THE TRAVELLER. 



347 



Too blessed, indeed, were such without alloy, 

 But fostered e'en by Freedom ills annoy ; 

 That independence Britons prize too high, 

 Keeps man from man, and breaks the social tie; 

 The self-dependent lordlings stand alone, 

 .All claims that bind and sweeten life unknown; 

 Here, by the bonds of nature feebly held, 

 Minds combat minds, repelling and repelled ; 

 Ferments arise, imprisoned factions roar, 

 Repressed ambition struggles round her shore. 

 Till, over-wrought, the general systems feels 

 Its motions stop, or phrenzy fire the wheels. 



Nor this the worst. As nature's ties decay, 

 As duty, love, and honour fail to sway, 

 Fictitious bonds, the bonds of wealth and law, 

 Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe. 

 Hence all obedience bows to these alone, 

 And talent sinks, and merit weeps unknown ; 

 Till time may come, when, stripped of all her charms, 

 The land of scholars, and the nurse of arms, 

 Where noble stems transmit the patriot flame, 

 Where kings have toiled, and poets wrote for fame, 

 One sink of level avarice shall lie, 

 And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonoured die. 



Yet think not, thus when freedom's ills I state, 

 I mean to flatter kings, or court the great : 

 Ye powers of truth ! that bid my soul aspire, 

 Far from my bosom drive the low desire ! 

 And thou, fair Freedom ! taught alike to feel 

 The rabble's rage, and tyrant's angry steel ; 

 Thou transitory flower ! alike undone 

 By proud Contempt, or Favour's fostering sun, 

 Still may thy blooms the changeful clime endure, 

 I only would repress them to secure ; 

 For just experience tells, in every soil, 

 That those who think must govern those that toil ; 

 And all that Freedom's highest aims can reach, 

 Is but to lay proportioned loads on each. 

 Hence, should one order disproportioned grow, 

 Its double weight must ruin all below. , 



O then, how blind to all that truth requires, 

 Who think it freedom when a part aspires! 

 Calm is my soul, nor apt to rise in arms, 

 Except when fast-approaching danger warms ; 

 But when contending chiefs blockade the throne, 

 Contracting regal power to stretch their own ; 



When I behold a factious band agree 



To call it freedom when themselves are free ; 



Each wanton judge new penal statutes draw, 



Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law ; 



The wealth of climes, where savage nations roam, 



Pillaged from slaves, to purchase slaves at home ; 



Fear, pity, justice, indignation start, 



Tear ofF reserve, and bear my swelling heart ; 



Till half a patriot, half a coward grown, 



I fly from petty tyrants to the throne. 



.Yes, brother, curse with me that baleful hour, 

 When first ambition struck at regal power ; 

 And thus polluting honour in its source, 

 Gave wealth to sway the mind with double force. 

 Have we not seen round Britain's peopled shore, 

 Her useful sons exchanged for useless ore ? 

 Seen all her triumphs but destruction haste, 

 Like flaring tapers, brightening as they waste ; 

 Seen Opulence her grandeur to maintain, 

 Lead stem Depopulation in her train, 

 And over fields, where scattered hamlets rose, 

 In barren, solitary pomp repose ? 

 Have we not seen, at Pleasure's lordly call, 

 The smiling long-frequented village fall ? 

 Behold the duteous son, the sire decayed, 

 The modest matron, and the blushing maid. 

 Forced from their homes, a melancholy train, 

 To traverse climes beyond the western main ; 

 Where wild Oswego spreads her swamps around, 

 And Niagara stuns with thundering sound ? 



E'en now, perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays, 

 Through tangled forests, and through dangerous ways j 

 Where beasts with man divided empire claim, 

 And the brown Indian marks with murderous aim ; 

 There, while above the giddy tempest flies,. 

 And all around distrustful yells arise, 

 The pensive exile, bending with his woe, 

 To stop too fearful, and too faint to go, 

 Casts a long look where England's glories shine,. 

 And bids his bosom sympathize with mine. 



Vain, very vain, my weary search to find 

 That bliss which only centres in the mind ! 

 Why have I strayed from pleasure and repose, 

 To seek a good each government bestows ? 

 In every government though terrors reign, 

 Though tyrant kings, or tyrant laws restrain,. 



