a

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 despis’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 fouls adorn!
Thy natives sure would prove a senate's scorn.

60 Do strangers 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 breaft 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 son, Proud, pert, and dull-though brilliant once from

schools, Will scorn all learning's as all virtue's rules; And, though by nature friendly, honest, brave, Turn a lly, selfith, 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 Ihameless quacks, who doctors rights invade, Of jargon and of poison form a trade, o

So

a

65

70

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, 85
Or charity her kindly hand extend ?
Thy courts, that, shut when pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict distress.
Try misdemeanours ! -all thy wiles employ,
Not to chastise th' offender, but destroy ;
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.

90

Boast swarming vessels, whose plebeian state
Owes not to merchants but mechanics freight.
Boast nought but pedlar-feets-in war's alarms,
Unknown to glory, as unknown to arms.

100

Boast

Boast thy base * Tolsey, and thy turn-Spit dogs,
Thy | Halliers horses and thy human hogs;
Upstarts 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 Sledges, which are here uled instead of carts.

CON

330

Verses to Aaron Hill

Piologue to Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth

The Animalcule

131

132

To Mrs. Haywood

135

Apology