PARODY OF HORACE. The god, who knew the world too well, For golden key he held, they say, The human heart to win. Gold opes the guarded city's gate, 'Tis gold decides the venal choice France owes her wide-extended sway "What! gold?" cries St-h-pe; "long ago, I grant, perhaps, it might be so ; Thank Heav'n! we now have none." Let sordid fools with sleepless care Whose ear each midnight step can scare, Without a guinea in their purse No dread of nightly prowling thieves 277 What What miser now locks up his hoard While consols three per cent. afford While Indian wretches waste their days One single note from Henry Hase Then why such countless thousands spend To beautify Tower Hill? We need, our clam'rous wants to end, But one small paper-mill. C. P. INDECISION: A TALE, NOT OF OTHER TIMES. A [From the same, July 26.] Qui capit ille habet. LEARNED Peer, in office high, Sat, an important cause to try, Heard learned counsel twist the laws, Each side made out their case most clear, A judge is man, and man is frail; And 279 THE ROMAN POET. And mark the adage, fully known, Or more at ease à posteriori. His Lordship view'd them with surprise! But best of all 't would have been found, Discharg'd the motion with costs of suit, THE ROMAN POET. ON LORD COCHRANE AT MALTA. [From the British Press, July 27.] "animum ad civilia vertit Jura suum, leges que tulit." HE turn'd his mind to civil laws, (A friend to those who plough the seas,) And in the practice finding flaws, Would Would that the Muse could add, that he, DEFENCE OF AN INJURED CHARACTER. SIR, TO THE EDITOR. KNOWING the liberal principles upon which your paper is conducted, I have no fear of your rejecting any application in behalf of injured innocence; and I am equally confident, that if you have, by any mistake or misapprehension, been led to join in the popular clamour against the worthy old gentleman for whose character I plead, you will be ready to retract all such suspicions, insinuations, and reflections, when you have perused this letter. The worthy, and (I may add) illustrious man, to whom I allude, has long been accused of being an enemy to the corn-trade of this country; and I cannot remember a bad harvest, for many years past, in which, if you believe common report, he has not had a very active hand. But as there are people, especially in this great metropolis, who feel more for themselves, and their own selfish enjoyments, than for the fruits of the earth, there is a still heavier charge brought against my worthy old friend; and that is, the pains he takes to spoil parties of pleasure, both *The beginning of the passage runs thus, "Pace date terris;" and if this part does not apply to His Lordship, it is not his fault. by DEFENCE Of an injurED CHARACTER. 281 by land and water. was a more remarkable instance of this species of accusation that on last Sunday; I never, in one day, heard so many spiteful things said of this gentleman. If I did not know his character better than any of his accusers, I should have thought that he had no other employment than to break chaises and coaches in pieces, and to lame all the horses in all the stables in London; and no greater pleasure than to lay the streets and roads under water, and spoil all the Sunday clothes of all the Sunday parties in and about the metropolis. The number of disappointments, of broken engagements, and of engagements performed out of all humour and temper, which he is said to have occasioned on the aforesaid day, are beyond my calculation; but I am confident they were as many in number, and as bitter in the baulk, as ever occurred within the same space of time. By these, many were reduced to that most painful of all necessities-staying at home; without any employment, any amusement, any resources within themselves, to defeat that great enemy, Time— an enemy, who, for what reason I know not, exerts his power on Sunday with a force more resistless than on any other day. I do not remember when there But in all this, painful as it may be to bear, I cannot discover why the old gentleman, whose history I am about to give, should be blamed. I can discover no proof nor evidence of the slightest kind., I inquire of as many of his accusers as come in my way, why they fix their suspicions on him? but they can give me no reason whatever. Many avow that they know not even who or what he is; and others, when hard pressed on the subject, can bring no other authority for their accusations, than the traditionary rumours of a parcel of old women, or old men who have passed into the stage of old women. I ask what interest so good a man, as he they accuse, can have in |