"I hymn the gallant and the good
From Tyler down to Thistlewood,
My muse the trophies grateful sings,
The deeds of Miller and of Ings;
She sings of all who, soon or late,
Have burst Subjection's iron chain,
Have seal'd the bloody despot's fate,
Or cleft a peer or priest in twain.
"Shades, that soft Sedition woo,
Around the haunts of Peterloo!
That hover o'er the meeting-halls,
Where many a voice stentorian bawls!
Still flit the sacred choir around,
With 'Freedom' let the garrets ring,
And vengeance soon in thunder sound
On Church, and constable, and king."
In a paper on "Eloquence," in the same volume, he shows that even then
his young mind was impressed by the fame attached to successful oratory
in Parliament. Visions of glory and honor open before the enraptured
sight of those devoted to oratorical pursuits, and whose ardent and
aspiring minds are directed to the House of Commons. Evidently the young
writer himself "had visions of parliamentary oratory, and of a
successful _debut_ in the House of Commons, with perhaps an offer from
the Minister, a Secretaryship of State, and even the Premiership itself
in the distance.
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