Like the dead stillness of the summer air, When pregnant clouds of shrouded fire are there, They sat:--and like the voice of thunder broke The rolling periods, as the vision spoke. "Is this," he cried, "the consecrated floor, Where England's peerage stood, as known of yore, Jealous of honour, zealous for the laws; Justice their sword, and England's weal their cause? Are these the walls whose echoes then return'd No words that chasten'd gallantry had spurn'd? Is this the throne whose last loved tenant view'd His people's morals as the monarch's good? Display'd beneath the sov'reign diadem, DOMESTIC VIRTUE, Britain's dearest gem; And bade _Example_ to _his_ court proclaim What taught, unpractis'd, is the teacher's shame? Ah no! that throne is chang'd; this gew-gaw thing Befits a raree-shew, not England's King! And can it be that Brunswick's cherish'd heir Will also change the laws which plac'd him there? Forget the STUART'S FATE, the BRUNSWICK'S OATH; Yet make his sorrowing subjects dwell on both? Forbid it, Heaven! Far other thoughts he knew, When yet his talents with his graces grew; When Genius, Beauty, in his circle ran, Admired the prince, and half adored the man. Nor now _thus_ fall'n!--Yet whence this hot cabal Of treasury bench, and bench episcopal? These monstrous portents that before me rise Of mitred pimps, and coronetted spies! This deep, dark plotting, spreading net and snare, By hands that used their country's ark to bear? This hateful truckling to misguided power, Combined in palace, temple, hall, and bower, To crush an outcast Queen, with evidence By facts refuted, ridiculed by sense?-- Tales that would merit but an equal fate, Told of the veriest wench in Billingsgate! FATHERS! and BRITONS! whence this alien band Of miscreant lechers bribed from sea and land?-- By England spurn'd, yet plied with England's gold, Till every scoundrel's stock of oaths was sold; Then hither sent by hirelings vile as they, To pass for sterling truth in open day. Monstrous fatuity! and British peers Have lent these vermin not unwilling ears; For new-born lies have barter'd ancient law, Broke public faith, to patch a private flaw, And made a court that freemen never saw. ACCUSERS, JURY, JUDGES, _all in ONE_! O England! now be firm, or be undone! Strangle this monster, ere its birth be o'er, Or grov'lling lick the dust to rise no more! Heard I aright? and was it HERE I heard This crew 'gainst England's CONSORT QUEEN preferred? Here did their sland'rous breath infest the air? Hence did malicious tongues the scandal bear? Gush'd 'neath this sacred dome the prurient flood Of filth and venom, from that viper brood, Which o'er the land hath spread its noisome stain, While shudd'ring virtue weeps, but weeps in vain?