CII.

He ceased, and drew forth an MS.; and no
Persuasion on the part of devils, or saints,

Or angels, now could stop the torrent; so

He read the first three lines of the contents; But at the fourth, the whole spiritual show Had vanish'd, with variety of scents, Ambrosial and sulphureous, as they sprang,

Like lightning, off from his " melodious twang.'

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. I.

CIV.

Saint Peter, who has hitherto been known
For an impetuous saint, upraised his keys,
And at the fifth line knock'd the Poet down;
Who fell like Phaeton, but more at ease,
Into his Lake, for there he did not drown,
A different web being by the Destinies
Woven for the Laureate's final wreath, whene'er
Reform shall happen either here or there.

CV.

He first sunk to the bottom-like his works,

But soon rose to the surface-like himself;

For all corrupted things are buoy'd, like corks,*
By their own rottenness, light as an elf,
Or wisp that flits o'er a morass: he lurks,

It may be still like dull books on a shelf,

In his own den, to scrawl some "Life" or "Vision," As Wellborn says-" the devil turn'd precisian."

* 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
Of this true dream, the telescope is gone
Which kept my optics free from all delusion,
And show'd me what I in my turn have shown:
All I saw farther in the last confusion,

Was, that King George slipped into heaven for one;

And when the tumult dwindled to a calm,

I left him practising the hundreth psalm.

END OF THE POEM.

APPENDIX.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH.

Thursday, Jan. 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
"Who shielded tyrants, till each sense withdrawn
"Left him nor mental nor external sun:

"A better farmer ne'er brush'd dew from lawn,
"A worse king never left a realm undone !
"He died-but left his subjects still behind,
"One half as mad-and t'other no less blind.

IX.

"He died!-his death made no great stir on earth;
"His burial made some pomp ; there was profusion
"Of velvet, gilding, brass, and no great dearth

"Of aught but tears-save those shed by collusion."

XLIH.

“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,
"The beggar's vice, which can but overwhelm
"The meanest hearts-"

" "Tis true,

XLIV.

he was a tool from first to last; "(I have the workmen 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?"