But in what place can the English be said to
be trampled or tortured? Where are they treated with injustice or
contempt? What nation is there, from pole to pole, that does not
reverence the nod of the British king? Is not our commerce
unrestrained? Are not the riches of the world our own? Do not our ships
sail unmolested, and our merchants traffick in perfect security? Is not
the very name of England treated by foreigners in a manner never known
before? Or if some slight injuries have been offered; if some of our
petty traders have been stopped, our possessions threatened; our effects
confiscated; our flag insulted; or our ears cropped, have we lain
sluggish and unactive? Have not our fleets been seen in triumph at
Spithead? Did not Hosier visit the Bastimentos, and is not Haddock now
stationed at Port Mahon?
"En quoque quod mirum,
Quod dicas denique dirum,
Sanguinem equus sugit,
Neque bellua victa remugit!"
"And, yet more strange! his veins a horse shall drain,
Nor shall the passive coward once complain!"
It is farther asserted, in the concluding lines, that the horse shall
suck the lion's blood. This is still more obscure than any of the rest;
and, indeed, the difficulties I have met with, ever since the first
mention of the lion, are so many and great, that I had, in utter despair
of surmounting them, once desisted from my design of publishing any
thing upon this subject; but was prevailed upon by the importunity of
some friends, to whom I can deny nothing, to resume my design; and I
must own, that nothing animated me so much as the hope, they flattered
me with, that my essay might be inserted in the Gazetteer, and, so,
become of service to my country.
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