Wesley Corpus

Page 20 Behold the public peace restor'd, And gladly sheath the vengeful sword. Extinct we see the fatal blaze, Sav'd by a miracle of grace, The national escape we view, And scarcely dare believe it true. Yet now beginning to respire, We anxiously the cause inquire Whence our calamities began, Or who contriv'd the burning plan. Too evident th' accurst design We see; but where's the Catiline?16 The wisest grant, we are not got To the dark bottom of the plot; The least acute, methinks, might smell The counsel17 of Ahithophel.18 Or is there no resentment rankling In the unnatural heart of Franklyn?19 Does nothing treasonable lurk, Nothing American in ?20 No depths of Luciferian art In F 's21 foul, infernal heart? (That son of vice and dissipation, Implung'd in debt and desperation, For each flagitious purpose fit, A fiend in malice and in wit!) No hope in the ejected race? No mischief hatching in His Grace So forward to defend the crown, And turn the soldiers out of town, So willing, in our last extreme, Our safety should be left to him! 16Reference to Lucius Sergius Catilina (108-62 BC), a Roman politician who led a conspiracy to overthrow the republic. 17Ori., "council." 18A counselor who deserted King David to support his rebellious son Absalom (see 2 Sam 15). 19Benjamin Franklin, whom some accused of encouraging the riot. 20MS Protestant Association reads B ; surely a reference to Edmund Burke (1729-97). 21Charles James Fox (1749-1806), supporter in Parliament of American independence.