V. And if perchance great _Doctor Arnold_ should retire, Fatigu'd with all the troubles of St. James's Choir; My Odes two merits shall unite; [2]BEARCROFT, my friend, His aid will lend, And set to music all I write; Let me then, Chamberlain without a _flaw_, For June the fourth prepare, The praises of the King In _legal lays_ to sing, Until they rend the air, And _prove_ my equal fame in _poesy_ and law!
[1] Rapin observes, that Robert Cecil, the first Earl of Salisbury, was of a great genius; and though crooked before and behind, Nature supplied that defect with noble endowments of mind.
[2] This Gentleman is a great performer upon the Piano Forte, as well as the Speaking Trumpet and Jews' Harp.
_By_ NATHANIEL WILLIAM WRAXHALL, ESQ. M.P.
I. MURRAIN seize the House of Commons! Hoarse catarrh their windpipes shake! Who, deaf to travell'd Learning's summons, Rudely cough'd whene'er I spake! _North_, nor _Fox_'s thund'ring course, Nor e'en the Speaker, tyrant, shall have force To save thy walls from nightly breaches, From _Wraxhall_'s votes, from _Wraxhall_'s speeches, _Geography_, terraqueous maid, Descend from globes to statesmen's aid! Again to heedless crouds unfold Truths unheard, tho' not untold: Come, and once more unlock this vasty world-- Nations attend! the _map_ of _Earth_'s unfurl'd!
II. Begin the song, from where the Rhine, The Elbe, the Danube, Weser rolls---- _Joseph_, nine circles, forty seas are thine---- Thine, twenty millions souls---- Upon a marish flat and dank States, Six and One, Dam the dykes, the seas embank, Maugre the Don! A gridiron's form the proud Escurial rears, While South of Vincent's Cape anchovies glide: But, ah! o'er Tagus, once auriferous tide, A priest-rid Queen, Braganza's sceptre bears---- Hard fate! that Lisbon's Diet-drink is known To cure each crazy _constitution_ but her own!
III. I burn! I burn! I glow! I glow! With antique and with modern lore! I rush from Bosphorus to Po-- To Nilus from the Nore. Why were thy Pyramids, O Egypt! rais'd, But to be measur'd, and be prais'd? Avaunt, ye Crocodiles! your threats are vain! On Norway's seas, my soul, unshaken, Brav'd the Sea-Snake and the Craken! And shall I heed the River's scaly train? Afric, I scorn thy Alligator band! Quadrant in hand I take my stand, And eye thy moss-clad needle, Cleopatra grand! O, that great Pompey's pillar were my own! Eighty-eight feet the shaft, and all one stone! But hail, ye lost Athenians! Hail also, ye Armenians! Hail once, ye Greeks, ye Romans, Carthagenians! Twice hail, ye Turks, and thrice, ye Abyssinians! Hail too, O Lapland, with thy squirrels airy! Hail, Commerce-catching Tipperary! Hail, wonder-working Magi! Hail, Ouran-Outangs! Hail, Anthropophagi! Hail, all ye cabinets of every state, From poor Marino's Hill, to Catherine's Empire great! All have their chiefs, who-speak, who write, who seem to think, _Caermarthens, Sydneys, Rutlands_, paper, pens, and ink;