Is but in other words to say,

That weighty Dulness bears the sway.
And who that recollects the time
When this said demon rul'd our clime,
Knows not what care was had to state,
That she was both of rank and weight?
Which was but honestly to own,
What by my simile I've shown.

WHEN Charles, of talents great and true,
Harangued in manly strains;

No paper-arguments he drew

But drew upon his brains.

But Foxites now for fire give smoke,

And constant bawl for papers;
While W-nd-m strives to cut a joke,.

And P-tt-y 's-"cutting capers."

These paper-orators, in fine,

How fallen their condition!

Have dubb'd themselves, at Laughter's shrine,

A-paper-opposition.

PUNCTUM SALIENS.

[From the same, Feb. 20.]

WHEN will your Honours give us rest?

For though we write,

Morn, noon, and night,

Mountains of papers you request:

"Toil and trouble,

Boil and bubble"

Oh! were your Honours 'mong the blest!

Remember,

Remember, Sirs, nor long ago

You took a nap,
In Somnus' lap,

1

Though you work'd nought against the foe;
Yet us now firking

With constant working,

Not a moment's sleep you let us know.

You rested without care or pain;
For though fierce war
Rag'd wide and far,

You snor'd, in concert, a loud strain :

O! what a pity!

For us, sad ditty!

Your Honours ever-wak'd again!

X. Y. Z.

Cum multis aliis,

ADVERTISEMENT EXTRAORDINARY.
[From the British Press, Feb. 20.]

ON SALE,

For ready money only, payment to be made in Spanish milled dollars, for which a reasonable discount will be allowed,

A

CHOICE assortment of fine and full flavoured Teas, imported from the East Indies in the year 1796, intended for the Ostend market, but landed at Dungeness (owing to some irregularity in the Captain's papers), and since that period stored in some double leaded ministerial canisters. Also a quantity of masts, spars, rigging, old junk, &c. &c. recently imported from the Baltic. Apply to Ge C-nn-g and Co. or Sir H-e P-ph-m.

N. B. The whole of the above, particularly the teas, are well worthy the public attention; as, from the peculiar circumstances under which they were imported (being droits of the Adm-r-lty), they can be offered cheap.

'T

EPIGRAM.

[From the Morning Chronicle.]

IS folly to growl at Sir Plunderpop's game,
And complain that he mounts at a high rate;
What wonder a smuggler, ambitious of fame,
Should finish with being a pirate?

A CONDOLATORY EPISTLE

FROM MR. SECRETARY C-NN-NG TO JN F-LL-R, ESQ. ON HIS LATE DECLARATION. FROM THE WESTMINSTER CLOISTERS. WRITTEN ON THE NIGHT

CEDING THE GENERAL FAST.

IN

[From the Morning Chronicle, Feb. 22.]

N these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where any thing but contemplation dwells,
And influence ministerial ever reigns,

What means this tumult in a Statesman's veins ?
While Fortune all her bounties pours apace,
And gives me back to dignity and place,
On me, her votary, so blindly showers
The Foreign Seals-so foreign to my powers:
While thus the goddess every boon supplies,
Can woman's tears suffuse a Placeman's eyes?
Alas! what joy can place or power impart,
If inward sorrows seize upon the heart?
Though others stare, can Fuller seek to know
Why yields his friend to unavailing woe?
Reflection serves but to embitter pain,

And makes me weep, because I weep in vain.
Then let this solemn eve of fast and prayer
Be sacred to the prevalence of care;
While all is hush'd-no Opposition near,

Let friendship claim the tributary tear.

And art thou gone? no longer an M. P. ?
And lives thy friend to write thine elegy?
Curse on all laws, how often have I said,
But those the new morality * has made!

* See page 162.

PRE

Oh!

Oh! where shall thy great parallel be found,
Of all the pack, my deep-tongu'd favourite hound!
Though shallow Montague can play the fool,
And Tommy Turton gabble out of rule;
Though modest Milnes may rise to spout once more,
The written speech he spouted thrice before;
Yet who, whene'er I quote a little Latin,
-Point a sly joke, or make a pun come pat in,
Or read an extract for the common cause,
Like thee can pour such vollies of applause?
While lucid Ponsonby stands mute with wonder,
Thy grunt's a cannonade! thy "Hear him," thunder!
Of all the manifestoes, which of late

Have vex'd our Councils, and incens'd the State,
Whether the Bear, with Tilsit-growl, arraigns
Our matchless triumph o'er the stubborn Danes;
Or the faint flutterings of his spoil'd Ally,
Unplume the pride that once could soar so high;
When Prussia's royal bird, with eagle gaze,
Wing'd her bright way in glory's fiercest blaze,
Tow'ring aloft, amid her native fires,

With changeless eye, and wing that never tires;
Not all their papers gave me more vexation
Than thy more local, fuller declaration.
Dear, tempting name! so pregnant with a pun,
E'en in my tears I love a little fun.
But since you could so hastily decide
On that last act of frantic suicide,

I'll write your life, a full and true relation
Of all your public efforts for the nation :
Such deeds the muse with rapture will rehearse,
For fiction is, they say, the soul of verse.
Who can forget the fearless speech you made
In aid of freedom and the negro trade?
Not to be dash'd by laughter, sneer, or frown,
Though all the House essay'd to cough you down;
But when your fiery zeal for the plantation
Had melted in a gentle perspiration,

While your too solid flesh" less solid grew,

"Thaw'd and resolv'd itself into a dew," Heavens! how at once a rich and rival flow Fell from your brow above, your lips below,

16

While

While as you spoke of sugars and savannah,
Your brow dropt oil, your fuller "tongue dropt manna."
Sussex accurs'd! and shall we never more

See the one flood, or hear the other roar;
Never again to view the full-blown rose,

That, while you thunder'd, blush'd upon your nose:
Blossom of heraldry, whose die remains,

To prove what high blood revels in your veins;
Why was your stay so short, or why not shorter,
Thou ruby concrete of beef-steaks and porter?
But morning dawns-to church we must repair,
And give the day to penitence and prayer.

NOSES.

[From the same, Feb. 24.]

MUCH as our lively neighbours of France have prided themselves on being the arbiters of fashion, they have yet to learn what our fashionables have long known and practised, that Nature, properly coaxed into the service, may have as much share as art, in the changes and revolutions which we see and hear. It may, indeed, seem odd, that Nature, who hitherto has not paid the utmost deference to the advice of milliners and mantua-makers, should have been at length brought under the jurisdiction of fashion; but it is, notwithstanding, very certain, that some of her productions are now as openly criticised, condemned, or applauded, as if they came from Madame Lanchester's repository; and we have connoisseurs, who apply an eye as fastidious to her limbs, her contours, her muscles, and her features, as if they were passing a judgment on the marbles of a sculptor.

Such refinement in altering the human body may be at present exemplified in the Noses of our elegantes. None of these striking prominences are thought becoming or fashionable but what are of the Grecian or Roman mould, to correspond with the ca

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