CORRUPTION.

Νυν δ' απανθ' ώσπερ εξ αγορας εκπεπραται ταυτα· αντεισήκται δε αντί τούτων, ὑφ' ὧν απολωλε και νενοσηκεν ή Έλλας. Ταυτα δ' εστι τι ; ζηλως, ει τις ειληφε τι γελως αν ὁμολογη συγγνωμη τοις ελεγχομένοις· μισος, αν τουτοις τις επιτιμα ταλλα παντα, όσα εκ του δωροδοκειν ηρτηται.

DEMOSTH. Philipp. iii.

CORRUPTION,

AN EPISTLE.

BOAST on, my friend-though stript of all beside,
Thy struggling nation still retains her pride *:
That pride, which once in genuine glory woke
When Marlborough fought, and brilliant St. John

spoke;

That pride which still, by time and shame unstung, Outlives even Wh-tel-cke's sword and H-wk-s

b'ry's tongue!

Boast on, my friend, while in this humbled isle + Where Honour mourns and Freedom fears to smile,

* Angli suos ac sua omnia impense mirantur; cæteras nationes despectui habent. - Barclay (as quoted in one of Dryden's prefaces).

† England began very early to feel the effects of cruelty towards her dependencies. "The severity of her government (says Macpherson) contributed more to deprive her of the continental dominions of the family of Plantagenet than the arms of France."- See his History, vol. i.

Where the bright light of England's fame is known But by the shadow o'er our fortunes thrown; Where, doom'd ourselves to nought but wrongs and slights *,

We hear you boast of Britain's glorious rights,

As wretched slaves, that under hatches lie,
Hear those on deck extol the sun and sky!
Boast on, while wandering through my native haunts,
I coldly listen to thy patriot vaunts;

And feel, though close our wedded countries twine,
More sorrow for my own than pride from thine.

*

"By the total reduction of the kingdom of Ireland in 1691 (says Burke), the ruin of the native Irish, and in a great measure, too, of the first races of the English, was completely accomplished. The new English interest was settled with as solid a stability as any thing in human affairs can look for. All the penal laws of that unparalleled code of oppression, which were made after the last event, were manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and were not at all afraid to provoke." Yet this is the era to which the wise Common Council of Dublin refer us for "invaluable blessings," &c.

Yet pause a moment

and if truths severe

Can find an inlet to that courtly ear,

Which hears no news but W-rd's gazetted lies,
And loves no politics in rhyme but Pye's, -

If aught can please thee but the good old saws
Of" Church and State," and "William's matchless

laws,"

And "Acts and Rights of glorious Eighty-eight,"
Things, which though now a century out of date,
Still serve to ballast, with convenient words,
A few crank arguments for speeching lords *,
Turn, while I tell how England's freedom found,
Where most she look'd for life, her deadliest wound;

* It never seems to occur to those orators and addressers who round off so many sentences and paragraphs with the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, &c., that most of the provisions which these Acts contained for the preservation of parliamentary independence have been long laid aside as romantic and troublesome. I never meet, I confess, with a politician who quotes seriously the Declaration of Rights, &c., to prove the actual existence of English liberty, that I do not think of that marquis, whom Montesquieu mentions1, who set about looking for mines in the Pyrenees, on the strength of authorities which he had read in some ancient authors. The poor marquis toiled and searched in vain. He quoted his authorities to the last, but found no mines after all.

1 Liv. xxi. chap. 2.