45

A single leaf shall waft an Army o'er,
Or ship off Senates to a distant Shore;
A leaf, like Sibyl's, scatter to and fro
Our fates and fortunes, as the wind shall blow :
Pregnant with thousands fits the Scrap unseen,
And filent sells a King, or buys a Queen.

Oh! that such bulky Bribes as all might see,
Still, as of old, incumber'd Villany!
Could France or Rome divert our brave designs,
With all their brandies, or with all their wines?
What could they more than Knights and Squires con-

found, Or water all the Quorum ten miles round?

50

many Princes had been sent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partitiontreaty had disposed of Spain ; France had sec up a King for England, who was sent to Scotland, and back again ; King Stanislaus was sent to Poland, and back again ; the Duke of Anjou was sent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy.

VER. 44. Or ship off Senates to fome diftant Sbore; ) Alludes to several Ministers, Counsellors, and Patriots banithed in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE of the PARLIAMENT of Paris, banished to Pontoise in the year 1720.

VER. 47. Pregnant with thousands flits ibe Scrap unseen,) This imagery is very sublime, and alludes to the course of a destroying pestilence. The Plalmist, in his expression of the Pestilence that walkerb in darkness, supplied him with the grandeur of his idea,

A statesman's flumbers how this speech would spoil! “ Sir, Spain has sent a thousand jars of oil ;

Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door : « A hundred oxen at your

levee roar,'' Poor Avarice one torment more would find ; Nor could Profusion squander all in kind. Astride his cheesc Sir Morgan might we meet ; And Worldly crying coals from ttreet to ftreet, Whom with a wig to wild, and mien fo maz'd, Pity mittakes for some poor tradesman craz'd. Hal Çolepepper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himielf have sent it to the dogs ? 66

Ver. 63. Some Misers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had enrered at this time into an Association to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were seduced almost to starve, 'uill one of them tak. ing the advantage of underfelling the rest, defeated the de lign. One of these Mifeis was worth tin thousand, another feven thousand a year.

VF 8. 65. Cole citer.] Sir WILLIAM COI E PE PP ÉR, Bart. a Perfen of an ancient family, and ample forcune, without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the Caming-table, past the rest of his days in fitting theịc to fee the ruin of others; preferring to fubfist upon borrowing and begging, rather than enter into any reput

VARIATIONS:

Aker ver. so. in the MS.

To break a truit were Perer brib?d with wine,
Peter! 'would pose as wife a head as thine,

His Grace will game : to White's a Bull be led,
With spurning heels, and with a butting head.
To White's be carry'd, as to ancient games,
Fair Courfers, Vases, and alluring Dames. 70
Shall then Uxorio, if the stakes he sweep,
Bear home fix Whores, and make his Lady weep?
Or soft Adonis, so perfum'd and fine,
Drive to St. James's a whole herd of fwine ?
Oh filthy check on all industrious skill,

75 To spoil the nation's last great trade, Quadrille ! Since then, my Lord, on such a World we fall, What say you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all.

P. What Riches give us let us then enquire :
Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat,

Cloaths, and Fire.
Is this too little ? would you more than live ?
Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give.

able method of life, and refusing a Post in the army which was offered him.

VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poteffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Interest was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put seventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for

VARIATIONS,

VÉR. 79. Since then, etc.] In the former Ed.
Well then, since with the world we stand or fall,

Come take it as we find it, Gold and all,

Alas!' tis more than (all his vifions paft)
Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at laft!
What can they give ? to dying Hopkins, Heirs; 85
Få Chartres, Vigour; Japhet, Nofe and Ears?'

better interest; which sum having loft, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to anoffer considerable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he saved both cloaths and all other expences,

Ver: 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualicies, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the first Epiftle.

VER. 85. Hopkiris,] A Citizen, whose rapacity obtained hin the name of Vulture Hopkins.' He lived worthlefs, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no person living, but left it so as not to be inhe. rited till after the second generation. His counsel représ senting to him how many years it must be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at in.

, He expressed great joy thereat, and said, They would then be as long in fpending, as he had been will, and gave it to the heir at law. VER'

. 86. Japhet, Nose and Ears ? ) JAPHET CROOK, alias Sir Peter Stranger; was punished with the loss of those parts, for having forged a conveyance of an Efate to himself, upon which he took up several thousand pounds. He was at the same time sued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which hc poffeffed another considerable Estate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worih a great fum, which (in reward for the fmall loss of his ears) he enjoyed in prison till his death, and quietly left to his executor.

135

I 20

EP. III. MORAL ESSAY S.
Ask you why Phryne the whole Auction buys?
Phryne foresees a general Excise.
Why she and Sappho raise that monstrous sum ?
Alas! they fear a man will cost a plum.

Wife Peter sees the World's respect for Gold,
And therefore hopes this Nation may be sold :
Glorious Ambition ! Peter, swell thy store,
And be what Rome's great Didius was before.

The Crown of Poland, venal twice an age,
To just three millions stinted modest Gage.

125

luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of Ve.
nison was from three to five pounds.
VER. 120.

general Excise.] Many people about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.

Ver. 123. Wise Peter] PETER WALTER, a person not only eminent in the wisdom of his profession, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a safe, conveyancer ; extremely respected by the Nobility of this land, though free from all manner of luxury and oftentation : his wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own son, for whom he procured an employment of considerable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necesary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him.

VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, so rich as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax.

Ver. 127. The Crown of Poland, etc.] The two persons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffifippi despised to realize above three bundred thousand pounds ; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a vision of the like royal pature.