No. XIX. March 19. For the authenticity of the inclosed Ballad, we refer our Readers to a Volume of MS. Poems discovered upon the removal of some papers, during the late alterations which have taken place at the Tax-Office, in consequence of the Reports of the Finance Committee. It has been communicated to our Printer by an ingenious Friend of his, who occasionally acts for the Deputy Collector of the Parish of St. Martin in the Fields; but without date, or any other mark, by which we are enabled to guess at the particular subject of the composition. CHEVY CHASE. GOD prosper long our Noble King, Our lives and safeties all: A woeful story late there did In Britain's Isle befall. D-ke Sm-ths-n, of N-rth-mb-rl—nd, A vow to God did make; The choicest gifts in fair England, For him and his to take. "Stand fast, my merry men all," he cried, By M-ra's Earl and me, "And we will gain place, wealth, and "As arm'd Neutrality. power, "Excise and Customs, Church and Law, "Now God be with him," quoth the King, "Sith 'twill no better be; "I trust we have within our realm, "Five hundred good as he." The Duke then join'd with Charley F-x, Throughout our English Parliament, And soon a law, like arrow keen, Or spear, or curtal-axe, Struck poor D-ke Sm-ths-n to the heart, In shape of Powder Tax. Again the Taxing-man appear'd No deadlier foe could be; A schedule of a cloth-yard long, Within his hand bore he. "Yield thee, D-ke Sm-ths-n, and behold "The Assessment thou must pay; Dogs, horses, houses, coaches, clocks, "And servants in array." Nay," quoth the Duke, " in thy black scroll "Deductions I espye "For those who, poor, and mean, and low, "With children burthen'd lie. "And though full Sixty Thousand Pounds "My vassals pay to me, "From Cornwall to Northumberland, "Yet England's Church, its King, its Laws, "Its cause I value not, "Compared with this, my constant text, "A penny saved, is got. "No drop of Princely P―rcy's blood “Through these cold veins doth run; "With Hotspur's castles, blazon, nam "I still am poor Sm-ths-n. "Let England's youth unite in arms, “And every liberal hand "With honest zeal subscrib their mite, "To save their native land: "I at St. Martin's Vestry Board, "To swear shall be content, “That I have children eight, and claim "Deductions, Ten per Cent." God bless us all from factious Foes, And grant the King may never make No. XX. ODE TO JACOBINISM. March 26. I. DAUGHTER of Hell, insatiate power, Destroyer of the human race, With pangs unfelt before, unpitied, and alone! II. When first to scourge the sons of earth, He mark'd thy progress, firm though slow, And statesmen, princes, leagu'd with their invet'rate foe. |