( I' ) 



It was conceived in the higheil: fpirit of 

 defpotifnii and executed with the utmoft 

 rigour of vindid:ive tyranny*. 



It 



* If the reader wifli to fee the mifchiefe of foreft-law 

 heightened by poetic images, the following lines of Mr. Pope 

 fet them in a ftrong light. 



Thus all the land appeared, in ages paft, 

 A dreary defert, and a gloomy waft, 

 To favage beafts, and favage laws a prey. 

 And kings more furious, and fevere than they; 

 Who claimed the Ikies, difpeopled air, and floods, 

 The lonely lords of empty wilds, and woods. 

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

 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 fliowers diftilled, and funs grew warm in vain ; 

 The fwain, with tears his fruftrate labours yields, 

 And famiftied dies amidft his ripening fields. 

 What wonder then, a beaft, or fubjeft flain. 

 Were equal crimes in a defpotic reign ! 

 Both doomed alike, for fportive tyrants bled: 

 But while the fubjeft ftarved, the beaft 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 raviflied from induftrious fwains, 

 From men their cities, and from gods their fanes : 



The 



