GENERAL POSTSCRIPT. 5 r 



applied to thofe men, who, from private and perfonal motives, 

 compofe either a majority or minority in a houfe of parliament, 

 or to thofe who out of it, on fimilar principles, approve or 

 condemn the meafures of any adminiftration, is certainly in 

 its place : But in a matter of fuch magnitude as the prefent 

 American War, in which the deareft interefls of mankind are 

 concerned, the puny term has little or no meaning. If, how- 

 ever, it be applied to me on this occafion, I mall take it with 

 much complacency, confcious that no fentiment appears 

 in my Poem which does not prove its author to be of 

 THE PARTY OF HUMANITY. 



The whole of the Plan being now explained, I might here 

 finim, did not a general objection remain which I have heard 

 made to the fpecies of Verification in which I chofe to com- 

 pofe it. I mud, therefore, beg the reader's patience while I 

 inform him why I preferred blank verfe to rhyme on this oc*- 

 cafion. 



When I firfl had the fubjecl: in contemplation, I found it 

 admitted of two very different modes of compofition : One 



H 2 was 



