MEMOIRS OF 



that this part of the poem (though pub- 

 lifhed after the other) appeared in 1791, 

 antecedent to the dire regicide, and to all 

 thofe unprecedented fcenes of fanguinary 

 cruelty inflicled on France by three of her 

 republican tyrants, compared to whom the 

 moft remorfelefs of her monarchs was mild 

 and merciful. 



The Botanic Queen now reminds her 

 Gnomes of the means they had ufed to 

 produce metallic fubftances ; and, from the 

 mention of filver and gold, me ftarts into 

 a fpirited and noble exclamation over the 

 cruelties committed by catholic fuperfti- 

 tion, in the Eaft and Weft Indies ; and 

 from them me turns, with equal indigna- 

 tion, to the Slave Trade, that plague-fpot 

 on the reputation of our national huma- 

 nity ! that crying fin in the practice of our 

 national religion! Greatly is it to the honor 

 of our Englim poets, within the laft twenty 

 years, that, w 7 ith very few exceptions, the 

 2 ' beft 



