The Tories came with long address, With poems groan'd the Royal press, And all in William's praise-- The boy astonish'd look'd about To find their vast dominions out, Then answer'd in amaze,
"Where all your empire wide can be, "Friends, for my soul I cannot see: "'Tis but an empty name; "Three wasted islands and a town "In rubbish bury'd--half burnt down, "Is all that we can claim:
"I am of royal birth, 'tis true, "But what, alas! can princes do, "No armies to command? "Cornwallis conquer'd and distrest, "Sir Henry Clinton grown a jest, "I curse and leave the land."
[123] Published in the _Freeman's Journal_, January 30, 1782. "Prince William Henry, third son of George III, afterwards William IV, entered the navy as midshipman at the age of fourteen in 1779. He sailed in the _Prince George_ of 98 guns to Gibralter, in the course of which cruise he saw some service under Rodney in conflict with the Spanish fleet; and it was in this ship, accompanied by Admiral Digby, that he arrived at New York in September, 1781."--_Duyckinck._ He was received with great enthusiasm and ceremony. In the _Freeman's Journal_ of January 25, 1782, was the following, doubtless from the pen of Freneau: "It is observable that the arrival of Prince William Henry in New York filled the British with 'joy ineffable and universal.' The very chimney sweeps, smitten with the poetic flame, composed odes in his praise, some of which were inserted in _The Royal Gazette_." The 1809 edition was given a long French motto from Mirabeau, which Freneau translates as follows: "The favourites of a throne bask in its sunshine, like butterflies in a fine day. Their very slaves at the foot of royalty partake of the delusion. They keep a nation under their feet, and their every folly influences and is followed by the multitude. They care not if their fathers and their nearest relatives are trampled into the dust, provided _they_ can figure away in the circles of a court, etc."
LORD DUNMORE'S PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA[124]
That a silly old fellow, much noted of yore, And known by the name of John, earl of Dunmore, Has again ventured over to visit your shore.
The reason of this he begs leave to explain-- In England they said you were conquered and slain, (But the devil take him who believes them again)--