For to whom can I dedicate this poem, with fo much juftice as to you? It is the representation of your own hero: it is the picture drawn at length which you admire and prize fo much in little. None of your ornaments are wanting; neither the landfcape of your Tower, nor the rifing fun; nor the Anno Domini of your new fovereign's coronation. This muft needs be a grateful undertaking to your whole party; efpecially to thofe who have not been fo happy as to purchase the original. I hear the graver has made a good market of it all his kings are brought up already; or the value of the remainder to inhanced, that many a poor Polander, who would be glad to worship the image, is not able to go to the coft of him; but must be content to fee him here. I muft confefs I am no great artist; but fign-poft painting will ferve the turn to remember a friend by; efpecially when better is not to be had. Yet, for your comfort, the lineaments are true; and though he fat not five times to me, as he did to B. yet I have confulted hiftory, as the Italian painters do, when they would draw a Nero or a Caligula; though they have not feen the man, they can help their imagination by a ftatue of him, and find out the colouring from Suctonius and Tacitus. Truth is, you might have fpared one fide of your Medal: the head would be feen to more advantage if it were placed on a fpike of the tower, a little nearer to the fun, which would then break out to a better purpose.

6

You tell us in your preface to the No-proteftant Plot, that you shall be forced hereafter to leave off your modefty: I suppose yon mean that little which is left you: for it was worn to rags when you put out this Medal. Never was there practifed fuch a piece of notorious impudence in the face of an established government. I believe, when he is dead you will wear him in thumb-rings, as the Turks did Scanderbeg; as if there were virtue in his bones to preferve you against monarchy. Yet all this while you pretend not only zcal for the public good, but a due veneration for the perfon of the king. But all men who can fee an inch before them, may eafily detect thofe grofs fallacies. That it is ne ceffary for men in your circuuistances to pretend both, is granted you; for without them there be no ground to raise a faction. But I would afk you one civil queftion, What right has any man among you, or any affociation of men, to come nearer to you, who, out of parliament, cannot be confidered in a public capacity, to meet as you daily do, in factious clubs, to vilify the government in your difcourfes, and to libel it in all your writings? Who made you judges in Ifrael? Or how is it confiftent with your zeal for the public welfare, to promote fedition? Does your definition of loyal, which is to ferve the king according to the laws, allow you the licenfe of traducing the executive power with which you own he is invefted? You complain that his majesty has loft the love and confidence of his people; and,

by your very urging it. you endeavour what in you lies to make him lofe them. All good fubjects abhor the thought of arbitrary power, whether it be in one or many: if you were the patriots you would foem, you would not at this rate incenfe the multitude to affume it; for no fober man can fear it, either from the king's difpofition or his practice; or even, where you would odioufly lay it, from his minifters. Give us leave to enjoy the government and benefit of laws under which we were born, and which we defire to tranfmit to our pofterity. You are not the truftees of the public liberry; and if you have not right to petition in a crowd, much lefs have you to intermeddle in the management of affairs, or to arraign what you do not like; which in effect is every thing that is done by the king and council. Can you imagine that any reasonable man will believe you refpect the perfon of his Majefty, when it is apparent that your feditious pamphlets are fluffed with particular reflections on him? If you have the confidence to deny this, it is ealy to be evinced from a thousand paffages, which I orly forbear to quote, because I defire they fhould die and be forgotten. I have perufed many your papers; and to fhew you that I have, the third part of your No-protestant Plot is much of it ftolen from your dead author's pamphlet, called the Growth of Popery, as manifeftly as Milton's Defence of the English People is from Buchan de jure regni apud Scotos: or your firft Covenant and new Affociation from the holy league of the French Guifards. Any one who reads Davila, may trace your practices all arg. There were the fame pretences for refornation and loyalty, the fame afperfions of the

g, and the fame grounds of a rebellion. I know not whether you will take the historian's word, who fays it was reported, that Poltrot a Hugotot murdered Francis Duke of Guife, by the inftigations of Theodore Beza, or that it was a Hugonot minifter, otherwife called a Prefbyterian; for our church abhers fo devilish a tenet, who firth writ a treatife of the lawfulness of depofing and murdering kings of a different perfuafion in reEgion: but I am able to prove, from the doctrine of Calvin, and principles of Buchanan, that they fet the people above the magiftrate; which, miftake not, is your own fundamental, and which carries your loyalty no further than your Ing. When a vote of the House of Commons goes on your fide, you are as ready to obferve it, as if it were paffed into a law; but when you are pinched with any former and yet unrepealed act of parliament, you declare that in fome cafes you will not be obliged by it. The paffage is in the fame third part of the Non-proteftant Plot, and is too plain to be denied. The late copy of your intended affociation, you neither wholly juftify nor condemn; but as the papifts, when they are unoppofed, fly out into all the pageantries of Worship; but in times of war, when they are hard preffed by arguments, lie clofe intrenched behind the Council of Trent: fo now, when

your affairs are in a low condition, you dare not pretend that to be a legal combination; but whenfoever you are afloat, I doubt not but it will be maintained and juftified to pnrpose. For indeed there is nothing to defend it but the sword: it is the proper time to fay any thing, when men have all things in their power.

In the mean time, you would fain be nibbling at a parallel betwixt this affociation and that in the time of Queen Elizabeth. But there is this fmall difference betwixt them that the ends of the one are directly oppofite to the other one with the queen's approbation and conjunction, as head of it, the other without either the confent or knowledge of the king, against whose authority it is manifeftly defigned. Therefore you do well to have recourfe to your last evafion, that it was contrived by your enemies, and fhuffled into the papers that were feized; which yet you fee the nation is not fo eafy to believe as your own jury; but the matter is not difficult to find twelve men in Newgate who would acquit a malefactor.

I have one only favour to defire of you at parting, that when you think of answering this poem, you would employ the fame pens against it, who have combated with fo much fuccefs against Abfalom and Achitophel: for then you affure yourselves of a clear victory, without the leaft reply. Rail at me abundantly; and, not to break a custom, do it without wit: by this method you will gain a confiderable point, which is wholly to wave the anfwer of my arguments. Never own the bottom of your principles, for fear they should be treafon. Fall feverely on the mifcarriages of government; for if fcandal be not allowed, you are not freeborn fubjects. If God has not bleffed you with the talent of rhyming, make ufe of my poor stock and welcome; let your verfes run upon my feet; and, for the utmost refuge of notorious blockheads, reduced to the laft extremity of fenfe, turn my own lines upon me, and, in utter defpair of your own fatyr, make me fatyrize myfelf. Some of you have been driven to this bay already; but, above all the reft, commend me to the non-conformist parfon, who writ the Whip and Key. I am afraid it is not read fo much as the piece deferves, because the bookfeller is every week crying help at the end of his Gazette, to get it off. You fee I am charitable enough to do him a kindness, that it may be published as well as printed; and that fo much skill in Hebrew derivations may not lie for wafte paper in the fhop. Yet I half fufpect he went no farther for his learning, than the index of Hebrew names and etymologies, which is printed at the end of fome English bibles. If Achitophel signify the brother of a fool, the author of that poem will pafs with his readers for the next of kin; and perhaps it is the relation that makes the kindness. Whatever the verfes are, buy them up, I befeech you, out of pity; for I hear the conventicle is fhut up, and the brother of Achitophel out of fervice.

Or all our antique fights and pageantry,
Which English ideots run in crowds to fee,
The Polish Medal bears the prize alone :
A monfter, more the favourite of the town
Than either fairs or theatres have shewn.
Never did art fo well with nature strive;
Nar never idol feem'd fo much alive :
So like the man; fo golden to the fight,
So bafe within, fo counterfeit and light.
One fide is fill'd with title and with face;
And, left the king should want a legal place,
On the reverse, a tower the town furveys;
O'er which our mounting fun his beams displays.
The word, prononc'd aloud by shrieval voice.
Letemer, which, in Polish, is rejoice.

The day, month, year, to the great act are join'd:
And a new canting holiday defign'd.
Five days he fat, for every caft and look ;
Four more than God to finish Adam took.
But who can tell what effence angels are,
Or how long heaven was making Lucifer?
Oh, could the stile that copy'd every grace,
And plough'd fuch furrows for an eunuch face,
Could it have form'd his everchanging will,
The various piece had tir'd the graver's skill!
A married hero first, with early care,
Blown like a pigmy by the winds, to war.
A beardless chief, a rebel, e'er a man ;
So young his hatred to his prince began.
Next this, how wildly will ambition steer!
A vermin wriggling in th' ufurper's ear.
Bartering his venal wit for fums of gold,
He caft himself into the faint-like mould; [gain,
Groan'd, figh'd, and pray'd, while godliness was
The loudest bagpipe of the squeaking train.
But, as 'tis hard to cheat a juggler's eyes,
His open lewdness he could ne'er difguife.
There fplit the faint; for hypocritic zeal
Allows no fins but thofe it can conceal.

Whoring to fcandal gives too large a scope:
Saints maft not trade; but they may interlope.
Th' ungodly principle was all the fame ;
But a grofs cheat betrays his partner's game.
Befides, their peace was formal, grave, and flack;
His nimble wit outran the heavy pack.
Yet ftill he found his fortune at a stay;
Whole droves of blockheads choaking up his way;
They took, but not rewarded, his advice;
Villain and wit exact a double price.
Power was his aim: but, thrown from that'

pretence,

}

The wretch turn'd loyal in his own defence;
And malice reconcil'd him to his prince.
Him, in the anguifh of his foul he ferv'd;
Rewarded fafter still than he deferv'd.
Behold him now exalted into trust;
His counfel's oft convenient, feldom juft.
Ev'n in the most fincere advice he gave
He had a grudging ftill to be a knave,
The frauds he learn'd in his fanatic years
Made him uneafy in his lawful gears.
At beft as little honefl as he could,
And like white witches mifchievously good.
To his first bias longingly he leans;
And rather would be great by wicked means.
Thus fram'd for ill, he loos'd our triple hold;
Advice unfafe, precipitous, and bold.
From hence thofe tears! that Ilium of our woe!
Who helps a powerful friend, fore-arms a foe.
What wonder if the waves prevail so far
When he cut down the banks that made the
bar?

Seas follow but their nature to invade;
But he by art our native ftrength betray'd.
So Samfon to his foe his force confeft;
And to be fhorn lay flumbering on her breast.
But when this fatal counfel, found too late,
Expos'd its author to the publik hate;

When his juft fovereign, by no impious way
Could be feduc'd to arbitrary fway;
Forfaken of the hope he fhifts his fail,
Drives down the current with a popular gale;
And fhews the fiend confefs'd without a veil.
He preaches to the erowd, that power is lent,
But not convey'd to kingly government;
That claims fucceffive bear no binding force,
That coronation oaths are things of coute!
Maintains the multitude can never err;
And fets the people in the papal chair.
The reafon 's obvious; intereft never lies;
The noft have fill their intereft in their eyes;
The power is always their's, and power is ever
Almighty crowd, thou shortenest all dispute;
Power is thy effence, wit thy attribute!
Nor faith nor reafon make thee at a stay, [way!
Thou leap'it o'er all eternal truths in thy Pindaric
Athens no doubt did righteously decide,
When Phocion and when Socrates were try'd:
As righteously they did thofe dooms repent;
Still they were wife whatever way they went:
Crowds err not, though to both extremes they run;
To kill the father, and recal the fon.

Some think the fools were moft as times went then,
But now the world's o'erftock'd with prudent men.
The common cry is ev'n religion's teft,
The Turk's is at Conftantinople best;
Idols in India; popery at Rome;
And our own worfhip only true at home.
And true, but for the time 'tis hard to know
How long we please it fhall continue fo.
This fide to-day, and that to-morrow burns;
So all are God-almighties in their turns.
A tempting doctrine, plaufible, and new;
What fools our fathers were, if this be true!
Who, to deftroy the feeds of civil war,
Inherent right in monarchs did declare :
And that a lawful power might never cease,
Secur'd fucceffion to fecure our peace.
Thus property and fovereign fway at last
In equal balances were juftly caft :
But this new Jehu fpurs the hot-mouth'd horse;
Inftructs the best to know his native force;
To take the bit between his teeth, and fly
To the next headlong fteep of anarchy.
Too happy England, if our good we knew,
Would we poffefs the freedom we pursue !
The lavish government can give no more;
Yet we repine, and plenty makes us poor.
God try'd us once; our rebel-fathers fought:
He glutted them with all the power they fought;
Till, mafter'd by their own ufurping brave,
The free-born fubject funk into a flave.
We loath our manna, and we long for quails;
Ah, what is man when his own with prevails!
How rash, how fwift to plunge himself in ill!
Proud of his power, and boundless in his will!
That kings can do no wrong, we must believe;
None can they do, and muft they all receive?
Help, heaven! or fadly we fhall fee an hour,
When neither wrong nor right are in their power!
Already they have loft their best defence,
The benefit of laws which they difpenfe.

No juftice to their righteous caufe allow'd;
But baffled by an atbitrary crowd,
And medals grav'd their conqueft to record,
The ftamp and coin of their adopted lord.

The man who laugh'd but once, to fee an afs Mumbling to make the crof--grain'd thifties pafs; Might laugh again to fee a jury chew

The prickles of unpalatable law.

The witneffes, that leech-like liv'd on blood,
Sucking for them was med'cinally good;
But, when they faften'd on their fefter'd fore,
Then juftice and religion they forswore;
Their maiden oaths debauch'd into a whore.
Thus men are rais'd by factions, and decry'd;
And rogue and faint distinguish'd by their side.
They rack ev'n fcripture to confefs their cause,
Aud plead a call to preach in spite of laws.
But that's no news to the poor injur'd page;
It has been us'd as ill in every age,
And is constrain'd with patience all to take,
For what defence can Greek and Hebrew make?
Happy who can this talking trumpet seize;
They make it fpeak whatever fenfe they please!
'Twas fram'd at firft our oracle t' inquire:
But finee our fects in prophecy grow higher,
The text infpires not them, but they the text
inspire.

London, thou great emporium of our ifle,
O thou too bounteous, thou too fruitful Nile!
How fhall I praife or curfe to thy defert?
Or feparate they found from thy corrupted part?
I call'd thee Nile; the parallel will stand:
Thy tides of wealth o'erflow the fatten'd land;
Yet monsters from thy large increase we fini,
Engender'd on the flime thou leav'st behind.
Sedition has not wholly feiz'd on thee,
Thy nobler parts are from infection free.
Of Ifrael's tribe thou haft a numerous band,
But ftill the Canaanite is in the land.
Thy military chiefs are brave and true;
Nor are thy difenchanted burghers few.
The head is loyal which thy heart commands,
But what's a head with two fuch gouty hands?
The wife and wealthy love the fureft way,
And are content to thrive and to obey.
But wisdom is to floth too great a flave;
None are so busy as the fool and knave.
Thofe let me curfe; what vengeance will they
Whose ordures neither plague nor fire can purge?
Nor fharp experience can to duty bring,
Nor angry heaven, nor a forgiving king!
In gofpel-phrafe, their chapmen they betray;
Their fhops are dens, the buyer is their prey.
The knack of trades is living on the spoil;
They boaft even when each other they beguile.
Customs to steal is fuch a trivial thing,
That 'tis their charter to defraud their king.
All hands unite of every jarring fect;
They cheat the country first, and then infect.
They for God's caufe their monarchs dare dethrone,
And they'll be sure to make his cause their own.
Whether the plotting jefuit lay'd the plan
Of murdering kings, or the French puritan,
Our facrilegious lects their guides outgo,
And kings and kingly power would murder too,

(urge,