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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,

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

That government is put in motion,
And stopt again, like clock or chime,
Juft as we want them to keep time.

DEA N.

'Sblood! do you controvert them all?

'S. QUIRE.

Indeed I do, Sir, great and small.

DE A N.

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You're a bold man, my mafter Jenyns,

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And have good right to count your winnings,

If you fucceed. But I, who dare

As much as moft, to go so far
Had not the courage, I affure ye,

Tho' I fuborned a tory jury.

50. 'SQUIRE,

Ver. 50.) Before the Dean published his elaborate treatife, he printed it firft only for the perufal of certain friends, who were either Tories from principle or difcretion. It may therefore reasonably be fuppofed, that (in Milton's phrase)

'S QUIR E:

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;

For I was born as much as you.

But now, comparing fize and ftrength,
Our body's bulk, our 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.
Your wit, Lord Hardwicke deigns to own,
Surpaffes every wit's in town:

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.

men.

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65.

it numbered many choice intellects among our great churchThe mitred author of the letter to the Cocoa-Tree, (written at the commencement of Lord Bute's adminiftration) 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.

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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.

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Jokes, Mr. Dean, I'd have you knów,

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Have parried many a ftouter blow.

A

Ver. 73.) The paffage in Mr. Locke's treatife, which the Dean here alludes to, feems to be this: "Though I faid "that all men are by nature equal, I cannot be supposed to "understand all forts of equality: age or virtue may give "men a juft precedency: excellency of parts and merit may "place others above the common level: birth may subject "fome, and alliance or benefits others, to pay an observance "to thofe, to whom nature, gratitude, or other respects

may have made it due and yet all this confifts with the equality, which all men are in, in respect of jurisdiction or dominion one over another: which was the equality I "there (ch. 28.) fpoke of, as proper to the bufinefs in hand, being that equal right, that every man hath, to his natural freedom, without being fubjected to the will or "authority of any other man,” Ch. VI. fect. 54. To this the Dean accedes in his first chapter: "Firft 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 joke like this, as I conceive,
Is reason's representative,

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

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

'S QUIR E.

Sometimes he may-but to proceed→→
All men at birth, it is agreed,

Have equal learning, wit and power,

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85

Tho', at Lucina's fqualling hour,

The new-born babes, in nurfe's lap,
Have only power to fuck her pap.

Good heavens! to talk of wit and learning
In infants void of all difcerning,

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Is just as if thefe Whigs difputed,

As moft fools do, to be confuted,

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

When, blefs each little flobbering mouth,

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It had not cut a fingle tooth.

DE AN.

Your instance, I confefs, is pretty :

I wish it were as apt as witty.

Ꭰ 6

'SQUIRE,

'S QUI R E.

But let us give them all they afk,
Their equal birth, a harder task
I think remains behind, to prove
That men thro' life muft equal move;
None e'er affume a jot of power

More than he had at natal hour.

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Strange doctrine this! ye Whigs, shall none 105
Be long and lank as Jenkinson,
None grow to full fix feet or more,
Because some only measure four ?

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

I prove they all are not born free.

DEA N.

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 fport I treat her,
Thefe Whigs will answer your demand
With faying, all they understand
By power is," That alone is juft,
"Which to a few the rest entrust;

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"And

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