It was conceived in the higheft fpirit of 

 defpotifm; and executed with the utmoft 

 rigour of vindictive tyranny*. 



It 



* If the reader wifh to fee the mifchiefs of forcft-law heightened 

 by poetic images, the following lines of Mr. Pope fet them in a 

 ftrong light. 



Thus all the land appeared, in ages pad, 



A dreary defert, and a gloomy wail, 



To favage beafts, and favage laws a prey, 



And kings more furious, and fevere than they ; 



Who claimed the fkies, difpeopled air, and floods, 



The lonely lords of empty wilds, and woods. 



Cities laid wafte, they ftormed the dens, and caves } 



For wifer brutes were backward to be flaves. 



What could be free, when lawlefs beafts obeyed ? 



And even the elements a tyrant fwayed ? 



In vain kind feafons fwelled the teeming grain, 



Soft mowers diftilled, and funs grew warm in vain ; 



The fvvain, with tears his fruftrate labours yields, 



And famiflied dies amidft his ripening fields. 



What wonder then, a beaft, or fubjedt flain> 



Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign ! 



Both doomed alike, for fportive tyrants bled : 

 But while the fubjecl: ftaived, the beafl was fed. 

 Proud Nimrod firft the bloody chace began, 

 A mighty hunter ; and his prey was man. 

 Our haughty Norman boafts that barbarous name, 

 And makes his trembling flaves the royal game. 

 The fields are ravifhed from induflrious fwains, 

 From men their cities, and from gods their fanes : 



The 



