Proud Prussia's double bird of prey
Tame as a spatch cock, slunk away;
While-just like France herself, when she
Proclaims how great her naval skill is
Poor Louis' drowning fleur-de-lys
Imagin'd themselves water-lilies.

And not alone rooms, ceilings, shelves,
But still more fatal execution
The Great Legitimates themselves
Seem'd in a state of dissolution.
The' indignant Czar- when just about
To issue a sublime Ukase,
"Whereas all light must be kept out".
Dissolv'd to nothing in its blaze.
Next Prussia took his turn to melt,
And, while his lips illustrious felt
The influence of this southern air,
Some word, like "Constitution "— long
Congeal'd in frosty silence there --
Came slowly thawing from his tongue.
While Louis, lapsing by degrees,
And sighing out a faint adieu
To truffles, salmis, toasted cheese
And smoking fondus, quickly grew,
Himself, into a fondu too;—
Or like that goodly King they make
Of sugar for a Twelfth-night cake,
When, in some urchin's mouth, alas,
It melts into a shapeless mass!

In short, I scarce could count a minute,
Ere the bright dome, and all within it,
Kings, Fiddlers, Emperors, all were gone
And nothing now was seen or heard
But the bright river, rushing on,
Happy as an enfranchis'd bird,
And prouder of that natural ray,
Shining along its chainless way
More proudly happy thus to glide
In simple grandeur to the sea,
Than when, in sparkling fetters tied,
'Twas deck'd with all that kingly pride
Could bring to light its slavery!

Such is my dream — and, I confess,
I tremble at its awfulness.

That Spanish dance-that southern beam-
But I say nothing- there's my dream
And Madame Krudener, the she-prophet,
May make just what she pleases of it.

FABLE II.

THE LOOKING-GLASSES.

PROEM.

WHERE Kings have been by mob-elections
Rais'd to the Throne, 'tis strange to see
What different and what odd perfections
Men have requir'd in Royalty.

Some, liking monarchs large and plumpy,

Have chos'n their Sovereigns by the weight;-
Some wish'd them tall, some thought your dumpy,
Dutch-built, the true Legitimate.'

The Easterns in a Prince, 'tis said,
Prefer what's call'd a jolter-head:
The' Egyptians wer'n't at all particular,
So that their Kings had not red hair-
This fault not even the greatest stickler
For the blood royal well could bear.
A thousand more such illustrations
Might be adduc'd from various nations.
But, 'mong the many tales they tell us,

Touching the' acquir'd or natural right
Which some men have to rule their fellows,
There's one, which I shall here recite:-

Of course, if any knave had hinted

That the King's nose was turned awry,
Or that the Queen (God bless her!) squinted-
The judges doom'd that knave to die.

But rarely things like this occurred,

The people to their King were duteous,
And took it, on his Royal word,

That they were frights, and He was beauteous.

The Goths had a law to choose always a short, thick man for 2" In a Prince a jolter-head is invaluable." ir King.-MUNSTER, Cosmog. lib. iii. p. 164.

Oriental Field Sports.

Your
*s, your
*s dare,
Untrain'd as are their minds, to set them
To any business, any where,

At any time that fools will let them.

But leave we here these upstart things-
My business is, just now, with Kings;
To whom, and to their right-line glory,
I dedicate the following story.

FABLE.

THE wise men of Egypt were secret as dummies;
And, ev'n when they most condescended to teach,
They pack'd up their meaning, as they did their
mummies,

In so many wrappers, 'twas out of one's reach.

They were also, good people much given to KingsFond of craft and of crocodiles, monkeys and mystery;

FABLE V.

CHURCH AND STATE.

PROEM.

"The moment any religion becomes national, or established, its purity must certainly be lost, because it is then impossible to keep it unconnected with men's interests; and, if connected, it must inevitably be perverted by them."-SOAME JENYNS. THUS did SOAME JENYNS-though a Tory, A Lord of Trade and the Plantations; Feel how Religion's simple glory

Is stain'd by State associations.

When CATHERINE, ere she crush'd the Poles,
Appeal'd to the benign Divinity;
Then cut them up in protocols,
Made fractions of their very souls 2-

All in the name of the bless'd Trinity;
Or when her grandson, ALEXANDER,
That mighty Northern salamander,"
Whose icy touch, felt all about,
Puts every fire of Freedom out—

But blue-bottle flies were their best belov'd things-When he, too, winds up his Ukases
As will partly appear in this very short history.

A Scythian philosopher (nephew, they say,
To that other great traveller, young Anacharsis),
Stept into a temple at Memphis one day,

To have a short peep at their mystical farces.
He saw a brisk blue-bottle Fly on an altar,
Made much of, and worshipp'd, as something

divine;

With God and the Panagia's praises-
When he, of royal Saints the type,

In holy water dips the sponge,
With which, at one imperial wipe,

He would all human rights expunge;
When Louis (whom as King, and eater,
Some name Dix-huit and some Des-huitres,)
Calls down" St. Louis' God" to witness

The right, humanity, and fitness
Of sending eighty thousand Solons,

Sages, with muskets and lac'd coats,
To cram instruction, nolens volens,
Down the poor struggling Spaniards' throats-
I can't help thinking, (though to Kings

I must, of course, like other men, bow,)
That when a Christian monarch brings

Religion's name to gloss these things

Such blasphemy out-Benbows Benbow!' Or-not so far for facts to roam, Having a few much nearer home – When we see Churchmen, who, if ask'd, 'Must Ireland's slaves be tith'd, and task'd, "And driv'n like Negroes or Croäts,

"That you may roll in wealth and bliss?" Look from beneath their shovel hats

With all due pomp, and answer "Yes!" But then, if question'd, "Shall the brand "Intolerance flings throughout that land,—

Shall the fierce strife now taught to grow "Betwixt her palaces and hovels,

"Be ever quench'd?"-from the same shovels Look grandly forth, and answer “No.”—

3 The salamander is supposed to have the power of extinguishing fire by its natural coldness and moisture.

4 A well known publisher of irreligious books.