William Hone

“ Kings spurn at limitations, laws, and rules, And rob mankind—because mankind are fools; Wheedled to act against their common sense, To jumble tyranny with providence; To hope from God what God expects from them, For what they ought to do, look up to Him; Leave unperform'd the duties which they know, And lift up hands they should employ below! Christians must no more miracles expect, The men that will be slaves, He'll not protect; God never will our base petitions hear, Till our endeavours supersede our prayer; Not always then; but nation's may be sure, The willing bondage ever shall endure. ”

“ Arise, O Satire!—tune thy useful song, Silence grows criminal, when crimes grow strong; Of meaner vice, and villains, sing no more, But Monsters crown'd, and Crime enrobed with Power! At vice's high Imperial throne begin, Relate the ancient prodigies of sin; With pregnant phrase, and strong impartial verse, The crimes of men, and crimes of Kings rehearse! What though thy labour shall to us be vain, And the World's bondage must its time remain; Let willing slaves in golden fetters lie, There's none can save the men who will to die. ”

“ The injured people, treated with disdain, Found their Petitions and Addresses vain! Long had they made submissions to the crown, And long the love of Liberty had known; The kings they ask'd of God had let them see, What God himself foretold of tyranny. The father had exhausted all their stores, With costlyhouses, and more costly whores; But doubly robb'd by his encroaching son, They rather chose to die, than be undone; And, thus resolving, by a single stroke, Ten tribes revolted, and their bondage broke! The tyrant, in his sceptred bloated pride, Believing God and blood upon his side ”

“ The mighty wretches dwell among the stars, And vice in virtue's glorious robes appears; And Poets celebrate their praises there, As Indians worship Devils that they fear! Yet let us look around the world awhile, And find a Patron-God for Albion's Isle; Has she so many Tyrants borne in vain? Has she no Star in the celestial train? Heaven knows, the difficulty only lies, In who's the fittest monster for the skies!— Satire, reflect with care, due caution give, Some ———— are dead, beware of those that live. If thou too near the present age begin, Truth will be crime, and courage will be sin! ”

“ Society to regulation tends, As naturally as means pursue their ends; The wit of man could never yet invent, A way of life without a government; And government has always been begun, In those who, to be govern'd, gave the crown. He that would other schemes of rule contrive And search for powers the people could not give, Must seek a spring which can those powers convey, And seek a People too that will obey. At length paternal rule was less complete, And as mankind increas'd became unfit; The petty Lords grow quarrelsome and proud, And plunge their little governments in blood. ”

“ When settled peace in stated order reigns, And, nor the nation, nor the king complains; If kings may ravish, plunder, and destroy, Oppress the world, and all its wealth enjoy; May harass nations, with their breath may kill, And limit liberty by royal will; Then was the world for ignorance design'd, And God gave kings to blast the human mind; And Kings but general farmers of the land; And men their stock for slaughter at command; Mere beasts of draught, to crouch and be opprest, Whom God, the mighty landlord, form'd in jest. ”

“ All power over others, from the watch-box to the throne, tends to injure the understanding, and corrupt the heart. A good King would not desire unlimited power; a bad one would abuse it. He would become mad; and drive the people mad. A despot is a demon. Artillery and fetters with the royal robe flung over them—a cannon ball capped with the royal crown—animated by the royal will—crushing, burning, and butchering liberty, property, and human life—personify the power of an unlimited King.
The ensuing satire shows the folly and danger of such power. ”

“ Let us to Scripture History appeal, And see what truths its ancient rolls reveal:— That great authority which Tyrants boast, As most confirming, will confound them most! When Israel with unheard of murmurs first, Pray'd to indulgent Heaven they might be curst, Rejected God, scorn'd his Almighty rule, And made themselves their children's ridicule, A standing banter, future ages' jest, As damn'd to slavery at their own request— With what just arguments did Samuel plead, Give them the Tyrant's character to read; Explain the lust of an ungovern'd man, Show them the danger, preach to them in vain ”

“ So 'rules' the Bench, and so the maxim takes, The fault one age commits, no age forsakes! Begot by fools, maintain'd by knaves and fools, Improved by craft in error's public schools; With shifting face, with loose and stammering tongue, The juggling fraud has plagued the world too long; Modern encroachments on our freedom makes, And backs it with our fathers' old mistakes: As if our rev'rence, to their virtues due, Should recommend their crimes and follies too! This vapour Custom, this mere wand'ring cloud Puffs the crown'd wretch, and helps to make him proud. ”

“ Who always turn again when they're opprest, And basely spoil the gay tyrannic jest; Tell kings—of Nature, Laws of God, and Right, Take up their arms, and with their tyrants fight. When passive thousands fall beneath the sword, And freely die at the imperial word, A stern, unyielding, self-defending few, While they resist, will ravel all the clew; Will all the engines of oppression awe, And trample pow'r beneath the feet of law. 'Tis always natural for men opprest, Whene'er occasion offers to resist; They're traitors else to truth and common sense, And rebels to the laws of Providence ”

“ And thus commenced the royal Saxon line:— That sword that vanquish'd innocence in fight, The sword that crush'd the banish'd Britons' right, At pleasure subdivides the British crown, And forms eight soldier kingdoms out of one. From these we strive to date our royal line, And these must help us to a right divine; From actions buried in eternal night, Priestcraft is brought, to fix the fancied right; Priestcraft that, always on the strongest side, Contrives, tho' kings should walk, that priests shall ride. One master thief his fellows dispossest, And gave, once more, the weeping nation rest ”

“ The Public Will, the only Right Divine, Sanctions the office, or divides the line; Topples the crown from off the tyrant's head, And puts a king to govern in his stead. Tyrant and king are vastly different things— We're robb'd by tyrants, but obey'd by kings! If it be ask'd, how the distinction's known, Oppression marks him out—the nations groan, The broken laws, the cries of injur'd blood, Are languages by all men understood! * * Tyrants lose all respect for humanity, in proportion as they are sunk beneath it; taught to believe themselves of a different species, they really become so ”

“ I tell this bishop, that though the law may not suppose it possible for a king of England to do wrong, because it intends him to do right, yet if he should do, and continue to do, oppressive wrong, not all the bishops of England, nor all the bayonets of all the mercenaries of Europe, could keep that king upon the throne of an oppressed people against their united will.
A king of England is not king in his own right, or by hereditary right. The nation is not a patrimony. He is not king by his own power ”

“ I'll teach the inexperienced youth to light, And flesh him with the slaughter'd Ammonite. The general suffrage then lie'll justly have To rule the people he knows how to save; Their willing voices all the tribes will bring, And make my chosen hero be their King." He speaks, and all the high events obey, The mighty voice of Nature leads the way; The troops of Ammon Israel's tents invade, His mighty fighting sons, to fear betray'd, Fly from th' advancing squadrons in the fright, 'Till Jabesh' walls embrace the Ammonite. Saul rouzes; God had arm'd his soul for war ”

“ I raised thy fathers to the Hebrew throne, I set it up, but you yourselves pull down! For when to them I Israel's sceptre gave, 'Twas not my chosen people to enslave. My first command no such commission brings, I made no tyrants, though I made you kings; But you my people vilely have opprest, And misapplied the powers which you possest. 'Tis Nature's laws the people now direct, When Nature speaks, I never contradict. Draw not the sword, thy brethren to destroy, The liberty they have, they may enjoy; I ever purposed, and I yet intend, That what they may enjoy, they may defend ”

“ And has taste in wigs, collars, cuirasses and lace; Who, to tricksters and fools, leaves the State and its treasure, And, when Britain's in tears, sails about at his pleasure; Who spurn'd from his presence the Friends of his youth, And now has not one who will tell him the Truth; Who took to his counsels, in evil hour, The friends to the Reasons of lawless Power; That back the Public Informer, who Would put down the Thing that, in spite of new Acts, And attempts to restrain it by Soldiers or Tax, Will poison the Vermin, That plunder the Wealth, That lay in the House, That Jack built. ”

“ If kings no more be flatter'd and deceived, Nor shun too late, the knaves they have believed; If as 'trustees for uses' they agree To act by limited authority; Subordination will its order keep, Ambition die, and all rebellion sleep. The weeping nations shall begin to laugh, The subjects easy, and the rulers safe. Plenty and peace embrace just government, The king be pleased, the people be content. If any king is hoodwink'd to believe, People will blind obedience to him give ”

“ It's doubtful who live most unnatural lives, The subject that his liberty survives, Or kings that trample law and freedom down, And make free justice truckle to the crown. Law is the master-spring of government— The only Right Ditine that heaven has sent, * It forms the order of the world below, And all our blessings from that order flow. * The tyrant Henry VIII., by making himself the head of the Church, clearly begat the Right Divine. The King could give bishoprics, and the Bishops could give opinions. ”

“ And yet this boasted, ever-quoted thing, Fails in the point—fails to support the king: For though by custom, kings have learn'd to ride A few vile minions, to support their pride, The people always have opposed the cheat, It never was their custom to submit; The Practice of the people made the name, For practices and customs are the same; And custom this one mighty truth will tell, When kings grow tyrants, nations will rebel. ”

“ The conquer'd nation—fell a dear bought prey, And Britain's island, Saxon Lords obey: The shouting troops their victories proclaim, And load their chiefs with royalty and fame: The garland of their triumphs was their crown, Mob set them up, and rabble pull'd them down! Fighting was all the merit they could bring, The bloodiest wretch appear'd the bravest King! Nor did his kingship any longer last, Than till by some more powerful rogue displaced. In spoil and blood was fix'd the right divine. ”

“ For actions are the words of Providence; The mouth of consequences speaks aloud, And Nature's language is the voice of God: "'Tis just," says he, "the people should be shown, The man that wears it, can deserve the crown. Merit will make my choice appear so just, They'll own him fit for the intended trust; Confirm by reason my exalted choice, And make him King by all the people's voice. ”

“ For scripture does not say that Rehoboam prayed to the Lord. "Behold!" says he, "the slaves, o'er whom I reign, Have made the pow'r I had from Thee in vain; From thy diviner rule they separate, And make large schisms both in Church and State; My just intentions are, with all my force, To check rebellion in its earliest course; Revenge th' affronts of my insulted throne, And save thy injured honour, and my own; And as thy counsels did my fathers bless, He claims thy help, who does their crown possess!" ”

“ Yet who believes that Heaven in vain creates, And gives up what it loves to what it hates; That man's great Maker call'd him into birth, To be destroy'd by tyrant-fiends on earth; That nations are but footstools to a throne, And millions born to be the slaves of one? Priestcraft! search Scripture, shew me God's decree, That crime shall rule by his authority. ”

“ And English Monsters, fouler still, Obey'd their Masters' deadly will! The fiends have chased her day by day, Her Sabbath death-bed was their prey!— These are not men!—they never press'd The life-streams from a human breast; Nor are they woman-born—but thrown From some vile source to man unknown! She struggled long—she nobly rose Triumphant o'er her rancorous foes; Bravely she stood the lengthen'd strife For honest fame—more dear than life— But ah! ”

“ So men of blood, incited by its taste, By lust of rule urged on, laid England waste; Oppression then upon oppression grew, One royal wretch another overthrew; They made a football of the People's crown, And brother-tyrant brother-king pull'd down, Succeeding robberies revenged the past, And every age of crime outdid the last. Look on once more—the tangled line survey, By which kings claim to bind men to obey. ”