CII. He ceased, and drew forth an MS.; and no CIII. Those grand heroics acted as a spell: The angels stopp'd their ears and plied their pinions; The devils ran howling, deafen'd, down to hell; The ghosts fled, gibbering, for their own dominions (For 'tis not yet decided where they dwell, And I leave every man to his opinions ;) Michael took refuge in his trump-but lo! His teeth were set on edge, he could not blow! See Aubrey's account of the apparition which disappeared “with a curious perfume and a melodious twang;" or see the Antiquary, vol. 1. CIV. Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known CV. He first sunk to the bottom-like his works, It may be, still, like dull books on a shelf, In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or " Vision," * A drowned body lies at the bottom till rotten; it then floats, as most people know. CVI. As for the rest, to come to the conclusion Was, that King George slipp'd into heaven for one; And when the tumult dwindled to a calm, I left him practising the hundredth psalm. END OF THE POEM. APPENDIX. COURT OF KING'S BENCH. Thursday, January 15, 1824. THE KING V. JOHN HUNT. THIS was an indictment preferred by the "Constitutional Association" against the defendant, for publishing in a book called the Liberal, a libel on the memory of his late Majesty King George the Third, with intent to hurt the feelings, and destroy the comfort and happiness of our Sovereign Lord the now King, and the other descendants of his late Majesty, and to bring them into public scandal, infamy hatred, and contempt. The passages charged as libellous are contained in the poem entitled the Vision of Judgment, and were as follows: VIII. "In the first year of freedom's second dawn "Died George the Third; although no tyrant, one "A better farmer ne'er brush'd dew from lawn, IX. “He died!—his death made no great stir on earth; "Of aught but tears-save those shed by collusion." XLIII. "He came to his sceptre, young; he leaves it, old : "Look to the state in which he found his realm, "And left it; and his annals too behold, "How to a minion first he gave the helm; "How grew upon his heart a thirst for gold, XLIV. ""Tis true, he was a tool from first to last; "(I have the workman safe ;) but as a tool "So let him be consum'd! From out the past "Of ages, since mankind have known the rule "Of monarchs-from the bloody rolls amass'd "Of sin and slaughter-from the Cæsar's school, "Take the worst pupil; and produce a reign "More drench'd with gore, more cumber'd with the slain! XLV. "He ever warr'd with freedom and the free: "Nations as men, home subjects, foreign foes, "So that they utter'd the word 'Liberty!' "Found George the Third their first opponent. Whose "History was ever stain'd as his will be "With national and individual woes?" XLVII. "He leaves heirs on many thrones "To all his vices, without what begot "Compassion for him-his tame virtues; drones "Who sleep, or despots who have now forgot "A lesson which shall be re-taught them, wake "Upon the throne of Earth; but let them quake!" |