Westminster Ghost.

(In Reply to Oxford Parliament.)

Ain empty Nothing, that wert lately All,
How just, and how unpitied is thy Fall:
Well worthy of the horrours of this place,
That would no warning take by my Disgrace;
Glutted with plenty, surfeited with Peace,
Weary of Blessings, sick of too much ease:
Mad restless Troublers of our Israel,

Who would not quiet be when things went well;
Of secret base designs meer manag'd Tools,
Rash, unadvis'd, incorrigible F———‚1
Brisk Hotspurs, inconsiderately bold,
By much too violent, and too hot to hold.
Zeal flew as if 't had been to run a Race,
Duty and Reason could not keep it pace :
Insensible, regardless of my Fate,

Dull Phrygian Sages, wise when 'tis too late.
You liv'd, and then you had an easie way
T' have provided 'gainst the Evil Day;
Who would not then be timely-wise, forbear
Your vain unseasonable Sorrows here.
Frailty (for men are frail) may err one time,
But Malice only can repeat the Crime.
Unthinking Senate, fed with empty words
Of Patriot Lawyers and Protesting Lords:
Abus'd by Popular and mistaken Friends,
Serv'd a dull Property for base hidden Ends.
Liberty, Conscience, and Religion,
Sweet Names, and so is REFORMATION.
Rank sign of sickly and distemper'd times,

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When fairest names disguise the foulest Crimes.

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The cry of Liberty helpeth Ambition,2

And Strait-lac'd Conscience cloaks Religion.

Of publick Int'rest you had no concern;
But puшep a Proverb, Ne'r too late to learn.

1 It is, like the damsel with a Dulcimer, "beautiful exceedingly" to see the exquisite delicacy wherewith the pamphleteers shrink from applying the welldeserved terms "Knaves" and "Fools to M.P.s, in fear of after-punishment. 2 He that roars for Liberty!' faster binds a Tyrant's power; And the Tyrant's cruel glee forces on the freer hour.-Vision of Sin.

VOL. V.

C

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Westminster Ghost's Reply to Oxford's.

By no experience taught, miscarriage tam'd,
Nor by sad instance of my Fate reclaim'd,
What prejudice and private ends ill-us'd,
False Zeal and like Religion ill excus'd:
Who (stiff-neck'd) rather would my Fate repeat,
Than by new measures be securely great:
No freedom of debate was left for you,

When all was mov'd and manag'd by a few.

Your leading M[aynard], J[ones], and W[innington],'
As if all wisdom were in them alone:

A House of Commons crumbled into Three;
Slaves in effect, and in appearance free.
What ail'd the Pilot, slept he at the head?
Or was your Judgment by your Wills misled?
What evil Spirit's Influence did prevail,
That you who might at large securely sail
In a full Sea, and from all danger free,
Would run upon that Shelf that ruin'd me?
These sure and sad effects I well foresaw;
These real ills, which seeming good would draw;
From these sad Consequences to disswade,
I was sent forth, and gladly I obey'd:
I told you then what now too true you find,
Where Zeal flies out, and Duty leaves behind,
'Tis Wisdom's shame, and Policie's defect,
For still like Causes will have like Effect.

I sought by wondrous Truth this Point to gain,
Urg'd many reasons, but urg'd all in vain :
None were of force against the Good Old Cause!
Counsel was thrown away, Fool that I was-
Where men with Law and Prophets would not live,
To think a Message from the dead should thrive!
Spight of my fore-sight and my dear-bought skill,
Cassandra I; you faithless Paris still.2

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[Luke, xvi.

1 Sir John Maynard (see p. 13), Sir William Jones (who answered the King's Declaration), and Sir Francis Winnington. To the last two we return on p. 188. 2 It will be remembered how Phoebus was deceived by the maiden whom he loved; after bestowing on her the gift of prophecy, which he could not recall, when he found his passion unrequited, he punished her by the doom that her hearers would disregard her sure foretellings as though they were the ravings of madness. The lately-lost and deservedly lamented true poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, painted a representation of Cassandra in the agony of prophecy, foretelling Troy's destruction, but unheeded by her brothers Paris and Hector.

Westminster Ghost's Reply to Oxford's.

Your boundless passion did no measures keep,

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Well might you break your Neck with such a leap: 70
Men may at distance hover about Kings,

And, by their influence warm'd, move earthly things;
But when those bounds they would exceed, and fly
Too near the Sun, scorcht, they drop down, and dye.
What an occasion lost you to improve

The Prince's Favour and the People's Love!
This when considering Posterity

Shall think upon, they'l hate your Memory;
And as once ancient Rome, they, in their turn,
Wish you had never dy'd, or ne'r been born.

1

Should your Successors tread your steps, they then
Though they were Gods, like us shall die like men.
Oh!
may the next (for sure a next will be,) 1
Avoid the Rock that ruin'd you and me:
Deeply affected with a just concern
At our sad Fate, self-preservation learn;
And merit (by avoiding needless Fears,

By moderate Councils and praise-worthy Cares,)
A Monarch's Blessing and three Kingdoms' Pray'rs.

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London: Printed for Al[lan] Banks, Anno Domini MDCLXXXI. [In White-letter, three columns. No woodcut. Colophon shorn off by binder from Bagford copy restored here from Luttrell Coll., II. 162, marked in Narcissus's handwriting, "A libell on both the Parliaments: 7 April, 1681."]

Extensively read, moreover, and spitefully answered, was another Oxford Parliament Poem, preserved on a broadside and a Loyal Poem. It mentions the Lord Chancellor, Heneage Finch.2

So far as Charles II. was concerned, there was no "next" Parliament, although his own dissolution did not happen until four years later than that of the Oxford Parliament. The secret unsigned treaty with France partly accounted for his omitting to send out fresh writs. But, although there was the certainty of a recovered tone of loyalty in the country, such as augured favourably for a new Parliament, some suspicion of the likelihood that there would be fresh trickery employed by any re-assembled Commons (viz. voting themselves independent of being dismissed without their own full consent), may have had to do with his choice. They_might_probably "self-preservation learn" only too well. Being still non-existent they remained uncalled. "Camarina is muddy, don't disturb Camarina," doubtless was remembered by the Merry Monarch. 2 One W. W. addressed Finch, in a "Congratulatory Poem," May, 1681 :My Lord, Aristotle the learn'd did say,

That Wit and Vertue always made the way
For their Allies, to mount bright Honour's Chair,
By rend'ring of them excellent and rare, etc.

[Luttrell Collection, II. 162; Wood's, 417, fol. 47.]

The Parliament Dissolv'd at Drford,

And by the Grace of God will reign alone.1
"What would the Commons have? The Royal Line
Heaven does dispose of, 'tis not their's, nor mine;
But His by whom Kings rule, and are divine.
"I represent the King of Kings, who gave

The Crown, the Sword, the Scepter; what I have:
I am God's Servant, not the People's Slave.
"Their frantick Votes and mad Resolves I hate;
I know a better way to heal a State,
Than to Sin rashly, and Repent too late.

in the Throne,

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"Bid them be gone, F[inch]! they are puwep uncivil,
To oblige me to follow them to the Devil;
To save Three Kingdoms I will not do evil.
"The Presbyterians, sick of too much freedom,

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Are ripe for Bethl'em; it's high time to bleed 'em :
The Second Charles does neither fear nor need 'em.
"I'd have the World know that I can dissipate
Those impolitick Mushrooms of our State:
'Tis easier to Dissolve than to Create.

"They sha'n't cramp Justice with their feigned flaws;
For since I govern only by the Laws,

Why they should be exempt I see no cause.

"To the Laws they must submit: it is in vain
E'er to attempt to shake off those again;

For where Charles commands, there must Justice reign.

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"When the People's Father does espouse the Law,
All those who subjects from their duty draw
Do, Viper-like, through Parent's bosom gnaw.
"When they attend Me next, F[inch], bid them bring
Calmer thoughts; bid them propose Legal Things;
Such as may both become themselves and King.
"This will the Joys of our little World compleat,
And all attempts of Foreign Foes defeat;
Making the People happy, Monarch great."

FINIS.

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This was translated by Henry Bold, En tria Regna gemunt centum sub quinque Tyrannis: it was also answered from the fanatical Parliamentarian side, thus:

Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor, Baron of Daventry; in following May, Earl of Nottingham. See Note 2 on p. 19, and Windsor Prophecy on p. 108.

[Strawberry-Hill Collection, fol. 19; and Wood's Coll., at the Bodleian.]

To the Tune of the Devonshire Cant:1

An Answer to "The Parliament Dissolved at Oxford.”
Nonne vides, ut nudum remigio latus ?-Horat. Ode xiv. Lib. 1.

2

He safety of the King, and 's Royal Throne,
Depends on those five hundred Kings alone;
Those under whom some say three Kingdoms groan.

The Commons no new methods will assigne
Of choosing Kings, they know the Royal Line
Was wont to be reputed as Divine.

Your English-men (who understand Who gave
Their King his Royal Grandsire) scorn to have
His Majesty their General, their Slave.

As frantic and outragious as were
Their Votes, they shew'd their vigilance and care,
And nought like those could dissipate our fear.

They are Dissolv'd, and with them all our hopes.
Prepare for Smithfield fires, for Racks and Ropes;
For that's the pleasing exercise of POPES.

Now to create Intestine Broyls what need
Is there?-of those experienced things take heed,
When th' States' Blood's hot 'tis dangerous to bleed.

1 We have found no copy of "The Parliament Dissolved at Oxford"=“Under five hundred Kings," etc., marked distinctly as "Devonshire Cant," vel Chant; but we safely suppose it to be the antecedent ballad here referred to. There was also another, entitled "The Devonshire Ballad, to the tune of 1642," beginning, Now all old Cavaliers now or ne'er stand to 't; The Synod's dissolv'd, and the Ball's at your foot, But if Faction prevail, you're destroy'd branch and root:

Branch and Root.

It was an Election squib, printed in London for the Assigns of F. S. [perhaps Fabian Stedman], 1681, and reprinted in our own Bagford Ballads, p. 996.

2 The arrogant claim to be the safeguard of the nation, while factiously doing their utmost to bring back civil-war, was a characteristic boast from one of these "five hundred" parliamentary flies on the wheel, although blinded by the dust and imagining themselves to be the cause of the chariot's motion. It has always been the way in England that the noisiest and most noxious demagogues have the largest share of self-conceit, and, while imposing on their dupes of followers, look upon themselves as being inspired, heroic, world-famed, and immortal. Compare the Roundhead's "In Parem imperium habet Par," in StatePoems, ii. 115. Two verses are given in our Addenda, p. xvi.

3 With an ill grace comes this caveat against the Papists causing "intestine broils," from those who broiled the intestines of Jesuits in the Sham-Plot madness.