Chapter XXI

"There is a spirit working in the world,
Like to a silent, subterranean fire;
Yet, ever and anon, some monarch hurl'd
Aghast and pale attests its fearful ire,
The dungeon'd nations now once more respire
The keen and stirring air of liberty.
The struggling giant wakes, and feels he's free;
By Delphi's fountain-cave that ancient choir
Resume their song; the Greek astonish'd hears,
And the old altar of his worship rears.
Sound on, fair sisters! sound your boldest lyres—
Peal your old harmonies as from the spheres.
Unto strange gods too long we've bent the knee,
The trembling mind, too long and patiently."
George Hill.

"Grand jurors, and sheriffs, and lawyers we'll spurn;
As judges, we'll all take the bench in our turn,
And sit the whole term without pension or fee,
Nor Cushing nor Sewall look graver than we.
Our wigs, though they're rusty, are decent enough;
Our aprons, though black, are of durable stuff;
Array'd in such gear, the laws we'll explain,
That poor people no more shall have cause to complain."
Honeywood's "Radical Song."

E have considered, in the preceding chapter, the most important events, during the first nine years of the reign of George III., having any bearing on the Revolution. We have seen the germs of oppression, planted at different times from the era of the Restoration, springing into life and vigor, and bearing the bitter fruit of tyranny; and observed the bold freemen of America pruning its most noxious branches, and trampling in the dust its "apples of Sodom." We have seen the tide of British power swelling high, and menacing, and beheld the firm rock of sound principles fearlessly breasting its billows, and hurling them baek toward their source. We have seen a loyal people, warmly attached to the person of their sovereign, and venerating the laws of their fatherland, goaded, by ministerial ignorance and haughty indifference respecting the claims of right when interfering with expediency, to the assumption of manly defiance both of king and Parliament, until hireling butchers, with pike and bayonet, were seated in their midst to "harass the people and eat out their substance." We now behold them pressed to the alternative