I must now bid adieu--only think, DOLLY, think If this should be the King-I have scarce slept a wink

With imagining how it will sound in the papers, And how all the Misses my good luck will grudge,

When they read that Count RUPPIN, to drive away vapours,

Has gone down the Beaujon with Miss BIDDY FUDGE.

Nota Bene.-Papa's almost certain 'tis heFor he knows the L*git**ate cut, and could

see

In the way he went poising and manag'd to tower

So erect in the car, the true Balance of Power.

LETTER VI.

FROM PHIL. FUDGE, ESQ. TO HIS BROTHER TIM. FUDGE, ESQ. BARRISTER AT LAW.

Yours of the 12th receiv'd just now-
Thanks for the hint, my trusty brother!
'Tis truly pleasing to see how

We, FUDGES, stand by one another.
But never fear-I know my chap,
And he who knows me too-verbum sap.
My Lord and I are kindred spirits,
Like in our ways as two young ferrets;
Both fashion'd, as that supple race is,
To twist into all sorts of places ;—

Creatures lengthy, lean, and hungering,
Fond of blood and burrow-mungering.

As to my Book in 91,

Call'd "Down with Kings, or, Who'd have thought it?"

Bless you, the Book's long dead and gone,
Not ev'n th' Attorney-General bought it.
And, though some few seditious tricks
I play'd in 95 and 6,

As you remind me in your letter,

His Lordship likes me all the better;—
We, proselytes, that come with news full,
Are, as he says, so vastly useful!

REYNOLDS and I-(you know TOM REYNOLDS~~~
Drinks his claret, keeps his chaise-
Lucky the dog that first unkennels

Traitors and Luddites now-a-days;

Or who can help to bag a few,

When S-D-TH wants a death or two;)
REYONLDS and I, and some few more,
All men, like us, of information,
Friends, whom his Lordship keeps in store,
As under-saviours of the nation*-
Have form'd a Club this season, where
His Lordship sometimes takes the chair,
And gives us many a bright oration
In praise of our sublime vocation;
Tracing it up to great King MIDAS,
Who, though in fable typified as

* Lord C's tribute to the character of his friend, Mr Reynolds, will long be remembered with equal credit to both.

A royal Ass, by grace divine
And right of ears, most asinine,
Was yet no more in fact historical,

Than an exceeding well-bred tyrant; And these, his ears, but allegorical, Meaning Informers, kept at high rent-* Gem'men, who touch'd the Treasury glisteners, Like us, for being trusty listeners; And picking up each tale and fragment, For royal MIDAS's green bag meant. "And wherefore," said this best of, Peers, "Should not the R-G-T too have ears,† "To reach as far, as long and wide as "Those of his model, good King MIDAS?" This speech was thought extremely good, And (rare for him) was understood-

Instant we drank "The R-G-T's Ears,"
With three times three illustrious cheers,

That made the room resound like thunder"The R-G-r's Ears, and may he ne'er

*This interpretation of the fable of Midas's ears seems the most probable of any, and is thus stated in Hoffmann-Hâc allegoriâ significatum, Midam, utpote tyrannum, subauscultatores dimittere solitum, per quos, quæcunque per omnem regionem vel fierent, vel dicerentur, cognosceret, nimiruin illis utens auriam vice."

+ Brossette, in a note on this line of Boileau,

"Midas, le Roi Midas à des oreilles d'Ane"

tells us, that "M Perrault le Medecin voulut faire à notre auteur un crime d'état de ce vers, comme d'une maligne allusion au Roi." I trust, however, that no one will suspect the line in the text of any such indecorous allusion.

"From foolish shame, like MIDAS, wear
"Old paltry wigs to keep them under!"*
This touch at our old friends, the Whigs,
Made us as merry all as grigs.
In short (I'll thank you not to mention
These things again) we get on gaily;
And, thanks to pension and Suspension,
Our little Club increases daily.
CASTLES, and OLIVER, and such,
Who don't as yet full salary touch,
Nor keep their chaise and pair, nor buy
Houses and lands, like Tom and I,
Of course don't rank with us, salvators,†
But merely serve the Club as waiters.
Like Knights, too, we've our collar days,
(For us, I own, an awkward phrase)
When, in our new costume adorn'd,-
The R-G-T's buff-and-blue coat's turn'd-
We have the honour to give dinners
To the chief Rats in upper stations;
Your W-Ys, VNS-half-fledg'd sinners,
Who shame us by their imitations;

* It was not under wigs, but tiaras, that King Midas endeavoured to conceal these appendages :

Tempora purpureis tentat velare tiaris.-Ovid. The Noble Giver of the toast, however, had evidently, with his usual clearness, confounded King Midas, Mr. Liston, and the P e R-g-t together.

Mr. Fudge and his friends should go by this name -as the man who, some years since, saved the late Right Hon. George Rose from drowning, was ever after called Salvator Rosa.

This intimacy between the Rats and Informers is just as it should be-" verè dulce sodalitium."

Who turn, 'tis true-but what of that?
Give me the useful peaching Rat;

Not things as mute as Punch, when bought,
Whose wooden heads are all they've brought ;
Who, false enough to shirk their friends,
But too faint-hearted to betray,
Are, after all their twists and bends,
But souls in Limbo, damn'd half way.
No, no,we nobler vermin are
A genus, useful as we're rare;
'Midst all the things miraculous

Of which our natural histories brag,
The rarest must be Rats like us,
Who let the cat out of the bag.
Yet still these Tyros in the cause
Deserve I own, no small applause;
And they're by us receiv'd and treated
With all due honours-only seated
In th' inverse scale of their reward,
The merely promis'd next my Lord;
Small pensions then, and so on, down,
Rat after rat, they graduate

Through job, red ribbon, and silk gown,
To Chanc❜llorship and Marquisate.
This serves to nurse the ratting spirit;
The less the bribe the more the merit.

Our music's good you may be sure;
My Lord you know, 's an amateur*-

* His Lordship, during one of the busiest periods of his Ministerial career, took lessons three times a week from a celebrated music-master, in glee singing.