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From whom eternal mutual railing flows;
Who in each other's crimes, their own expofe :
Thy fons, though crafty, deaf to wisdom's call;
Defpifing all men, and despis'd by all;

Sons, while thy cliffs a ditch-like river laves,
Rude as thy rocks, and muddy as thy waves,
Of thoughts as narrow as of words immense,
As full of turbulence as void of fenfe?
Thee, thee, what fenatorial fouls adorn!

Thy natives fure would prove a fenate's scorn.

Do ftrangers deign to serve thee; what their praise? Their generous fervices thy murmurs raise.

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Around from breast to breaft inherent glides,

What fiend malign, that o'er thy air prefides,

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And, as he glides, there fcatters in a trice
The lurking feeds of every rank device?
Let foreign youths to thy indentures run!
Each, each will prove, in thy adopted fon,
Proud, pert, and dull-though brilliant once from
fchools,

Will fcorn all learning's as all virtue's rules ;
And, though by nature friendly, honest, brave,
Turn a fly, felfifh, fimpering, fharping knave.
Boaft petty-courts, where 'ftead of fluent eafe,
Of cited precedents and learned pleas;

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'Stead of fage counsel in the dubious cause,
Attornies, chattering wild, burlesque the laws-
(So fhameless quacks, who doctors rights invade,
Of jargon and of poifon form a trade,

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So canting coblers, while from tubs they teach,
Buffoon the gofpel they pretend to preach.)
Boaft petty courts, whence rules new rigour draw,
Unknown to Nature's and to Statute-law;
Quirks that explain all faving rights away,
To give th' attorney and the catchpoll prey.
Is there where law too rigorous may descend,
Or charity her kindly hand extend?

Thy courts, that, fhut when pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict diftrefs.

Try misdemeanours !-all thy wiles employ,
Not to chaftife th' offender, but destroy;
Bid the large lawless fine his fate foretel;
Bid it beyond his crime and fortune fwell;
Cut off from fervice due to kindred blood,
To private welfare and to public good,
Pitied by all, but thee, he fentenc'd lies;
Imprifon'd languishes, imprison'd dies.

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Boaft fwarming veffels, whose plebeian state
Owes not to merchants but mechanics freight.
Boaft nought but pedlar-fleets-in war's alarms,
Unknown to glory, as unknown to arms.

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Boaft

Boaft thy bafe Tolfey, and thy turn-fpit dogs,
Thy Halliers horses and thy human hogs;
Upftarts and mushrooms, proud, relentless hearts;
Thou blank of fciences! thou dearth of arts!
Such foes as learning once was doom'd to fee!
Huns, Goths, and Vandals, were but types of thee.
Proceed, great Bristol, in all-righteous ways,
And let one Juftice heighten yet thy praife;
Still fpare the catamite, and swinge the whore,
And be, whate'er Gomorrha was before.

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A place where the merchants ufed to meet to tranfact their affairs before the Exchange was erected. See Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. XIII. p. 496.

Halliers are the perfons who drive or own the edges, which are here ufed inftead of carts.

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