Like Life's rich ftreams drawn from their

parent fource,

Profufely drain'd the all-supplying heart, The mafs impoverished in its wholesome course, And check'd the action of each nobler part!

This awful truth fhe feels in ev'ry vein,
And feels it with an anxious mother's pain;
And though to guard inviolate her Land,
Her Laws, her Life, fhe claims the filial hand,
Ev'n while fhe views her loyal Sons in arms,
She trembles with a parent's fond alarms:
With pride the fees bright FREEDOM grace her
Throne,

Nor grudges other States the bleffings of her own!

She wars alone with ruthless ftrife

That dooms the Orphan and the Wife
To dungeons, chains, or death,

Because the Sire who gave them breath,

Or

Or the lov❜d Lord in trembling terror flew,
Profcription and his fate in view!

And what their crimes? Too oft the chance

of birth,

Sublimer genius, or fuperior worth!

Foe to the cruel means-but to the END
BRITANNIA and her BRITONS are a friend.

Oh! ne'er would ALBION quench the facred flame,

Divinely bright! that gilt her path to fame, Ah no! when the dread thirft of blood is o'er, And ruthless rage fhall ftain the cause no more, With honeft joy our ALBION fhall embrace Her Gallic foes, and own them of a kindred race!

XI.

But when fair Honour's voice-'twill be a voice

from Heav'n—

Shall cry, Hold! hold! the pow'r to fpare is giv'n,

6

Thy

Thy Land, thy Law, thy Liberty fecure,

The offer'd Olive now will Peace enfure:

O! fhould the then, with fell difnatur'd rage, Waste one rich drop of gen'rous ENGLAND'S blood,

The Mufe that freely gives this votive page,

Will pour indignant Cenfure's broadeft flood;

Ev'n though, like ROME's firm Sire, to be

fincere,

Juftice fhould ftrike her victim with a tear!

THE

THE GLEANER'S RETURN.

Connected with thefe fentiments is a view at Home. During the courfe of the war, twice did the Gleaner revifit the benevolent land here, praised. The date of his firft return will be afcertained, when he obferves, that the cannon of Dumourier almoft fhook the battlements of the pleafant and kindly remembered little frontier town, (the * Brielle,) of which a not fcanty Gleaning will be found in its place. Doubtful, however, of events, he did not wish to abide the chance of being taken by the French, whom his country had irritated; he remained, therefore, on the apparently unfafe fide of the water's edge, till felf-prefervation, bade him fet fail for the other; for, even as he fat in the cabin of the Packet-boat, in which he embarked, the fire and fmoke from the befiegers and the befieged at Williamstadt, feemed to pursue the track of the veffel, and made her tremble on the waves, as if shaken by a fea quake.

* In Holland,

We

She reached, however, the coaft of Albion, without any adverse rencontre, and the Gleaner felt himself again, literally, on terra firma. This happened in an advanced part of the fpring; he looked at the gardens of fome cottages, running down almost to the rim of the Ocean at Harwich, and could not but exemplify their peaceful and profperous ftate, by applying (pardon him) a verfe of his own. Ah happy islanders,

"There's not a King dares rob

ye

of a Rofe !"

A few hours before, he had witneffed, even at Helveotfluice, the internal, the domeftic, foe of Holland, unnaturally, and almost, openly, affifting the machinations of the foe without. The difaffected patriots of the difunited Provinces, had fpiked feveral of the cannon, mutilated the corn-mills, and caft obftructions in the way of the water-works, to augment the difficulty, fhould it become neceffary to open the Dutch fluices. The Gleaner

• Humanity.