TO
JOHN, LORD ELDON:
LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN:
HIGH STEWARD OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.
My Lord,
In this fair Morning of the Liberty of Europe, after a long Night of Solicitude, and Counsel, in which Your Lordship's Wisdom has been eminently seen; I approach Your Lordship with a Poem, which, it may be, shall beguile You of some Moments of severer Thought. This Labour of two Days, otherwise undeserving of Your Lordship's Favour, I present to You on two Accounts: first, because I conceive, that it contains no Thought unworthy of Your Lordship's Greatness, founded on Virtue; and, secondly, because I have herein expressed my boundless Debt of Gratitude to Him who preceded Your Lordship in the Chair of Counsel and State; and Who, as He was the Ornament and Founder of his Family, so was He a fair and majestick Pillar of the Commonwealth. Between Him and Your Lordship there
