E'er equall'd the tremendous shock it
Produced upon the Nursery benches.
The Bishops, who of course had votes,
By right of age and petticoats,
Were first and foremost in the fuss-

"What, whip a Lama! suffer birch "To touch his sacred

"Deistical!-assailing thus

infamous !

"The fundamentals of the Church! "No-no-such patriot plans as these, (So help them Heaven-and their Sees!) "They held to be rank blasphemies."

Th' alarm thus given, by these and other
Grave ladies of the Nursery side,

Spread through the land, till, such a pother,
Such party squabbles, far and wide,
Never in history's page had been
Recorded, as were then between

The Whippers and Non-whippers seen.
Till, things arriving at a state,

Which gave some fears of revolution,
The patriot lords' advice, though late,
Was put at last in execution.

The Parliament of Thibet met

The little Lama, call'd before it, Did, then and there, his whipping get, And (as the Nursery Gazette

Assures us) like a hero bore it.

And though, 'mong Thibet Tories, some
Lament that Royal Martyrdom

(Please to observe, the letter D

In this last word's pronounc'd like B),
Yet to th' example of that Prince

So much is Thibet's land a debtor,
That her long line of Lamas, since,

Have all behav'd themselves much better.

FABLE VII.

THE EXTINGUISHERS.

PROEM.

THOUGH soldiers are the true supports,
The natural allies of Courts,

Woe to the Monarch, who depends

Too much on his red-coated friends ;

For even soldiers sometimes think—

Nay, Colonels have been known to reason,— And reasoners, whether clad in pink,

Or red, or blue, are on the brink

(Nine cases out of ten) of treason.

Not

many soldiers, I believe, are

As fond of liberty as Mina;

Else- woe to Kings, when Freedom's fever Once turns into a Scarletina!

For then-but hold-'tis best to veil

My meaning in the following tale :

FABLE.

A Lord of Persia, rich and great,
Just come into a large estate,

Was shock'd to find he had, for neighbours,
Close to his gate, some rascal Ghebers,

Whose fires, beneath his very nose,

In heretic combustion rose.

But Lords of Persia can, no doubt,

Do what they will-so, one fine morning,

He turn'd the rascal Ghebers out,

First giving a few kicks for warning.

Then, thanking heaven most piously,

He knock'd their Temple to the ground,

Blessing himself for joy to see

Such Pagan ruins strew'd around. But much it vex'd my Lord to find,

That, while all else obey'd his will, The Fire these Ghebers left behind,

Do what he would, kept burning still. Fiercely he storm'd, as if his frown Could scare the bright insurgent down;

But, no-such fires are headstrong things, And care not much for Lords or Kings. Scarce could his Lordship well contrive The flashes in one place to smother, Before - hey presto!—all alive,

They sprung up freshly in another.

At length when, spite of prayers and damns,
'Twas found the sturdy flame defied him,
His stewards came, with low salams,
Offering, by contract, to provide him
Some large Extinguishers, (a plan,
Much us'd, they said, at Ispahan,
Vienna, Petersburgh-in short,
Wherever Light's forbid at court,)

Machines no Lord should be without,
Which would, at once, put promptly out

All kinds of fires, from staring, stark

-

Volcanos to the tiniest spark;

Till all things slept as dull and dark,
As, in a great Lord's neighbourhood,
'Twas right and fitting all things should.

Accordingly, some large supplies

Of these Extinguishers were furnish'd