Maintains the multitude can never err;

And fets the people in the papal chair.
The reason's obvious; intereft never lies;
The most have ftill their interest in their eyes;
The power is always theirs, and power is ever wife.
Almighty crowd, thou shortenest all dispute,

Power is thy effence; wit thy attribute !
Nor faith nor reafon make thee at a stay,

Thou leap'ft o'er all eternal truths in thy Pindaric way!
Athens no doubt did righteously decide,
When Phocion and when Socrates were try'd:
As righteously they did those dooms repent;
Still they were wise whatever way they went,
Crowds err not, though to both extremes they run;
To kill the father, and recal the fon.

Some think the fools were most as times went then,
But now the world's o'erftock'd with prudent men.
The common cry is ev'n religion's test,

The Turk's is at Conftantinople best;

Idols in India; popery at Rome;

And our own worship only true at home.
And true, but for the time 'tis hard to know
How long we please it shall continue so.
This fide to-day, and that to-morrow burns ;
So all are God-a'mighties in their turns.
A tempting doctrine, plaufible, and new ;
What fools our fathers were, if this be true!
Who, to destroy the feeds of civil war,
Inherent right in monarchs did declare :

And that a lawful power might never cease,
Secur'd fucceffion to fecure our peace.
Thus property and fovereign sway at last
In equal balances were justly cast :

But this new Jehu fpurs the hot-mouth'd horse;
Inftructs the beast to know his native force;
To take the bit between his teeth, and fly
To the next headlong fteep of anarchy.
Too happy England, if our good we knew,
Would we poffefs the freedom we pursue !
The lavish government can give no more;
Yet we repine, and plenty makes us poor.
God try'd us once; our rebel-fathers fought,
He glutted them with all the power they fought:
Till, mafter'd by their own ufurping brave,
The free-born fubject funk into a flave.
We loath our manna, and we long for quails;
Ah, what is man when his own with prevails!
How rafh, how swift to plunge himself in ill!
Proud of his power, and boundless in his will!
That kings can do no wrong, we must believe;
None can they do, and must they all receive?
Help, heaven! or fadly we shall fee an hour,
When neither wrong nor right are in their power!
Already they have lost their best defence,
The benefit of laws which they difpenfe.
No juftice to their righteous caufe allow'd;
But baffled by an arbitrary crowd.
And medals grav'd their conqueft to record,
The ftamp and coin of their adopted lord.

}

The man who laugh'd but once, to see an ass Mumbling to make the cross-grain'd thistles pass; Might laugh again to fee a jury chew

The prickles of unpalatable law.

The witneffes, that leech-like liv'd on blood,
Sucking for them was med'cinally good;
But, when they fasten'd on their fester'd fore,
Then justice and religion they forswore;
Their maiden oaths debauch'd into a whore.
Thus men are rais'd by factions, and decry'd;
And rogue and faint diftinguish'd by their side.
They rack ev'n fcripture to confefs their cause,
And plead a call to preach in spite of laws.
But that's no news to the poor injur'd page,
It has been us'd as ill in every age;
And is conftrain'd with patience all to take,
For what defence can Greek and Hebrew make?
Happy who can this talking-trumpet feize;
They make it speak whatever sense they please!
'Twas fram'd at first our oracle t'enquire;
But fince our fects in prophecy grow higher,
The text infpires not them, but they the text inspire.
London, thou great emporium of our isle,
O thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile !
How fhall I praife or curfe to thy defert?
Or feparate thy found from thy corrupted part?
I call'd thee Nile; the parallel will stand:
Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fatten'd land;
Yet monsters from thy large increase we find,
Engender'd on the flime thou leav'ft behind.

Se

Sedition has not wholly feiz'd on thee,
Thy nobler parts are from infection free.
Of Ifrael's tribe thou haft a numerous band,
But ftill the Canaanite is in the land.
Thy military chiefs are brave and true;
Nor are thy difinchanted burghers few.
The head is loyal which thy heart commands,
But what's a head with two such gouty hands?
The wife and wealthy love the surest way,
And are content to thrive and to obey.
But wifdom is to floth too great a slave;

None are fo bufy as the fool and knave.
Those let me curfe; what vengeance will they urge,
Whofe ordures neither plague nor fire can purge?
Nor fharp experience can to duty bring,
Nor angry heaven, nor a forgiving king!
In gofpel-phrafe their chapmen they betray;
Their fhops are dens, the buyer is their prey.
The knack of trades is living on the spoil;
They boast ev'n when each other they beguile.
Cuftoms to fteal is fuch a trivial thing,
That 'tis their charter to defraud their king.
All hands unite of every jarring sect;

They cheat the country firft, and then infect.
They for God's cause their monarchs dare dethrone,
And they'll be fure to make his caufe their own.
Whether the plotting jefuit lay'd the plan
Of murdering kings, or the French puritan,
Our facrilegious fects their guides outgo,
And kings and kingly power would murder too.

What means their traiterous combination lefs,
Too plain t' evade, too fhameful to confefs.
But treafon is not own'd when 'tis defcry'd;
Successful crimes alone are justify'd.

The men who no confpiracy would find
Who doubts? but had it taken, they had join'd,
Join'd in a mutual covenant of defence;
At first without, at last against, their prince.
If fovereign right by fovereign power they scan,
The fame bold maxim holds in God and man:
God were not fafe, his thunder could they fhun;
He should be forc'd to crown another fon.

Thus, when the heir was from the vineyard thrown,
The rich poffeffion was the murderer's own.

In vain to sophistry they have recourse :

By proving their's no plot, they prove 'tis worfe;
Unmask'd rebellion, and audacious force:
Which though not actual, yet all eyes may fee
'Tis working in th' immediate power to be ;
For from pretended grievances they rife,
First to dislike, and after to despise.
Then cyclop-like in human flesh to deal,
Chop up a minifter at every meal :

Perhaps not wholly to melt down the king;
But clip his regal rights within the ring.

From thence t' affume the power of peace and war;
And cafe him by degrees of public care.

Yet, to confult his dignity and fame,

He should have leave to exercife the name;

And hold the cards while commons play'd the game.

}

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For