Believes that persecuting wit
Will prove the surest way to it;
So with a colonel' at his back,
The Libel feels his first attack;
He calls it a seditious paper,

Writ by another patriot Drapier;

Then raves and blunders nonsense thicker
Than alderman o'ercharged with liquor;
And all this with design, no doubt,
To hear his praises hawk'd about;
To send his name through every street,
Which erst he roam'd with dirty feet;
Well pleased to live in future times,
Though but in keen satiric rhymes.

So, Ajax, who, for aught we know,
Was justice many years ago,
And minding then no earthly things,
But killing libellers of kings;
Or if he wanted work to do,

To run a bawling news-boy through;
Yet he, when wrapp'd up in a cloud,
Entreated father Jove aloud,

Only in light to show his face,

Though it might tend to his disgrace.
And so the Ephesian villain fired
The temple which the world admired,
Contemning death, despising shame,
To gain an ever-odious name.

1 Colonel Ker, a Scotchman, lieutenant-colonel to Lord Harrington's regiment of dragoons, who made a news-boy evidence against the printer.---F.

66

AY AND NO.

A TALE FROM DUBLIN.'

WRITTEN IN 1737.

AT Dublin's high feast sat Primate and Dean,
Both dress'd like divines, with band and face clean:
Quoth Hugh of Armagh, "The mob is grown bold."
“Ay, ay,” quoth the Dean, "the cause is old gold."
No, no," quoth the Primate, "if causes we sift,
This mischief arises from witty Dean Swift."
The smart one replied, "There's no wit in the case ;
And nothing of that ever troubled your grace.
Though with your state sieve your own notions
you split,

A Boulter by name is no bolter of wit.

To

In 1737, the gold coin had sunk in current value to the amount of 6d. in each guinea, which made it the interest of the Irish dealers to send over their balances in silver. bring the value of the precious metals nearer to a par, the Primate, Boulter, who was chiefly trusted by the British government in the administration of Ireland, published a proclamation reducing the value of the gold coin threepence in each guinea. This scheme was keenly opposed by Swift ; and such was the clamour excited against the archbishop, that his house was obliged to be guarded by soldiers. The two following poems relate to this controversy, which was, for the time it lasted, nearly as warm as that about Wood's halfpence. The first is said to be the paraphrase of a conversation which actually passed between Swift and the archbishop. The latter charged the Dean with inflaming the mob, "I inflame them?" retorted Swift, "were I to lift but a finger, they would tear you to pieces."---Scott.

It's matter of weight, and a mere money job;
But the lower the coin the higher the mob.

Go tell your friend Bob and the other great folk,
That sinking the coin is a dangerous joke.
The Irish dear joys have enough common sense,
To treat gold reduced like Wood's copper pence.
It is pity a prelate should die without law;
But if I say the word—take care of Armagh!”

A BALLAD.

PATRICK astore,' what news upon the town? By my soul there's bad news, for the gold she was pull'd down,

The gold she was pull'd down, of that I'm very sure, For I saw'd them reading upon the towlsel2 doore. Sing, och, och, hoh, hoh.3

Arrah! who was him reading? 'twas a jauntleman in ruffles,

And Patrick's bell she was ringing all in muffles;

Astore, means my dear, my heart.---Scott.

2 The Tholsel, where criminals for the city were tried, and where proclamations, &c. were posted. It was invariably called the Touls'el by the lower class.---Ibid.

3 It would appear that the chorus here introduced, was intended to chime with the howl, the ululatus, or funeral cry, of the Irish.---Ibid.

She was ringing very sorry,

rag,

her tongue

tied up with

[black flag.'

Lorsha! and out of her shteeple there was hung a

Sing, och, &c.

2

Patrick astore, who was him made this law? Some they do say, 'twas the big man of straw ;' But others they do say, that it was Jug-Joulter,3 The devil he may take her into hell and Boult-her! Sing, och, &c.

་་

Musha! Why Parliament wouldn't you maul, Those carters, and paviours, and footmen, and all;^ Those rascally paviours who did us undermine,

5

Och ma ceade millia mollighart on the feeders of swine!

Sing, och, &c.

1 Swift, it is said, caused a muffled peal to be rung from the steeple of St. Patrick's, on the day of the proclamation, and a black flag to be displayed from its battlements.--Scott.

2 The big man of straw, means the Duke of Dorset, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland; he had only the name of authority, the essential power being vested in the primate.— Ibid.

3 Jug-Joulter means Primate Boulter, whose name is played upon in the succeeding line. In consequence of the public dissatisfaction expressed at the lowering the, gold coin, the primate became very unpopular.-Ibid.

4" Footmen" alludes to a supporter of the measure, said to have been the son or grandson of a servant.—Ibid.

n

5 Means " my hundred thousand hearty curses on the, feeders of swine."-Ibid.

A WICKED TREASONABLE LIBEL.'

WHILE the king and his ministers keep such a pother,

And all about changing one whore for another,
Think I to myself, what need all this strife,
His majesty first had a whore of a wife,
And surely the difference mounts to no more
Than, now he has gotten a wife of a whore.
Now give me your judgment a very nice case on;
Each queen has a son, say which is the base one?
Say which of the two is the right Prince of Wales,
To succeed, when, (God bless him,) his majesty fails;
Perhaps it may puzzle our loyal divines

To unite these two Protestant parallel lines,
From a left-handed wife, and one turn'd out of
doors,

So the following very remarkable verses are entitled, in a copy which exists in the Dean's hand-writing bearing the following characteristic memorandum on the back: "A traiterous libel, writ several years ago. It is inconsistent with itself. Copied September 9, 1735. I wish I knew the author, that I might hang him." And at the bottom of the paper is subjoined this postscript. "I copied out this wicked paper many years ago, in hopes to discover the traitor of an author, that I might inform against him." For the foundation of the scandals current during the reign of George I. to which the lines allude, see Walpole's Reminiscences, chapter II.---Scott.