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What next the hero of our tale befel, How long he liv'd, how wise, how well, How roundly he pursu'd his course,

And smok'd his pipe, and strok'd his horse,
The willing muse shall tell:

He chaffer'd then, he bought, he sold,
Nor once perceiv'd his growing old,

Nor thought of Death as near;

His friends not false, his wife no shrew,
Many his gains, his children few,

He pass'd his hours in peace:

But while he view'd his wealth increase,
While thus along life's dusty road

The beaten track content he trod,
Old Time, whose haste no mortal
Uncall'd, unheeded, unawares,
Brought on his eightieth year.

spares,

And now, one night in musing mood,
As all alone he sat,
Th'unwelcome messenger of fate
Once more before him stood.

Half kill'd with anger and surprise,
"So soon return'd!" old Dobson cries.
"So soon, d'ye call it!" Death replies:
"Surely, my friend, you're but in jest;
Since I was here before

'Tis six-and-thirty years at least,
And you are now fourscore."

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"So much the worse," the clown rejoin'd; "To spare the aged would be kind;

However, see your search be legal;
And your authority-is't regal?

Else you are come on a fool's errand,

With but a secretary's warrant.

Besides you promis'd me three warnings,

Which I have look'd for nights and mornings; But, for that loss of time and ease,

I can recover damages."

"I know," cries Death, " that, at the best,
I seldom am a welcome guest;

But don't be captious; friend, at least:
I little thought you'd still be able
To stump about your farm and stable;
Your years have run to a great length,
I wish you joy, though, of your strength."
"Hold," says the farmer, "not so fast,
I have been lame these four years past."
"And no great wonder, Death replies;
However, you still keep your eyes;
And sure, to see one's loves and friends,
For legs and arms would make amends."
"Perhaps," says Dobson," so it might,
But, latterly, I've lost my sight."

"This is a shocking story, faith,

Yet there's some comfort still," says Death; "Each strives your sadness to amuse, I warrant you hear all the news."

"There's none," cries he," and if there were, I'm grown so deaf, I could not hear." "These are unjustifiable yearnings;

If you are lame, and deaf, and blind,

You've had your three sufficient warnings,

So, come along, no more we'll part:"
He said, and touch'd him with his dart;
And now old Dobson, turning pale,
Yields to his fate-so ends my tale.

THOUGHTS ON THE FRENCH INVASION.

From a Charge of the Bishop of Llandaff to the Clery of his

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Diocese.

"Britons! relax the ties of love,-of home;
Brace every sinew for the glorious field,

Where floats the royal standard; act like men;

And trust the God of battles for reward."-T. WHITE. Ar no period, since I have been your diocesan, have I interfered with your political opinions, or shown the least anxiety of any particular party in the state. Had I followed a contrary conduct, I should have acted in a manner unbecoming the nature of my office, ill-suited to the character I wish to maintain, and disrespectful to yourselves. I have, unquestionably, my political principles, as well as other men have theirs; and, how unfashionable soever they may have become, I have never scrupled, and never shall scruple, to confess that those on which the revolution was founded, and the present reigning family seated on the throne of these kingdoms, are, in my judgment, principles best calculated to protect the liberty and property of the subject, and to secure the honour and happiness of the sovereign.

You will not, I think, be guilty of a breach of Christian charity, in the use of even harsh language, when you explain to your flock the cruelties which the

French have used in every country they have invaded; for no language can reach the atrocity of the fact. They every where promise protection to the poorer sort, and they every where strip the poorest of every thing they possess; they plunder their cottages, and they set them on fire when the plunder is exhausted; they torture the owners to discover their wealth, and they put them to death when they have none to discover; they violate females of all ages; they insult the hoary head, and trample on all the decencies of life. This is no exaggerated picture: whoever has read the account of the proceedings of the French in Suabia, in Holland, in Italy, in Switzerland, know that it is not.-And can there be men in Great Britain of so base a temper, so maddened by malignity, so cankered by envy, só bẻsotted by folly, so stupified as to their own safety, as to abet the designs of such an enemy? It is said there are such men; but I have too firm a confidence in the general good sense of the people of Great Britain, to believe that such men are either many in number, or respectable for character, or formidable for connection. The men of this principality, (Wales), at least, have nobly shown, in a late instance, that they inherit the spirit of their ancestors, and have too ardent a love of their country to submit to a foreign yoke, under whatever specious promises, of supporting the rights of men, of introducing liberty and equality, the invaders may attempt to deceive them.

What are these rights of men, this liberty, this equality, of which every man has heard so much, and of which few have any proper conception?-Let us see what they are in France itself.-There no man has any

right in his person, or in his property, both are absolutely at the disposal of the few persons who have usurped the government.-There no man has any liberty, except the liberty of submitting to the worst of slavery; for what slavery can be worse than that of being subject to laws which are perpetually changed,, according to the caprice of the ruling faction?-Ubi jus incertum, ibi jus nullum.

Are the French coming hither to enrich the nation? Will they pay attention to the poor of this country, when they have so many thousands of infinitely poorer persons in their own?-Will they reward their seditious adherents amongst us?-Yes, they will reward them, as all history informs us such traitors have ever been rewarded-they will reward them with contempt, pillage, beggary, slavery, and death. The nation will be ruined by exorbitant impositions,-our naval power will be destroyed,‚—our commerce transferred to France,-our lands will be divided, not amongst those who wickedly covet their neighbours goods, but amongst French soldiers, who will be every where stationed, as the Roman soldiers were of old, to awe the people, and collect the taxes, the flower of our youth will be compelled to serve in foreign countries, to promote the wicked pro-, jects of French ambition,-Great Britain will be made an appendage to continental despotism.

I would say to the most violent democrat in the kingdom-suppose the business done, after seas of blood have been shed, millions of lives lost, towns plundered, villages burned, the royal family exterminated, and unutterable calamity has been endured by persons of all, ranks; after all this has been done, what advantages

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