Councils, like fenates, that enforce debate
With fluent eloquence and reason's weight.
Whose patriot virtue, lawless power controls;
Their British emulating Roman souls.
Of these the worthielt still selected ftand,

25
Still lead the senate, and still save the land :
Social, not felfiih, here, O Learning, irace
Thy friends, the lovers of all human race !

In a dark bottom lunk, O Bristol now, With native malice, lift ihy lowering brow ! 30 Then as some hell-born sprite in mortal guise, Borrows the Mape of goodness and belies, All fair, all finug, to yon proud hall invite, To feast all strangers ape an air polite ! From Cambria di ain'd, or England's western coast, 35 Not elegant, yet costly banquets boast ! Revere, or seem the stranger to revere ; Praise, fawn, profess, be all things but sincere ; Insidious now, our bofom secrets steal, And there with ny sarcastic (neer reveal. Present we meet thy sneaking treacherous smiles ; The harmless absent still thy sneer reviles; Such as in thee all parts superior find, The sneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd; When melting pity would afford relief,

45 The ruthless sneer that insult adds to grief. | What friendship canst thou boast? what honours claim? To thee each ftranger owes an injur'd name. What smiles thy fons mult in their foes excite! Thy fons, to whom all discord is delight; 50

From

60

From whom eternal mutual railing flows;
Who in each other's crimes, their own expose :
Thy fons, though crafty, deaf to wisdom's call;
Despising all men, and defpis'd by all ;
Sons, while thy cliffs a ditch-like river laves,

55
Rude as thy rocks, and muddy as thy waves,
Of thoughts as narrow as of words immense,
As full of turbulence as void of sense ?
Thee, thee, what senatorial souls adorn!
Thy natives sure would prove a senate's scorn.
Do ftrangers deign to serve thee; what their praise ?
Their generous services thy murmurs raise.
What fiend malign, that o'er thy air presides,
Around from breast to breast inherent glides,
And, as he glides, there scatters in a trice
The lurking seeds 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

schools, Will scorn all learning's as all virtue's rules ; 70 And, though by nature friendly, honest, brave, Turn a fly, felfilh, fimpering, sharping knave. Boast petty-courts, where 'stead of fluent ease, Of cited precedents and learned pleas; 'Stead of fage counsel in the dubious cause, 75 Attornies, chattering wild, burlesque the laws (So shameless quacks, who doctors rights invade, Of jargon and of poison form a trade, O

So

65

85

So canting coblers, while from tubs they teach,
Buffoon the gospel they pretend to preach.)

80
Boast petty courts, whence rules new rigour draw,
Unknown to Nature's and to Statute-law;
Quirks that explain all saving 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, shut when pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict distress.
Try misdemeanours ! --all thy wiles einploy,
Not to chastise th' offender, but destroy ;

90 Bid the large lawless fine his fate foretel; Bid it beyond his crime and fortune swell ; Cut off from service due to kindred blood, To private welfare and to public good, Pitied by all, but thee, he sentenc'd lies;

95 Imprison’d languishes, imprison'd dies.

Boast swarming vessels, 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.

100

Boaft

Boast thy base * Tolsey, and thy turn-fpit dogs,
Thy I Halliers horses and thy human hogs ;
Upitarts and mushrooms, proud, relentless hearts;
Thou blank of sciences ! thou dearth of arts !
Such foes as learning once was doom'd to see! 105
Huns, Goths, and Vandals, were but types of thee.

Proceed, great Bristol, in all-righteous ways,
And let one Justice heighten yet thy praise ;
Still spare the catamite, and swinge the whore,
And be, whate'er Gomorrha was before.

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

Halliers are the persons who drive or own the fledges, which are here used instead of carts.

CON.