Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/253

Rh of the celebrated, and meritorious Earl of Chatham, may be considered as a correct delineation of his political views and wishes.

"Swift on the car of fancy borne along,

And safely landed on my native Isle,

I join the mourning train, assembled there,

And stand unnoticed near the hallow'd corse:

I mark the empty pageantry of state,

A pageantry, alas! not empty here,

For here are real signs of real woe;

All ranks, all orders, mingle in the throng;

Some raise the voice in majesty of woe:

Some silent stand as statues—pale with grief—

At sight of these, my tears more copious flow.

Hark—from yon seat a voice assails my ear,

Than music in its softest strains more sweet.

'Tis Camden! favoured sage, exalted chief,

He calls his mourning country to attend,

As thus he pours the elegiac strain.

"From life's low vale, where all was calm repose,

And, taught by heaven, the mind drank classic lore,

To the tumultuous scenes of busy life,

This peerless man, in hour of dread dismay,

By pitying heaven, in mercy to our land,

Was summon'd forth. He gracious heard, and came,

Hail'd by Britannia's united voice;

His royal master look'd benignly kind,

And bade him welcome to his arms, his heart;

For howsoe'er remote their varied spheres,

Congenial souls, 'twould seem, inform'd them both.

No longer view'd as servant, but as friend,

In all his Sovereign's councils he had part,

Their hopes and fears, their aims and ends the same,

The Nation gave her treasures to his care,

Himself the richest she possess'd;

And anxious eyes from every rank were rais'd,

With serious awe, and steadfast hope to Him;

Nor were their hopes, their expectations vain.

New life, new views, fresh vigor nerv'd his arm;

All that was wrong, his vigilance set right,

And, what was greater far, preserv'd it so.

The foes he met (for who from foes is free)

Were, to the peerless jewel of his worth,

Like toiling lapidary to the costly gem,

They made its brightness more conspicuous shine.

The fawning sycophant oft sought his smile,

But piercing eye-beams struck the caitiff blind;

The foes to virtue trembled at his nod,

While her glad sons flock'd hovering round their Sire.