s, its ministers of vengeance, sends To rule on earth, that vicious man may see The bitter fruits of his impiety: For iron sceptres, only, can command, And haughty despots rule, a venal land. The lion roams the monarch of the wood; For might must sway, where subjects hunt for blood. Could ought to gen’rous spirits reconcile The kingly rule, such monarchs as our isle, In the fourth George presents, “_a patriot King_,” Just, lib’ral, and humane, the balm must bring: A reign where pow’r but guards the subject’s right, And the proud crown beams fair with freedom’s light. Had such the Stuart’s been the raging blast, Which, from his throne, the bigot Monarch cast, And, in dread fury, hurl’d in ruin, down, The lofty ones of earth, had not been known. Hid in the solitudes of private life, Earth’s lowly sons had mingl’d not in strife With mighty names, princes and pow’rs, whose state Seem’d, once, to dare the wildest storms of fate. But, as the ocean on its billows bears, In raging mood, the mire and dirt it tears From its low bed, and overwhelms the pride Of halls and palaces; so drear and wide The ravage made, when through its custom’d mound Subjection bursts, and owns no settled bound. O’er rank and state the torrent rises high, Whilst ruin’d thrones and altars prostrate lie. Let princes learn, then, righteously to sway:-- And to their subjects’ weal just def’rence pay: Nor lust of pow’r e’er tempt them to withstand What justice prompts the _People_ to demand. Let rights of conscience, social claims allow’d, Disarm the factious, and confound the proud: Who seek, ’midst wounded spirits,--tortur’d minds, That cement which a suff’ring people binds. Then shall rebellion to establish’d pow’r, Be as the snow drift beat against a tow’r Of massive strength; which may obscure, awhile, Its native grandeur, but, anon, the pile Shall show its beauty, whilst the vengeful storm Melts at its base, no longer to deform. _Rebellion!_ ’tis a foul,--an odious deed! The traitor, justly, is to death decreed: But _nations_ may not bear the hateful name, Nor, in their gen’ral acts, incur the shame. A _rebel People_, no where can be found; For public will, alone, can fix the bound