Laudes, quam Calabræ1 Pierides: neque

Si chartæ fileant quod benè feceris

Mercedem tuleris.

Quid foret Ilia

Mavortifque m puer, fi taciturnitas

Obftaret meritis invida Romuli ?

Ereptum n ftygius fluctibus acum

Virtus, & favor, & lingua potentium

Vatum divitibus confecrat infulis.

What tho' Earl Temple got a name,

By making John the Painter peach
Himself, for Bristol's impious flame.

Will all the Jackals of Jack Ketch
Be proud to call the Peer their brother,
If Fame that bright tranfaction fmother?

A man, I know, may get a penfion
Without the mufe's intervention :
Yet what are penfions to the praise
Wrapt up in Caledonian lays?

Say, Johnfon! where had been m Fingal,
But for Macpherson's great affistance?

The chieftan had been nought at all,

A non-existing non-existence.

Mac, like a n poet ftout and good,

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59

First plung'd, then pluck'd him from Oblivion's

flood,

And bade him bluster at his ease,

Among the fruitful Hebrides.

55

cafioned the noble bard's exaltation; as it was thought expedient to have another poetical placeman in readiness to celebrate the final overthrow of the American rebels. Nay, it is affured, that a reverfionary grant of the office of laureat has in this inftance been fuperadded to the treasurership, yet with the defalcation of the annual butt of fack, which the Lord Steward calculates will be a confiderable faving to the nation.

A

How couldst thou, fimple Clare! that ifle abuse, 170
Which prompts and pays thy linfey-woolfey mufe?
Mistaken peer, her treasures ne'er can ceafe,

Did he not long pay Viry for our peace?
Say, did she not, till rang the royal knell,
Irradiate vestal Majesty at Zell?

175

Sure then he might afford, to my poor thinking,
One golden tumbler, for Queen Charlotte's

drinking.

I care not, if her hinds on fens and rocks,
Ne'er roaft one fhoulder of their fatted flocks,

Shall

The poet's exordium feemed to have been taken from that very Ode in Horace which I have alfo attempted to imitate in this pamphlet. It began by affuring her Majefty, that Ireland was. too poor to prefent her with a piece of gold plate.

Could poor lerne gifts afford,
Worthy the confort of her lord.
Of purest gold a fculpter'd frame,

Juft emblem of her zeal, fhould flame.

This fuppofed poverty of his native country ftruck me at the time as a mere gratis-dictum. I have therefore, from verfe 180 to verfe 86 of this epifile, endeavoured to refute it, for the honour of Ireland.

Ver. 178. I care not, &c.] Alluding to thefe lines in the fame

poem:

Where ftarving hinds from fens and rocks,
View paflures rich with herds and flocks,
And only view-forbid to tafle, &c.

And in a note on the paffage, he tells us that thefe Finds ne

Shall Irish hinds to mutton make pretenfions? 180
Be theirs potatoes, and be ours their penfions.
If they refuse, great North, by me advis'd,
Enact, that each potatoe be excis'd.

Ah! hadst thou, North, adopted this fage plan, And fcorn'd to tax each British ferving-man, 185 Thy friend Macgreggor, when he came to town, As poets fhould do) in his chaise and one, Had feen his foot-boy Sawney, once his pride, On ftunt Scotch poney trotting by his fide, With frock of fuftian, and with cape of red, Nor grudg'd the guinea tax'd upon his head. But, tufh, I heed not-for my country's good I'll pay it it will purchase Yankee bloodAnd well I ween, for this heroic lay, Almon will give me wherewithal to pay.

Tax then, ye greedy minifters, your fill:
No matter, if with ignorance or skill.
Be ours to pay, and that's an easy task,

In these bleft times to have is but to ask.

Ye know, whate'er is from the public preft,
Will fevenfold fink into your private cheft.

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ver eat animal food; but fays not one word about potatoes, that moft nutritious of all aliments, which is furely very difingenuous.

For

205€

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For he, the nurfing father, that receives,
Full freely tho' he takes, as freely gives.
So when great Cox, at his mechanic call,
Bids orient pearls from golden dragons fall,
Each little dragonet, with brazen grin,
Gapes for the precious prize, and gulps it in.
Yet when we peep behind the magic scene,
One mafter-wheel directs the whole machine :
The felf-fame pearls, in nice gradation, all
Around one common centre rife and fall.
Thus may our state-museum long surprise;
And what is funk by votes-in bribes arife ;
Till mock'd and jaded with the puppet-play,
Old England's genius turns with fcorn away,
Afcends his facred bark, the fails unfurl'd,
And fteers his ftate to the wide western world:
High on the helm majestic Freedom stands,
In act of cold contempt she waves her hands-
Take, flaves, fhe cries, the realms that I difown, z20
Renounce your birth-right, and destroy my throne.

215

Ver. 211. Around one common centre.] I was let into this fecret by my late patron, Sir William Chambers; who, as Mr. Cox's automata were very much in the Chinefe tafte, was very curious to discover their mechanifm. I must do the Knight the jotice to own that fome of my best things are borrowed from bim.

ODE