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How couldst thou, fimple Clare! that ifle abuse, 176
Which prompts and pays thy linfey-woolfey mufe?
Mistaken peer! Her treasures ne'er can cease,
Did the not long pay Viry for our peace?
Say, did fhe not, till rang the royal knell,
Irradiate veftal Majesty at Zell?

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,
Ne'er roaft one shoulder of their fatted flocks,

Shall

thor for both his pieces of ftuff. The poet's ex ordium seemed to have been taken from that yery 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,
Worthy the confort of her lord,
Of pureft 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 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,
View paftures rich with herds and flocks.
And only view-forbid to tafte, &c.

And in a note on the paffage, he tells us that thefe hinds 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! 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,
On ftant Scotch poney trotting by his fide,
With frock of fuftian, and with cape of red, 190
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 blood-
And well I ween, for this heroic lay,
Almon will give me wherewithal to pay. 195

Tax then, ye greedy minifters, your fil:
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.

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, 205
Each little dragonet, with brazen grin,

Gapes for the precious prize, and gulps it in...
Yet when we peep behind the magic fcene,
One master-wheel directs the whole machine :
The self-fame pearls, in nice gradation, all 210
Around one common centre, rife and fall.
Thus may our ftate-museum long surprise;
And what is funk by votes in bribes arise ;
Till mock'd and jaded with the puppet-play,
Old England's genius turns with fcorn away, 215
Afcends his facred bark, the fails unfurl'd,
And fteers his ftate to the wide western world:
High on the helm majeftic Freedom stands,
In act of cold contempt fhe waves her hands.
Take, flaves, fhe cries the realms that I difown,220
Renounce your birth-right, and deftroy my throne.
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 tafte, was very curious to difcover their mechanifm. I muft do the Knight the juftice to own that fome of my best things are borrowed from him.

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