Who, born to guide such high emprize, For Britain's weal was early wise; And brought the freeman's arm, to aid the freeman's laws. Had'st thou but lived, though stripp'd of power, A watchman on the lonely tower, Thy thrilling trump had roused the land, When fraud or danger were at hand; 7 By thee, as by the beacon-light, Our pilots had kept course aright; As some proud column, though alone, Thy strength had propp'd the tottering throne: Now is the stately column broke, The beacon-light is quench'd in smoke, The trumpet's silver sound is still, The warder silent on the hill! Oh, think, how to his latest day, When death, just hovering, claim'd his prey, With Palinure's unalter'd mood, Firm at his dangerous post he stood; Each call for needful rest repell'd, With dying hand the rudder held, Till, in his fall, with fateful sway, The steerage of the realm gave way! Then, while on Britain's thousand plains, One unpolluted church remains, Whose peaceful bells ne'er sent around The bloody tocsin's maddening sound, But still, upon the hallow'd day, While faith and civil peace are dear, Grace this cold marble with a tear, He, who preserved them, PITT, lies here! Nor yet suppress the generous sigh, Because his Rival slumbers nigh; Nor be thy requiescat dumb, Lest it be said o'er Fox's tomb. For talents mourn, untimely lost, When best employ'd, and wanted most; And feelings keen, and fancy's glow,— They sleep with him who sleeps below: And, if thou mourn'st they could not save And sacred be the last long rest. Here, where the end of earthly things Here, where the fretted aisles prolong As if some angel spoke agen, "All peace on earth, good-will to men;" If ever from an English heart, O, here let prejudice depart, And, partial feeling cast aside, Record, that Fox a Briton died! When Europe crouch'd to France's yoke, And Austria bent, and Prussia broke, And the firm Russian's purpose brave The sullied olive-branch return'd, And nail'd her colours to the mast! B Heaven, to reward his firmness, gave And ne'er held marble in its trust Of two such wondrous men the dust. With more than mortal powers endow'd, Like fabled Gods, their mighty war Look'd up Till through the British world were known The names of PITT and Fox alone. Spells of such force no wizard grave These spells are spent, and, spent with these, |