“Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear receiveda little thereof. A SPIRIT passed before my face.”
Job.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WILLIAM HONE,
45, LUDGATE HILL.
1821.
Sixpence.
J. M‘Creery, Tooks Court,
Chancery Lane, London.
The following lines were written under the powerfulimpulse of feelings which appear to have beenalmost consentaneous with those of the whole Britishpeople. The national spirit has been rouzedagainst this cruel and unconstitutional attack uponthe Queen, with pervasive ardour, which forciblyrecalls the language of the Augustan poet:—
This irresistible movement has been one of LOYALTY,not of FACTION; of love and not of enmity towardsthe constitution. It is not disputed that factiousmen exist, who are ready to swell public tumultwhenever it arises: but it is mere drivelling, for ministersand their adherents, to talk of “radicalism”and democracy on this occasion. They must know, ifthey consult the commonest sources of intelligenceopen to them, that detestation of “The Bill ofPains and Penalties” is rooted beyond all possibilityof eradication in the breasts of an overwhelmingmajority of good men, and faithful subjects.
At the moment when it was determined to sendthe following “Vision” to the press, a burst ofhonest exultation has electrified the whole kingdom.[Pg iv]With feelings of solemn gratitude to God, and lovefor my country, I rejoice not only that the Queenis thus delivered from the fangs of her enemies; butthat the King, THE CONSTITUTION, and THE COUNTRY,have been thus, as I do unequivocally believe,rescued from a tremendous explosion, which wouldat best have been of doubtful issue to our liberties.
Notwithstanding this most happy, this providentialresult, I have determined still to send out the poemto the public; because it expresses in strong, howeverinadequate language, sentiments which areessential to our character as a free people, and tothe preservation of our justly balanced monarchy.
I have not assumed the FASCIS of satire, withoutdeep conviction that its rods were imperativelycalled into action: but most gladly shall I reversethem, after the manner of the ancient Lictors, overthe obsequies of an administration, which must benow in its death-pangs. May succeeding cabinetsbe WARNED, not guided, by its example!