From the banks of the strong hold of Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire, near Wareham, formerly a station of the Danish barbariaus, one of their successors making good his lodgment in a nameless House denies the justice of Universal Education, forgetful, perhaps, that the benighted savages, his predecessors, were finally expelled by Alfred; that it was the triumph of Knowledge and Liberty over Ignorance and Selfish power; and that Alfred, disdaining to use the advantage whick Education gave him over the rest of the people, othirwise than for their welfare, incessuntly laboured to dispense its benefits to All. * _Lingard's History of England, vol. i. c. 4._ {188} As government was ever understood To be a measure for the people's good; So when perverted to a wrong intent, It's stark oppression, not a government. {189} Blest are the days, and wing'd with joy they fly, When kings protect the people's liberty; When settled peace in stated order reigns, And, nor the nation, nor the king complains; If kings may ravish, plunder, and destroy, Oppress the world, and all its wealth enjoy; May harass nations, with their breath may kill, And limit liberty by royal will; Then was the world for ignorance design'd, And God gave kings to blast the human mind; And Kings but general farmers of the land; And men their stock for slaughter at command; Mere beasts of draught, to crouch and be opprest, Whom God, the mighty landlord, form'd in jest. Yet who believes that Heaven in vain creates, And gives up what it loves to what it hates; That man's great Maker call'd him into birth, To be destroy'd by tyrant-fiends on earth; That nations are but footstools to a throne, And millions born to be the slaves of one? Priestcraft! search Scripture, shew me God's decree, That crime shall rule by his authority. Kingcraft! search Scripture too, and from it prove Thy right to ravage from the God of Love. * * Priestcraft and Kingcraft are partners in the same firm. They trade together. Kings and conquerors make laws, parcel out lands, and erect churches and palaces for the priests and dignitaries of religion. In return, Priests anoint kings with holy oil, hedge them round with inviolability, spread over them the mysterious sanctity of religion, and, with very little ceremony, make over the whole species as slaves to these Gods upon earth by virtue of Divine Right! Hazlitt's Political Essays, p. 303. {190}