How couldst thou, fimple Clare! that isle abuse, 176 175 Sure then the might afford, to my poor thinking, One golden tumbler, for Queen Charlotte's drinking. I care not, if her hinds on fens and rocks, Shall thor for both his pieces of stuff. The poet's ex ordium seemed to have been taken from that very Ode in Horace which I have also attempted to imitate in this pamphlet. It began by affuring her Majefty, that Ireland was too poor to present her with a piece of gold plate. Could poor lerne gifts afford, This supposed poverty of his native country ftruck me at the time as a mere gratis-dictum. I have therefore, from verse 180 to verse 186 of this epiftle, endeavoured to refute it, for the honour of Ireland. Ver. 178. I care not, &c.) Alluding to thefe lines in the fame poem: Where farving hinds from fens and rocks, And in a note on the paffage, he tells us that thefe hinds ne Shall Irish hinds to mutton make pretenfions? 180 Ah! hadft 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 chaife and one, Had feen his foot-boy Sawney, once his pride, 195 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, 200 Will fevenfold fink into your private cheft. For ver eat animal food; but fays not one word about potatoes, that most nutritious of all aliments, which is furely very difingenuous. 210 For he, the nurfing father, that receives,.: ODE 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 Chinese taste, was very curious to discover their mechanifm. I muft do the Knight the justice to own that some of my best things are borrowed from him. |