a

a

Some usurp names--an Englim garreteer, From Minutes forg'd, is Monsieur Mesnager *.

Some, while on good or ill fiuccess they ftare, Give conduct a complexion dark or fair :

80 Others, as little to enquiry prone, Account for actions, though their spring 's unknown.

One ftaiefinan vices has, and virtues too; Hence will contested character enfue. View but the black, he's fiend; the bright but scan, 8; He's angel: view him all-he's still a man, But such historians all accuse, acquit; No virtue these, and those no vice admit; For either in a friend no fault will know, And n ither own a virtue in a foe.

90 Where hear-fay knowledge sits on public names, And bold conjecture or extols or blames, Spring party-libels; from whose alhes dead, A monster, misnam’d History, lifts its head. Contending factions croud to hear its roar !

93
But when once heard, it dies to noise no more.
From these no answer, no applause from those,
O'er half they simper, and o'er half they doze.
So when in senate, with egregious pate,
Perks

up
Sir ..... in some deep debate ;

He * The Minutes of Mons. MESNAGER; a book calculated to vilify the administration in the four ! last years

of queen Anne's reign. The truth is, ihat this libel was not written by Monf. Mefnager, neither was any such book ever printed in the French tongue, from which it is impudently said in the title-page to be translated. SAVAGE.

JIO

He hems, looks wise, tunes thin his labouring throat,
To prove black white, postpone or palm the vote :
In sly contempt, fome, Hear him! Hear him! cry;
Some yawn, some sneer; none second, none reply.

But dare such miscreants now rush abroad, 105
By blanket, cane, pump, pillory, unaw'd ?
Dare they imp falsehood thus, and plume her wings,
From present characters and recent things ?
Yes : What untruths ! or truths in what disguise !
What Boyers and what Oldmixons arise !
What facts from all but them and Slander screen'd ?
Here meets a council, no where e'fe conven'd;
There, from originals, come, thick as spawn,
Letters ne'er wrote, memorials never drawn ;
To secret conference never held they yoke, 115
Treaties ne'er plann’d, and speeches never spoke.
From, Oldmixon, thy brow, too well we know,
Like sin from Satan's far and wile they go.

In vain may St. John safe in conscience fit;
In vain with truth confute, contemn with wit:
Confute, contemn, amid selected friends;
There links the justice, there the satire ends.
Here, though a centary scarce such leaves unclose,
From mould and dust the flander sacred grows.
Now none reply where all despise the page ;
But will dumb scorn deceive no future age ?
Then, should dull periods cloud not seeming fact,
Will no fine pen th' unanswer'd lie extract ?
Well-set in plan, and polish'd into stile,
Fair and more fair may finish'd fraud beguile;

I ?

J20

125

By every language snatch'd, by time receiv'd,
In every clime, by every age believ'd :
How vain to virtue trust the great their name,
When such their lot for infamy or fame?

А
CHARACTER.

R.

FA
AIR Truth, in courts where Justice should preside,

Alike the Judge and Advocate would guide ;
And these would vie each dubious point to clear,
To stop the widow's and the orphan's tear ;
Were all, like Yorke, of delicate address,

5
Strength to discern, and sweetness to express,
Learn'd, just, polite, born every heart to gain,
Like Cummins mild ; like * Fortescue humane,
All-eloquent of truth, divinely known,
So deep, so clear, all Science is his own.

Of heart impure, and impotent of head, In history, rhetoric, ethics, law, unread; How far unlike such worthies, once a drudge, From floundering in low cases, rose a Judge. Form'd to make pleaders laugh,his nonsense thunders, 15 And, on low juries, breathes contagious blunders.

His

10

The honourable William Fortescue, Efq; one of
Justices of His Majesty's Court of Common Pleas.

25

30

His brothers blush, because no blush he knows,
Nor e'er + " one unco

corrupted finger shows."
See, drunk with power, the circuit-lord expreft!
Full, in his eye, his betters stand confelt;
Whose wealth, birth, virtue, from a tongue fo loose,
Scape not provincial, vile, huffoon abuse.
Still to what circuit is assign’d his name,
There, swift before him, flies the warner-Fame.
Contest stops short, Consent yields every cause
To Cost; Delay, endures them, and withdraws.
But how 'Icape prifoners? To their trial chain'd,
All, all shall stand condemn’d, who stand arraign'd.
Dire guilt, which else would derestation cause,
Prejudg’d with insult, wonderous pity draws.
But 'scapes e’en Innocence his harsh harangue ?
Alas !-e'en Innocence itself must hang;
Must hang to please him, when of spleen pofleft;
Must hang to bring forth an abortive jest.

Why liv'd he not ere Star-chambers had fail'd, 35 When fine, tax, censure, all but law prevail'd; Or law, subservient to some murderous will, Became a precedent to murder still? Yet e'en when patriots did for traitors bleed, Was e'er the jobb to such a slave decreed, Whose favage mind wants sophist-art to draw, O'er murder'd virtue, specious veils of law?

Why, Student, when the bench your youth admits ; Where, though the worst, with the belt rank'd he fits;

Where + When Page one uncorrupted finger shows.

D. of WHARTON

40

N 3

Where found opinions you attentive write, 45
As once a Raymond, now a Lee to cite,
Why pause you scornful when he dins the court ?
Note well his cruel quirks, and well report.
Let his own words againg himself point clear
Satire more sharp than verse when most severe.

50

Ε Ρ Ι Τ Α Ρ Η

ON MRS. JONES,

Grandmother to Mrs. BRIDGET JONES, of Llanelly

in Carmarthenshire.

a

I N her

, whose relicks mark this facred earth, Shone all domestic and all social worth : First, heaven her hope with early offspring crown'd; And thence a second race rose numerous round. Heaven to industrious virtue blessing lent,

5 And all was competence, and all content.

Though frugal care, in Wisdom's eye admir'd,
Knew to preserve what industry requir’d;
Yet, at her board, with decent plenty blest,
The journeying stranger sat a welcome guest.
Preit on all fides, did trading neighbours fear
Ruin, which hung o’er exigence severe ?
Farewell the friend, who spar'd th' affiftant loan-
A neighbour's woe or welfare was her own.

Did

a