THE SPEECH OF THE PROVOST OF
TRINITY COLLEGE,

TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS GEORGE PRINCE OF Wales.

I.

.

ye,

ILLUSTRIOUS prince we're come before
Who, more than in our founders, glory
To be by you protected;

Deign to descend and give us laws,
For we are converts to your cause,

From this day well-affected.*

II.

The noble view of your high merits,

Has charm'd our thoughts, and fix'd our spirits,
With zeal so warm and hearty;

That we resolved to be devoted,

At least until we be promoted,

By your just power and party,

III.

Urged by a passionate desire

Of being raised a little higher,

From lazy cloister'd life;

We cannot flatter you nor fawn,

But fain would honour'd be with lawn,

And settled by a wife. †

*The Rev. Dr Benjamin Pratt was, at this time, April 1716, Provost of Trinity College; he had been formerly of the Tory party; to which circumstance the phrase, "from this day well affected," alludes.

+ The statutes of the University enjoin celibacy.

IV.

For this we have before resorted,
Paid levees* punctually and courted,

Our charge at home long quitting,

But now we're come just in the nick,
Upon a vacant † bishopric,

This bait can't fail of hitting.

V.

Thus Sir, you see how much affection,
Not interest, sways in this election,

But sense of loyal duty.

For you surpass all princes far,
As glow-worms do exceed a star,

In goodness, wit, and beauty.

VI.

To you our Irish Commons owe

That wisdom which their actions show,

Their principles from ours springs,

Taught, e'er the deel himself could dream on't,
That of their illustrious house a stem on't,
Should rise the best of kings.

VII.

The glad presages with our eyes
Behold a king, chaste, vigilant, and wise,
In foreign fields victorious,

* "Paid levees punctually and courted." The provost was a most constant attendant at the levees at St James's palace.

The see of Killaloe was then vacant; and to this bishopric the Reverend Dr George Carr, chaplain to the Irish House of Commons, was nominated, by letters-patent. See Beatson's Political Index, p. 307. Edin. 1786. A. D. 1716.

Who in his youth the Turks attacks,
And [made] them still to turn their backs;
Was ever king so glorious?

VIII.

Since Ormond's like a traitor gone,
We scorn to do, what some have done,
For learning much more famous;

Fools may pursue their adverse fate,
And stick to the unfortunate;

We laugh while they condemn us.

IX.

For being of that gen'rous mind,
To success we are still inclined,

And quit the suffering side,
If on our friends cross planets frown,
We join the cry and hunt them down,
And sail with wind and tide.

X.

Hence 'twas this choice we long delay'd,
Till our rash foes the rebels fled,

Whilst fortune held the scale;

But (since) they're driven like mist before you, Our rising sun, we now adore

you,

Because

you now prevail.

XI.

Descend then from your lofty seat,

Behold th' attending muses wait

With us to sing your praises;

* Alluding to the sullen silence of Oxford upon the acces

Calliope now strings up her lyre,
And Clio Phoebus does inspire,
The theme their fancy raises.

XII.

If then our nursery you will nourish,
We and our Muses too will flourish,
Encouraged by your favour;

We'll doctrines teach the times to serve,
And more five thousand pounds deserve
By future good behaviour.

XIII.

Now take our harp into your hand,
The joyful strings at your command,

In doleful sounds, no more shall mourn,

We with sincerity of heart,

To all your tunes shall bear a part,
Unless we see the tables turn.

XIV.

If so, great Sir, you will excuse us,
For we and our attending muses,

May live to change our strain;
And turn with merry hearts our tune,
Upon some happy tenth of June,

To "the king enjoys his own again.".

*This is spelled Chloe, but evidently should be Clio; indeed many errors appear in the transcription, which probably were mistakes of the transcriber.

AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG,

ON A SEDITIOUS PAMPHLET. 1720.

(To the tune of " Packington's Pound.")

[This ballad alludes to the Dean's "Proposal for the use of Irish Manufactures," for which Waters the printer was prosecuted with great violence. Lord Chief-Justice Whitshed sent the jury repeatedly out of court, until he had wearied them into a special verdict.]

BROCADORS, and damasks, and tabbies, and

gauzes, Are by Robert Ballantine lately brought over, With forty things more: now hear what the law says, Whoe'er will not wear them, is not the king's lover. Though a printer and Dean, Seditiously mean,

Our true Irish hearts from old England to wean, We'll buy English silks for our wives and our daugh

ters,

In spite of his deanship and journeyman Waters.

In England the dead in woollen are clad,

The dean and his printer then let us cry fye on; To be cloth'd like a carcase, would make a teague

mad,

Since a living dog better is than a dead lion.