[P] "The connection between vice and meanness is a fit object for satire; but when the satire is a fact, it cuts with the irresistible power of a diamond. If a Quaker, in defence of his just rights, his property, and the chastity of his house, takes up a musket, he is expelled the meeting; but the present king of England, who seduced and took into keeping a sister of their society, is reverenced and supported with repeated testimonies, while the friendly noodle from whom she was taken, (and who is now in this city) continues a drudge in the service of his rival, as if proud of being cuckolded by a creature called a king."--_American Crisis_, No. 3, _Printed at Philadelphia_, 1777.--_Ib._ [6] First published in the _United States Magazine_, December, 1779. The test follows the edition of 1786. "Early in June, the French fleet of thirty-one ships of the line, yielding to Spanish importunities, put to sea from Brest; and yet they were obliged to wait off the coast of Spain for the Spaniards. After a loss of two months in the best season of the year, a junction was effected with more than twenty ships of war under the command of ... Count Gaston; and the combined fleet, the largest force that had ever been afloat, sailed for the British Channel.... The united fleet rode unmolested by the British.... On the 16th of August they appeared off Plymouth, but did not attack the town. After two idle days a strong wind drove them to the west; when the gale had abated, the allies rallied, returned up the channel, and the British retreated before them. No harmony existed between the French and Spanish officers. A deadly malady ravaged the French ships and infected the Spanish. The combined fleet never had one chief. The French returned to port and remained there; the Spaniards sailed for Cadiz, execrating their allies."--_Bancroft._ [7] "Charly Fox."--_Ed. 1795._ [8] Fox's opposition to the American war is too well known to need comment. [9] "Their cause."--_Ed. 1795._ [10] "Sufferings."--_Ed. 1809._ [11] "Gods."--_Ed. 1795._ [12] "We."--_Ib._ [13] "_Sackville._"--_Ed. 1795._ [14] "Thundering."--_Ib._ [15] "Careless."--_Ib._ [16] "Our."--_Ed. 1795._ [17] "Us."--_Ib._ [18] "Our."--_Ib._ [19] "George."--_Ed. 1795._ [20] This and the following seventeen lines omitted from the edition of 1795. [21] "Instant."--_Ed. 1795._ [22] "Catharine."--_Ib._ [23] "Her oceans."--_Ib._ [24] "Cunning."--_Ed. 1809._ [25] "The Frenchman's."--_Ed. 1795._ THE BRITISH PRISON SHIP[26] Written 1780 CANTO I.--THE CAPTURE _Amid these ills no tyrant dared refuse My right to pen the dictates of the muse, To paint the terrors of the infernal place, And fiends from Europe, insolent as base._