Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law,[45]
The wealth of climes where savage nations roam[46]
Pillaged from slaves to purchase slaves at home,
Fear, pity, justice, indignation start,
Tear off reserve, and bare my swelling heart; 390
Till half a patriot, half a coward grown,
I fly from petty tyrants to the throne.

Yes, brother, curse with me that baleful hour
When first ambition struck at regal power;
And thus polluting honor in its source, 395
Gave wealth to sway the mind with double force.
Have we not seen, round Britain's peopled shore,
Her useful sons exchanged for useless ore,[47]
Seen all her triumphs but destruction haste,
Like flaring tapers brightening as they waste? 400
Seen opulence, her grandeur to maintain,
Lead stern depopulation in her train,
And over fields where scattered hamlets rose
In barren solitary pomp repose?
Have we not seen at pleasure's lordly call 405
The smiling long-frequented village fall?
Beheld the duteous son, the sire decayed,[48]
The modest matron, and the blushing maid,
Forced from their homes, a melancholy train,[49]
To traverse climes beyond the western main; 410
Where wild Oswego[50] spreads her swamps around,
And Niagara[50] stuns with thund'ring sound?

Even now, perhaps, as there some pilgrim strays