ARGUMENT OF THE SIXTH BOOK.
Invocation to Liberty. French Revolution. Character of Washington. His speech to his Chiefs. Orders to General Gage. Sir H. Clinton's speech to Arnold. Arnold's reply, and subsequent deeds. Success of Lord Cornwallis, and other British Chiefs.
HAIL, holy Spirit! Celestial Freedom, hail! Thou with the Eternal fixest thy abode,
And with thy Sisters, Truth, and Virtue, knit Play'st round the throne of light thy gambols pure. Or if right Reason's name delight thee more, Thus will I thee invoke to aid my song, Which, leaving lesser orbs, through desert space Wings its bold flight up to the orb of day. Hail, holy Spirit, hail! Thou who wert wont To quit thy blest abode to dwell with men ; Whom Athens saw within her sacred walls, And ancient Rome ador'd; whom Britain oft, Like a fond mother cherish'd in her arms; And thence as oft, by Asiatick wealth Corrupt, far banish'd, once again descend, And buoy my feeble pinions while I soar Above all mortal ken, and sing of deeds So far excelling human intellect
That man could scarce believe the facts man saw.
Thee, purest Essence! even Gallia once, But once, and for one momentary space Shall see, but 'reft of reason at the sight Shall not discern thy worth, but in thy stead Adore an Idol, that thy shape assumes Too oft, and rides triumphant o'er mankind. But Gallia long had groan'd beneath the weight Of haughty despots; long her rights, and laws, Been trampled down beneath oppression's hoof; Justice was sold by law; the nobles liv'd, As if a race superiour to the rest,
Exempt from various burthens that oppress'd The suffering people; but what most of all Her vengeance rous'd, was that extravagance With which her rulers delug'd all the land. 'Tis this extravagance, which, soon or late, Brings kings and kingdoms to untimely end. This not all Turgot's virtues could reform; Turgot that wise, that able minister, Whom Gallia's Genius with her wonted care Sent to restore her rights, but sent in vain ;
35. 'Tis this extravagance,-" The expences," said Mr. Burke, an. 1774, are beyond all measure ruinous; I have pretty good authority for saying, that the king (of France) draws after him a personal expence of between three and four millions sterling; and this is an article so rooted and so vicious in its principles, that no act of the ministers can either lessen or controul it." Debrett, vii. 266. See Belsham, iv. 302-4. 182-5. 273-4.
"The expensiveness of the government is the true ground of the oppression of the people.' Life of W. v. 600.
38. Turgot" An excellent and able minister, the zealous friend of peace and economy, of toleration and reform," &c. See note in Belsham, ii. 214; and his Life written by Condorcet.
For now Profusion with her bandag'd eyes,
And open hand, stalk'd with gigantick strides Thro' all the land, and in her train were seen, Extortion, Tribute, Bribery, and Fraud, With false Imprisonment, and Espionage, And Irreligion, and gaunt Poverty. And not far off from these the eye The female Passions at the helm of state, And Prostitution, with such numerous ills As would require ten tongues to utter them. But last of all was seen a monster-form
Whose sanguine hands fill'd with the heads of men Spread horrour round, her eyes so gor'd with blood That she could scarce distinguish friend from foe, Gigantick Vengeance; and with her was seen False Liberty, whose wanton, lawless gait, And Circe tongue, allur'd the ignorant,
But kept the wise far off. How different this From that celestial Form, whose radiant head
48. The female Passions-"The hameau de Chantilly was once the hotel, and gardens of the celebrated madame de Pompadour, mistress to Louis the Fifteenth; one who contributed in no small degree to bring on that revolution, which ended in the total overthrow of the house of her royal lover. No king's mistress was perhaps ever more cordially hated than this lady: her profusion knew no bounds, no one ever mingled more deeply in state intrigues, and no one ever contributed more liberally to filling the cachots of the detestable Bastille. Who can read the narrative of her devoted victim the unfortunate Maseres de la Tude, and then think that no change was wanted in France? One should rather be astonished at the patience which had endured oppression so long."-An unpublished Narrative of a Three Years Residence in France, in 1802, 3, 4, by Anne Plumptre, chap. xiii.
Scatters the beams of virtue o'er mankind; Whose modest gait, and dignified address Win so on every heart, that to adore Is but to know! Where-e'er she place her feet Spontaneous earth emits its flowery sweets, And e'en the barren rock with verdure smiles; Where-e'er she breathe, empyreal odours waft Ambrosial gales, and all is joy, and love. Come then, Celestial Freedom! and with thee Bring peace, and plenty, and good will to men; And drive far off from pure Columbia's soil That blood-gorg'd crew, curs'd with the human shape, Those monster-men of old Corruption born And long-establish'd Crime, and black Revenge; Of whom were some sprung from their mother Sin Close by the gates of hell, and call'd on earth, 75 Barrere, and Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Tainville, and Samson, d'Herbois, Carriere, Fouche, Hebert, Orleans, and ten thousand more, Whose names the deep oblivious pool would whelm, But that the truth of history must record That future men may curse, and future kings Beware profusion, and those ministers Whose tinsel eloquence beguiles the ear, But reaches not the heart; 'gainst such as these Kings cannot be too guarded; and with them
78. ten thousand more,-Among these the readers of the History of the French Revolution will easily recognise Freron, Tallien, Couthon, St. Just, Dumas, Le Bas, Henriot, Legendre, Mengaud, Rapinat, &c. &c.
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