Ixxxii AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



Then peace will flourish all around, 

 And none in sorrow shall be found ; 

 Nor need we fear a repetition 

 Of Guy's unlucky expedition. 



When I reflect that the faith of my ancestors has 

 been most cruelly assailed for centuries, by every 

 man in power, from the Prime Minister of England 

 down to the county magistrate ; when I see it 

 rising again triumphant in every part of the empire ; 

 and when I observe multitudes, in every rank of 

 life, returning to its consoling communion, I call to 

 mind, with infinite delight, those beautiful verses of 

 Dryden : 



" A milk-white hind, immortal and unchanged, 

 Fed on the lawns, and in the forests ranged. 

 Without unspotted, innocent within, 

 She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin. 

 Yet had she oft been chased with horns and hounds, 

 And Scythian shafts, and many-winged wounds 

 Aim'd at her heart ; was often forced to fly, 

 And doom'd to death, though fated not to die." 



I have made no mention of my political feel- 

 ings in these Memoirs. My politics, indeed, claim 

 little notice. Being disabled by Sir Robert Peel's 

 Bill from holding even a commission of the peace, I 

 am like a stricken deer, walking apart from the rest 

 of the herd. Still I cannot help casting a compas- 

 sionate eye on poor Britannia, as she lies on her 

 bed of sickness. A debt of eight hundred millions 

 of pounds sterling (commenced by Dutch William 

 of glorious memory) is evidently the real cause of 

 her distressing malady. It is a fever of the worst 



