Of civil rule and liberty;
That men are equal born-and free-
That kings derive their lawful fway
All from the people's yea and nay-
That compact is the only ground,

Co which a Prince his rights can found-
Laftly, I fcout that idle notion,

hat government is put in motion,

And stopt again, like clock or chime,
Just as we want them to keep time.

DEAN.

Sblood! do you controvert them all?

'S QUIRE.

Indeed I do, Sir, great and small.

DEAN.

You're a bold man, my mafter Jenyns,

And have good right to count your winnings,

If you fucceed.-But I, who dare

As much as most, to go so far

35

49

45

Had not the courage, I affure ye,

Tho' I fuborn'd a Tory jury.

59

'S QUIRE.

Ver. 50.] Before the Dean published his elaborate treatise, he printed it first only for the perufal of certain friends, who were ether Tories from principle or difcretion. It may therefore reafonably be fuppofed, that (in Milton's phrase) it numbered many

'S QUIRE.

That men were equal born at first,
I hold of all whig lies the worst.
But yet, if only this they mean,

That you and I, good Mr. Dean,

Were equally produced, 'tis true;

55

For I was born as much as much as you.

But now, comparing fize and strength,

Our body's bulk, or nofe's length,

The periwigs, that grace our pate,

My little wit, your learning great,
We find, we are unequal quite.

DEAN.

My honest friend, you're too polite.

Go

Your wit, Lord Hardwicke deigns to own,
Surpaffes every wit's in town:

65

And none e'er doubted Hardwicke's taste,
Who e'er were bid to Hardwicke's feaft.
But yet, I fear at this arch quibble
The Lockians will do more than nibble.

choice intellects among our great churchmen. The mitred atthor of the letter to the Cocoa- Tree, (written at the commence→ ment of Lord Bute's administration) from which I have taken my motto, was amongst these perfonages; and it is not to be doubted, but it would receive many improvements from his adroit and mafterly hand.

They fay, and with them I agree,
That, as to men's equality,

It refts on native rights they have,
Not to become another's flave ;
Or tamely bear a tyrant's yoke:
This truth you parry with a joke.

'S QUIRE.

70

Jokes, Mr. Dean, I'd have you know,

75

Have parried many a ftouter blow.

Ver. 73.] The paffage in Mr. Locke's treatife, which the Dean here alludes to, feems to be this: "Though I said that all

men are by nature equal, I cannot be fuppofed to understand all "forts of equality age or virtue may give men a juft prece"dency excellency of parts and merit may place others above "the common level: birth may fubject fome, and alliance or “benefits, others, to pay an observance to those, to whom nature, gratitude, or other refpects may have made it due: and yet all "this confifts with the equality, which all men are in, in refpect of jurifdiction or dominion one over another : which was "the equality I there (ch. 2d.) spoke of, as proper to the business "in hand, being that equal right, that every man hath, to his "natural freedom, without being fubjected to the will or autho"rity of any other man." Ch. VI. fect. 54. To this the Dean accedes in his first chapter. "First then, I agree with Mr. Locke and his difciples, that there is a fenfe, in which it may be faid, "that no man is born the political fubject of another.

A

A joke like this, as I conceive,
Is Reason's representative,

Who, vefted with his rights, is fent
To difputation's parliament.

DEAN.

Yet fcorns, like fome they patriots call,
To vote, as he instructs, at all.

'S QUIR E.

Sometimes he may-but to proceed→→
All men at birth, it is agreed,
Have equal learning, wit and power,
Though, at Lucina's fqualling hour,
The new-born babe, in nurfe's lap,

So

85

Whether their teeth, in breadth and length,
Had equal fize, and equal ftrength;

When, bless each little flobbering mouth,

95

It had not cut a fingle tooth.

DEAN..

Your inftance, I confefs, is pretty :

I wish it were as apt as witty.

'S QUIRE.

But let us give them all they ask,
Their equal birth, a harder task
I think remains behind, to prove

That men thro' life must equal move;

100

Strange doctrine this! ye Whigs, fhall none

105

Be long and lank as Jenkinson,

None grow to full fix feet or more,

Because fome only measure four?

Or, because Hunter cannot treat us
With different fize of fame-ag'd fœtus?
Thus, Mr. Dean, the point I've prov'd;
And, if your Reverence is fo mev'd,
You'll find, with like facility

I prove they all are not born free.

DEAN.

My fprightly 'Squire, if this be proving,
Then billing is the whole of loving,

Dame Logic knows, whene'er I meet her,
With more fubftantial sport I treat her.

Thefe Whigs will anfwer your demand
With faying, all they understand
By power is, "That alone is juft,
"Which to a few the reft entrust;

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115

120

"And