To you,
I for refuge and sanctuary sue,
There's none so renown'd for compassion as you;
And, though in some things I may differ from these,
The rest of your fruitful and beautiful trees:

Though your digging and dunging, my nature much harms,

And I cannot comply with your garden in forms :
Yet I and my family after our fashion,
Will peaceably stick to our own education.

Be pleased to allow them a place for to rest 'em
For the rest of your trees we will never molest 'em;
A kind shelter to us and protection afford,
We'll do you no harm, Sir, I'll give you my word.
The good man was soon won with this plausible tale,
So fraud on good-nature doth often prevail.
He welcomes his guest, gives him free toleration
In the midst of his garden to take up his station,
And into his breast doth his enemy bring,
He little suspected the nettle could sting.

Till flushed with success, and of strength to be feared,
Around him a numerous offspring he reared.
Then the master grew sensible what he had done,
And fain he would have his new guest to be gone;
But now 'twas too late to bid him turn out,
A well-rooted possession already was got.
The old trees decayed, and in their room grew
A stubborn, pestilent, poisonous crew.

The master, who first the young brood had admitted,
They stung like ingrates and left him unpitied.
No help from manuring or planting was found,
The ill weeds had eat out the heart of the ground.
All weeds they let in and none they refuse

That would join to oppose the good man of the house.
Thus one nettle uncropp'd, increased to such store,
That 'twas nothing but weeds what was garden be-
fore.

POEMS

CHIEFLY RELATING TO

IRISH POLITICS.

VOL. X.

2 F

POEMS,

CHIEFLY RELATING TO IRISH POLITICS.

PARODY

ON THE SPEECH OF DR BENJAMIN PRATT, PROVOST OF TRINITY COLLEGE, TO THE PRINCE OF WALES.

THIS piece is extracted from the Lanesborough Manuscript, in Trinity College, Dublin. Dr Pratt's speech, which is here parodied, was made when the Duke of Ormond, Swift's valued friend, was attainted and superseded in the office of chancellor of Trinity College, which he had held from 1688-9, by the Prince of Wales, afterward George II.

There is great reason to suppose that the satire is the work of Swift, whose attachment to Ormond was uniformly ardent. Of this it may be worth while to mention a trifling instance. The duke had presented to the cathedral of St Patrick's a superb organ, surmounted by his own armorial bearings. It was placed facing the nave of the church. But after Ormond's attainder, Swift, as Dean of St Patrick's, received orders from government to remove the scutcheon from the church. He obeyed, but he placed the shield in the great aisle, where he himself and Stella lie buried, and where the arms still remain. The verses have suffered much by the inaccuracy of the noble transcriber, Lord New toun Butler.

The parody is so close, that it will render it more interesting to give the original speech from the London Gazette of Tues. day, April 17, 1716. The Provost, it appears, was attended by the Rev. Dr Howard, and Mr George Berkeley, (afterwards

Bishop of Cloyne,) both of them fellows of Trinity College, Dublin. The speech was praised by Addison, in the Freeholder, though his classical taste must have suffered, while his loyalty approved.

"Then the provost proceeded, and made the following speech to his Royal Highness:

"Permit us, most illustrious Prince, with hearts full of duty, to approach your royal person. His Majesty's loyal University of Dublin, which glories in its most renowned foundress, Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory, aspires now with greater honour, and zealous for the dignity and welfare of their body, seeks a head and governor equal in birth to their glorious foundress, the same magnificent patron of learning, constant defender of our true religion, and bright example of virtue, a character belonging only to your Royal Highness.

"As this noble view alone fills all their thoughts, and most agreeably points out their choice, pardon most gracious Prince the ambition of their present address; deign, with that goodness which guides all your actions, to receive into your protection a society, which from duty, interest, and affection, humbly hopes to be placed under it: That society wherein his Majesty's faithful subjects of Ireland received those principles that render them now eminent in the service of their country, firm in their allegi. ance to their Prince, and unshaken in their zeal for the apostolical faith established amongst them. Here it was they were first taught obedience to the king, and wisely instructed, that out of the illustrious house of Hanover, would come the greatest and the best of kings.

"Happy, indeed, were our presages, and joyful, altogether, is the accomplishment of them. Our eyes behold a prince now sitting on the throne of his royal ancestors, wise, valiant, just, and magnanimous: a monarch loaded with all the martial glories of the field, and long distinguished for the nobler arts of peace, and of civil government. His early years he devoted to the cause of religion against Turks and infidels; he afterwards employed his arms in defence of the liberties of Europe, at a time when they were in the utmost danger from abroad; and now he completes his glories at home in delivering Britain, the bulwark of the protestant faith, from the inconsistent rule of a popish pretender. By his wisdom, he has defeated all secret attempts; by his valour, conquered in the open field: his justice awes the daring and the violent; his clemency gains the weak and deluded; his large revenues he employs in securing those liberties, for whose preservation his undoubted title is most justly founded; and in endowing that church, whose rise and fall, like a true and