SIR,

S

( 135 )

SHILLINGS AND SIXPENCES.

[From the Public Ledger, &c. Feb. 14.]

TO THE EDITOR.

As you have inserted a paragraph respecting our intended petition, I hope you will not refuse to admit this short letter, the object of which is to correct some mistakes in the aforesaid paragraph.

It is not true, Sir, that we are petitioning to be put upon the half-pay list. Our loss of property, it is true, is great, and our weight with the Public not what it has been; but our services are at present too much in demand for us to ask for half-pay, when, if Government did us justice, we should be entitled to full-pay, and our numbers be so increased as to enable us to show our faces again without shame or fear.

But the greatest error in your account is, where you insinuate that there are among us some who counterfeit health, in order to procure themselves a precarious livelihood. That there are counterfeits, I will not deny; but they are not of us, nor of our family. We are all natives of the city of London, born in Tower Ward, where our registers may be seen. The counterfeits you allude to are of a large town in Warwickshire, and certainly find their way to London, as other country folks do, to push their fortune. They may be distinguished from our family, however, by their habits of life, frequenting coffee-houses and taverns, where they associate with gay young men, after the second or third bottle, when they cannot know one set of features from another, and are very apt to be taken in by those smooth-faced Birmingham fellows. They are also not unfrequently to be seen

at

at turnpike-gates, where they herd with an inferior species of their countrymen, of a copper colour.

If we have any wish, Sir, it is, that encouragement may be given to the increase of those legitimate families, who have ever afforded satisfaction to the Public, who are not ashamed to show their face-a face which every loyal man delights to see, and to exhibit in an impressive manner those honourable marks that distinguish the component parts of this kingdom.— Without such encouragement, however, we must continue a despised and undervalued race, incapable of any useful change, and unworthy of the nation to which we belong.

WE

We are, Sir, yours, &c.

THE AFORESAID.

"THIS ENLIGHTENED AGE."

[From the British Press, Feb. 15.]

E are either in a state of primeval simplicity, when the tree of knowledge was as yet untouched; or we have carried the one which followed to such an extreme of perfection, that they meet, and knavery and imposture walk abroad unmasked. In the present day, craft perpetually overleaps itself or the rich in strength or weakness constantly prove too much. I shall note two or three cases.

Look at those bugbears "The Revolutionary Plu tarch," and Mr. Goldsmith's "Secret History of the Cabinet of Buonaparte."-These works it pleases our political sciolists to encourage and propagate; but would it not be well to reflect, that though we may abuse and calumniate our enemy, we cannot change his fortune, or lower his high estate; and, that so assiduously to instruct the multitude in all that concerns Napoleon's family, viz, that, though now Kings, they were formerly plebeians, is not so much to bring

"THIS ENLIGHTENED AGE."

137

them into contempt with the vulgar, as to make the vulgar look forward, with sanguine hopes, to stations which would otherwise have never entered into their contemplation?This sword has two edges, and does too much work!

Secondly, with respect to the Regency, have not our Ministers, in the plenitude of their wisdom or imbecility, chosen to appoint the Prince of Wales Regent, with such restrictions (not to call them suspicions) as show, according to their principle of pos sessing the right of election, that he is the last of all persons on whom that election should have fallen? Does not the Crown of England require the whole of the power, influence, and splendour, permitted to the King-and if so, should he, who represents him, and has all his offices to fulfil, at any time, but especially at this momentous crisis, be vested with less?It is necessary, or it is not.-What do they seem to think, and how much does it prove?

Thirdly, touching the admission of proxies in the House of Lords, which Horace might, without satire, say, communi sensu planè caret; and that the Noble Lords themselves may add the rest→

"Eheu,

Quam temerè in nosmet legem sancimus iniquam!”

If the judgment of the absent is not only taken, but is often clearly the means of deciding the most important questions, what are men of common understanding to think of the parade of heated debates and elaborate arguments, addressed to what is called the sense of the House ?-Surely this proves a little too

much!

The list of unlucky proofs might be swelled to a volume; but they need no index, and I shall add no

' more.

Among the portents and miracles of the "anmus

mirabilis,'

mirabilis," we are told that "black cou's gave white milk."-I feel that this hardy assertion (though sworn to) must needs be rejected with contempt by the faith of these times; for we have a similar prodigy, in which there is an equal share of truth, namely, that paper is nothing more than paper; but, though every body gives it credit, nobody will believe it! Seeking into the cause of this strange infidelity, I find that it happened once before, and history ascribes it to conjuration-The author of the Persian Letters, speaking of Louis XIV. says, " Ce Roi était un magicien, qui faisant accroire à ses sujets, qui du papier était de l'argent; i. e. That King was a conjuror, who made his subjects believe that paper was money.

Temple, Feb. 13.

A

POET AND POVERTY..

[From the Morning Post, Feb. 15.3

POET's always poor, and thus I show it,
If he were rich, he would not be a Poet :'
Thus argued Dick. A Scribbler, passing by,
Heard the vile taunt, and made this cool reply:
"Give him the wealth of Croesus, if you will,
A Poet, Dick, will be a Poet still;
But give the poverty of Job to thee,
Thou never, never, couldst a Poet be."

EPIGRAM ON A FOP.

[From the British Press, Feb. 15.]

HOSE painted cheeks and languid eyes

THO

Would speak thee woman in disguise,

Did not thy beard of sable hue

But hold!I'll bet-(or I'm no shrew),
That very beard is painted too!

K. L.

APEX.

TEMPORA

A

[From the Morning Post, Feb. 18.]

SENATOR, vers'd in old classical lore,

The works of Joe Miller I mean-nothing more,
Has told how the Tories, just losing their places,

Were surcharg'd by the barbers, who shav'd their long faces:
But now (though still in) not a Tory, 't is fear'd,
Will meet with one barber to shorten his beard;
For the Whigs, disappointed and plung'd in despair,
Have torn from their nobs ev'ry morsel of hair;
So they 're forc'd (though their purses a grievous hard tax on)
To impress each a barber to make him a caxon.

LINES

ON A HIBERNIAN, WHO DREAMT THAT HE WAS ASLEEP.

"

[From the same.]

HOW's this!" says Joe, "it doth most curious seem, Dream in your sleep, and sleep too in your dream! Indeed, friend Pat, it is not fair in you

To get just twice the sleep that others do.".

Truly," quoth Pat, " I have not slept, dear Joe;

I only dreamt I was asleep, you know."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

[Feb. 20.]

SIR,

THE

HE following lines are detached from an unfinished Poem, which probably will never see the light; but as this fragment is so much in the spirit of some

* Tempora, scilicet, capitis, we suppose; and, as it is not improbable the heads of some persons may be turned by vexation at recent events, the part may be intended to imply the whole, both interior and exterior-" pro parte synecdoche totum," as the Westminster Granimar speaks.

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