III.

When lawless mobs infult the court,

That man fhall be my toast,

If breaking windows be the sport,
Who bravely breaks the moft.

IV.

But oh! for him my fancy culls
The choiceft flowers the bears,

Who conftitutionally pulls

Your house about your ears.

V.

Such civil broils are my delight,

Though some folks can't endure them,

Who fay the mob are mad outright,

And that a rope muft cure them.

VI.

A rope! I wish we patriots had

Such ftrings for all who need 'emWhat! hang a man for going mad? Then farewell British freedom.

ON OBSERVING

SOME NAMES OF LITTLE NOTE

RECORDED IN THE BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA.

OH, fond attempt to give a deathlefs lot
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
In vain, recorded in hiftoric page,
They court the notice of a future age:
Thofe twinkling tiny luftres of the land
Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethæan gulphs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion foon abforbs them all.

So when a child, as playful children use,
Has burnt to tinder a ftale laft year's news,
The flame extin&t, he views the roving fire—
There goes my lady, and there goes the fquire,
There goes the parfon, oh! illuftrious spark,
And there, fcarce lefs illuftrious, goes the clerk!

REPORT

OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN
ANY OF THE BOOKS.

I.

BETWEEN Nofe and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The fpectacles fet them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the faid fpectacles ought to belong.

II.

So Tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning;
While chief baron Ear fat to balance the laws,
So famed for his talent in nicely difcerning.

III.

In behalf of the Nofe it will quickly appear,

And your lordship, he said, will undoubtedly find That the Nofe has had fpectacles always in wear, Which amounts to poffeffion time out of mind. IV.

Then holding the spectacles up to the court-
Your lordship obferves they are made with a straddle,
As wide as the ridge of the Nofe is; in short,
Defigned to fit close to it, juft like a faddle.

V.

Again, would your lordship a moment suppose
('Tis a cafe that has happened, and may be again)
That the visage or countenance had not a Nose,
Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?
VI.

On the whole it appears, and my argument shows

With a reasoning, the court will never condemn, That the fpectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nofe was as plainly intended for them.

VII.

Then shifting his fide, (as a lawyer knows how)
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes:

But what were his arguments few people know,

For the court did not think they were equally wife, VIII.

So his lordfhip decreed with a grave folemn tone,

Decifive and clear, without one if or butThat, whenever the Nofe put his spectacles on,

By day-light or candle-light-Eyes should be shut!

BURNING LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY. 255

ON THE

BURNING OF LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY,

TOGETHER WITH HIS MSS.

BY THE MOB, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1780.

I.

So then the Vandals of our isle,

Sworn foes to fenfe and law, Have burnt to duft a nobler pile Than ever Roman faw!

II.

And MURRAY fighs over Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,

The well-judged purchase and the gift,

That graced his lettered ftore.

III.

Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn,

The lofs was his alone;

But ages yet to come shall mourn

The burning of his own.