Wit, undistinguishing, is apt to strike
The guilty and not guilty both alike :
I grant the sarcasm is too severe,

And we can readily refute it here';

While Alfred's name, the father of his age,
And the Sixth Edward's grace th' historic page,
A. Kings then at last have but the lot of all:
By their own conduct they must stand or fall.

Ᏼ, True, While they live, the courtly laureat pays
His quitrent ode, his peppercorn of praise;
And many a dunce, whose fingers itch to write,
Adds, as he can, his tributary mite:

A subject's
's faults a subject may proclaim,
A monarch's errours are forbidden game!
Thus free from censure, overaw'd by fear,
And prais'd for virtues, that they scorn to wear,
The fleeting forms of majesty engage
Respect, while stalking o'er, life's narrow stage;
Then leave their crimes for history to scan,
And ask with busy scorn, Was this the man?
I pity kings, whom Worship waits upon
Obsequious from the cradle to the throne;
Before whose infant eyes the flatt'rer bows,
And binds a wreath about their baby brows;
Whom Education stiffens into state,

And Death awakens from that dream too late.
Oh! if Servility with supple knees,

Whose trade it is to smile, to crouch, to please;

A

If smooth Dissimulation, skill'd to gracen nrw OT
A devil's purpose with an angel's face ed od A
If smiling peeresses, and sunp'ring peers, djob of
Encompassing his throne a few short year;ni bo A
If the gilt carriage and the pamper'd steed,
That wants no driving, and disdains the lead;
If guards, mechanically form'd in ranks,
Playing, at beat of drum, their martial pranks, ?!
Should'ring and standing as if stuek to stone, M
While condescending majesty looks on; vevswcH
If monarchy consist in such base things,f) vyps H
Sighing, I say again, I pity kings! (noma dT A

To be suspected, thwarted, and withstood,
Ev'n when he labours for his country's goodia no
To see a band, call'd patriot for no cause, qui312
But that they catch at popular applause, isto to
Careless of all the anxiety he feels,y box starq bnÄ
Hook disappointment on the public wheels
With all their flippant fluency of tongue,
Most confident, when palpably most wrongyl
If this be kingly, then farewell for me w
All kingship; and may I be poor and free Lossmont

A

I

To be the Table Talk of clubs up stairs, bloc To which th' unwash'd artificer repairs, tym vdT T' indulge his genius after long fatigue,dkad ufi By diving into cabinet intrigue; miri Prod (For what kings deem a toil, as well they may, To him is relaxation and mere play)

To win no praise when well-wrought plans prevail,
But to be rudely censur'd when they fail ;
To doubt the love his fav'rites may pretend,
And in reality to find no friend;

}

If he indulge a cultivated taste, and
His gall'ries with the works of art well grae'd,
To hear it call'd extravagance and waste;
If these attendants, and if such as these,
Must follow royalty, then welcome ease;
However humble and confin'd the sphere,
Happy the state, that has not these to fear.
A. Thus men, whose thoughts contemplative have
Dodweltw

On situations, that they never felt,

Start up sagacious, cover'd with the dust

Of dreaming study and pedantic rust, 1****
And prate and preach about what others prove,
As if the world and they were hand and glove. H
Leave kingly backs to cope with kingly cares ;
They have their weight to carry, subjects theirsg}^
Poets, of all men, ever least regretto ad aids N
Increasing taxes and the nation's debt. pymal TA
Could you contrive the payment, and rehearse T
The mighty plan, oracular, in verse, do no dw c
No bard, howe'er majestic, old or new, richer T
Should claim my fix'd attention more than you. vâ

B. Not Brindley nor Bridgewater would essay To turn the course of Helicon that way; amit că

Nor would the Nine consent the sacred tide downl Should purl amidst the traffic of Cheapside,

g Or tinkle in 'Change Alley, to amuse 229 T The leathern ears of stockjobbers and Jews. d«W

A. Vouchsafe, at least, to pitch the key of rhyme
To themes more pertinent, if less sublime 9,12
When ministers and ministerial arts; anal sid
Patriots, who love good places at their hearts
When admirals, extoll'd for standing still,
Or doing nothing with a deal of skill;
Gen'rals, who will not conquer when they may
Firm friends to peace, to pleasure, and good pay SA
When Freedom, wounded almost to despair, c
Though Discontent alone can find out where ; 5lf
When themes like these employ the poet's tongue
I hear as mute as if a syren sung. ***** and of

Or tell me, if you can, what pow'r maintains 500
A Briton's scorn of arbitrary chains:
That were a theme might animate the dead, arT
And move the lips of poets cast in lead.

B. The cause, tho' worth the search, may yet elude Conjecture and remark, however shrewdnost oľ

They take perhaps a well-directed aim,

Who seek it in his climate and his frame.

Lib'ral in all things else, yet Nature here
With stern severity deals out the year, and 9763)
Winter invades the spring, and often pours via el
A chilling flood on summer's drooping flow'rs jamk

Unwelcome vapours quench autumnal beams,
Ungenial blasts attending curl the streams:
The peasants urge their harvest, ply the fork
With double toil, and shiver at their work;
Thus with a rigour, for his good design'd
She rears her fav'rite man of all mankind.
His form robust and of elastic tone,
Proportion'd well, half muscle and half bone,
Supplies with warm activity and force

A mind well-lodg'd, and masculine of course.
Hence Liberty, sweet Liberty inspires
And keeps alive his fierce but noble fires.
Patient of constitutional control,

He bears it with meek manliness of soul;
But, if Authority grow wanton, wo
To him that treads upon his free-born toe;
One step beyond the bound'ry of the laws
Fires him at once in Freedom's glorious cause.
Thus proud Prerogative, not much rever'd,

1

Is seldom felt, though sometimes seen and heard;
And in his cage, like parrot fine and gay,
Is kept to strut, look big, and talk away. ***¿
Born in a climate softer far than ours,
Not form'd like us, with such Herculean pow'rs,
The Frenchinan, easy, debonair, and brisk,
Give him his lass, his fiddle, and his frisk,
Is always happy, reign whoever may,hsunt
And laughs the sense of mis'ry far away.quulida &