Though blind and dubious to behold the right,
Its optics mourn a fixed Egyptian night,
Yet things unseen are seen so very clear,
The new fresh muster would begin the year;
She knows that * * * by *
Will hold his honours till his favour's dead,
She knows that *
Must practice at the target of the state :
If then his erring pistol should not kill,
Why
His gracious mistress, gen'rous to the brave,
Will not neglect the necessary knave,
* turns pimp, to occupy her place.
in the honours of the door,
How properly a rogue succeeds a whore.
She knows (the subject almost slipt my quill
Lost in that pistol of a woman's will)—.
The worthiest of the worthy sons of God.
Ah! (exclaims Catcott) this is saying much; The scripture tells us peace-makers are such. Who can dispute his title?
What taxes and oppressions testify?
* beatitude can doubt?
And (as I end whatever I begin)
Was Chatham but as sure of being in!
foster-child of fate, dear to a dame
Whom satire freely would, but dare not, name.
Ye plodding barristers, who hunt a flaw,
What treason would you from the sentence draw?
Tremble, and stand attentive as a dean,
Know royal favour is the dame I mean;
To sport with royalty my muse forbears,
And kindly takes compassion on my ears.
When once Shebbeare in glorious triumph stood,
Upon a rostrum of distinguish'd wood,
Who then withheld his guinea, or his praise,
Or envied him his crown of English bays?
But now Modestus, truant to the cause,
Assists the pioneers who sap the laws,
Wreaths infamy around a sinking pen,
Who could withhold the pillory again?
• lifted into notice by the eyes
Of one whose optics always setting rise;
Forgive a pun, ye rationals, forgive
A flighty youth as yet unlearnt to live;
When I have conn'd each sage's musty rule,
The signature of a writer in the newspapers of the time.
Having in various starts from order stray'd,
We'll call imagination to our aid.
astride upon a wrinkled hag,
His hand replenish'd with an open bag!
When fly the ghosts of taxes and supplies,
The sales of places, and the last excise;
Upon the ground, in seemly order laid,
The Stuarts stretch the majesty of plaid ;
Rich with the poor dependence bow the head,
And see their hopes arising from the dead.
His countrymen were muster'd into place,
And a scotch piper rose above his Grace.
But say, astrologers, could this be strange?
The lord of the ascendant ruled the change;
And music, whether bagpipes, fiddles, drums,
All that has sense or meaning overcomes.
See now this universal fav'rite Scot,
His former native poverty forgot,
The highest member of the corse of state,
Where well he plays at blindman's buff with fate;
If fortune condescends to bless his play,
And drop a rich Havannah in his way,
He keeps it with intention to release
All conquests at the general day of peace:
When first and foremost to divide the spoil,
Some millions down might satisfy his toil;
To guide the car of war he fancied not,
Where honour and no money could be got.
The Scots have tender honours to a man:
Honour's the tie which bundles up the clan:
They want one requisite to be divine,
One requisite in which all others shine;
They're very poor; then who can blame the hand
Which polishes by wealth its native land?
And to complete the worth possest before,
Gives every Scotchman one perfection more;
Nobly bestows the infamy of place,
struts about in doubled lace.
* barter'd peace, and wisely sold
countrymen, for gold?
When ministerial hirelings proofs deny,
If Musgrave could not prove it, how can I?
No facts unwarranted shall soil my quill,
Suffice it there's a strong suspicion still.
When * * his iron rod of favour shook,
And bore his haughty temper in his look;
Not yet contented with his boundless sway,
Which all perforce must outwardly obey,
He thought to throw his chain upon the mind;
Nor would he leave conjecture unconfin'd.
We saw his measures wrong, and yet in spite
Of reason we must think those measures right;
Dr. Samuel Musgrave, who, in 1769, exhibited a charge against some great persons, of having sold the peace concluded in 1762. He was examined before the House of Commons, 29th January, 1770, when his information was voted frivolous. - DIX.
Whilst curb'd and check'd by his imperious reign,
We must be satisfied, and not complain.
Complaints are libels, as the present age
Are all instructed by a law-wise sage,
Who, happy in his eloquence and fees,
Advances to preferment by degrees;
Trembles to think of such a daring step
As from a tool to chancellor to leap,
But lest his prudence should the law disgrace,
He keeps a longing eye upon the mace.
Whilst *
was suffer'd to pursue his plan ;
And ruin freedom as he rais'd the clan;
Could not his pride, his universal pride,
With working undisturb'd be satisfied?
But when we saw the villainy and fraud,
What conscience but a Scotchman's could applaud?
But yet 'twas nothing-cheating in our sight,
We should have humm'd ourselves, and thought him right:
This faith, established by the mighty Thane,
Will long outlive the system of the Dane;
This faith but now the number must be brief,
All human things are center'd in belief;
And (or the philosophic sages dream)
All our most true ideas only seem :
Faith is a glass to rectify our sight,
And teach us to distinguish wrong from right.
By this corrected *
And candour marks the lines which *
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