Pregnant with thousands flits the scrap unfeen,
And, filent, fells a King, or buys a Queen.

Oh! that fuch bulky bribes as all might see,
Still, as of old, incumber'd Villainy!

Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, With all their brandies, or with all their wines? What could they more than Knights and 'Squires confound,

Or water all the Quorum ten miles round?

A ftatefman's flumbers how this fpeech would spoil! Sir, Spain has fent a thousand jars of oil;

'Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door ; "A hundred oxen at your levee roar."

Poor Avarice one torment more would find; Nor could Profufion fquander all in kind. Aftride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet ; And Worldly crying coals from street to ftreet, Whom with a wig fo wild, and mien so maz'd, Pity mistakes for fome poor tradesman craz❜d. Had + Colepeper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have fent it to the dogs?

Some mifers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered, at this time, into an affociation to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almoft to ftarve; till one of them taking the advantage of underfelling the reft, defeated the defign. One of these misers was worth 10,000 1. another 7000l. a year.

Sir William Colepeper, Bart. a perfon of an ancient family and ample fortune, without other

any

quality

His Grace will game: to White's a Bull be led,
With spurning heels, and with a butting head.
To White's be carry'd, as to ancient games,
Fair Courfers, Vafes, and alluring Dames.
Shall, then, Uxorio, if the stakes he sweep,
Bear home fix Whores, and make his Lady weep?
Or foft Adonis, fo perfum'd and fine,

Drive to St. James's a whole herd of swine?
Oh filthy check on all induftrious skill,

To spoil the nation's laft great trade, Quadrille!
Since, then, my Lord, on fuch a World we fail,
What fay you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all.

P. What Riches give us, let us, then, enquire: Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat, Cloaths, and Fire.

Is this too little ? would you more than live?
Alas! 'tis more than * Turner finds they give.

Alas!

quality of a gentleman; who, after ruining himself at the gaming-table, paffed the reft of his days in fitting there to fee the ruin of others; preferring to fubfift upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refufing a poft in the army which was offered him.

One who, being poffeffed of 300,000l. laid down his coach becaufe intereft was reduced from 5 to 4 per cent. and then put 70,000 l. into the Charitable Corporation, for better intereft: which fum having loft, he took it fo much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have out-lived it, but that he was heir to an

Alas! 'tis more than (all his vifions past)
Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at last!
What can they give? to dying * Hopkins, Heirs ;
To Chartres, Vigour; || Japhet, Nose and Ears ?
Can they, in gems, bid pallid Hippia glow;
In Fulvia's buckle ease the throbs below:

other confiderable effate, which he daily expected; and that, by this courfe of life, he faved both clothes and all other expences.

† A nobleman of great qualities; but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies.

* A citizen whofe rapacity obtained him the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthlefs, but died worth 300,000l. which he would give to no perfon living, but left it fo as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His council representing to him how many years it must be before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at intereft all that time, he expreffed great joy thereat, and faid, "They would then be as long in fpending, as he had been in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave it to the heir at law.

* Japhet Crook, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of thofe parts, for having forged a conveyance of an estate to himself, upon which he took up several thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery, for having fraudulently obtained a will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable eftate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By thefe means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the fmall lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his executor.

Or

Or heal, old Narfes, thy obfcener ail,
With all th' imbroid'ry plaifter'd at thy tail?
They might (were Harpax not too wife to spend)
Give Harpax felf the bleffing of a friend;

Or find fome Doctor that would fave the life
Of wretched Shylock, fpite of Shylock's Wife:
But thoufands die, without or this or that,

Die, and endow a College, or a Cat *.

To fome, indeed, Heav'n grants the happier fate, T'enrich a bastard, or a son they hate.

Perhaps you think the poor might have their part. Bond damns the poor †, and hates them from his. heart:

The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule, 'That every man in want is knave or fool:

* A famous dutchefs of Richmond, in her laft will, left confiderable legacies and annuities to her

cats.

In the year 1730, a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation. It was under the direction of the Right Honourable Sir R. S. Sir Arch. Grant, Mr. Dennis Bond, Mr. Burroughs, &c. But the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of those unhappy fufferers; and three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. That "God hates the poor," and, man every in want is knave or fool, &c." were the genuine apothegms of fome of the perfons here mentioned. K 5

66 That

* God

"God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearless eyes)
"The wretch he ftarves"-and piously denies :
But the good Bishop, with a meeker air,
Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care.
Yet, to be just to thefe poor men of pelf,
Each does but hate his neighbour as himself:
Damn'd to the mines, an equal fate betides
The Slave that digs it, and the Slave that hides.
B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own,
Muft act on motives powerful, tho' unknown.

P. Some War, fome Piague, or Famine they forefee,
Some Revelation hid from you and me.
Why Shylock wants a meal the caufe is found,
He thinks a loaf will rife to fifty pound.
What made Directors cheat in South-fea year?
To live
on * Ven'fon when it fold fo dear.
Afk you why + Phryne the whole Auction buys?
Phryne forefees a general Excife.

Why the and Sappho raise that monftrous fum ?
Alas! they fear a man will coft a plum.
Wife || Peter fees the world's respect for Gold,
And, therefore, hopes this nation may be fold:

*In the extravagance and luxury of the SouthSea year, the price of a haunch of venifon was from three to five pounds.

+ Many people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that fuch a thing was intended; of which, 'tis not improbable, this lady might have fome intimation.

Peter Walter, a perfon not only eminent in the wifdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney,

but