A fingle leaf fhall waft an Army o'er,

Or fhip off Senates to a diftant Shore ;
A leaf, like Sibyl's, fcatter to and fro

Our fates and fortunes, as the wind fhall blow :
Pregnant with thousands flits the Scrap unseen,
And filent fells a King, or buys a Queen.

45

50

Oh! that fuch bulky Bribes as all might fee, Still, as of old, incumber'd Villany! Could France or Rome divert our brave defigns, With all their brandies, or with all their wines? What could they more than Knights and 'Squires confound,

Or water all the Quorum ten miles round?

many Princes had been fent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partitiontreaty had disposed of Spain; France had fet up a King for England, who was fent to Scotland, and back again; King Stanislaus was fent to Poland, and back again; the Duke of Anjou was fent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy.

VER. 44. Or fhip off Senates to some diftant Shore; ] Alludes to several Minifters, Counsellors, and Patriots banished in our times to Siberia, and to that MORE GLORIOUS FATE Of the PARLIAMENT of PARIs, banifhed to Pontoife in the year 1720.

VER. 47. Pregnant with thousands flits the Scrap unfeen,] This imagery is very fublime, and alludes to the courfe of a destroying peftilence. The Pfalmift, in his expreffion of the Peftilence that walketh in darkness, supplied him with the grandeur of his idea,

A ftatefman's flumbers how this fpeech would fpoil! "Sir, Spain has fent a thousand jars of oil; "Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door : "A hundred oxen at your levee roar.”

бо

Poor Avarice one torment more would find ; Nor could Profufion fquander all in kind. Aftride his cheefe Sir Morgan might we meet ; And Worldly crying coals from street to ftreet, Whom with a wig fo wild, and mien fo maz'd, Pity mittakes for fome poor tradesman craz’d. Had Colepepper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have fent it to the dogs? 66

VER. 63. Some Mifers of great wealth, proprietors of the coal-mines, had entered at this time into an Affociation to keep up coals to an extravagant price, whereby the poor were reduced almost to starve, 'till one of them taking the advantage of underfelling the reft, defeated the defign. One of thefe Mifers was worth ten thousand, another feven thousand a year.

VER. 65. Colepepper.] Sir WILLIAM COLEPEPPER, Bart. a Perfen of an ancient family, and ample fortune, without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himfelf at the Gaming-table, past the rest of his days in fitting there to fee the ruin of others; preferring to fubfift upon borrowing and begging, rather than enter into any reput

VARIATIONS:

After ver. 50. in the MS.

To break a truit were Peter brib'd with wine,
Peter! 'twould pofe as wife a head as thine..

8

His Grace will game: to White's a Bull be led,
With fpurning heels, and with a butting head.
To White's be carry'd, as to ancient games,
Fair Courfers, Vafes, and alluring Dames.
Shall then Uxorio, if the stakes he sweep,
Bear home fix Whores, and make his Lady weep?
Or foft Adonis, fo perfum'd and fine,

Drive to St. James's a whole herd of swine?

Oh filthy check on all induftrious skill,

70

75

To spoil the nation's laft great trade, Quadrille !
Since then, my Lord, on such a World we fall,
What fay you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all.
P. What Riches give us let us then enquire:
Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat,
Cloaths, and Fire.

Is this too little ? would you more than live?
Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give.

80

able method of life, and refufing a Poft in the army which was offered him.

VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poffeffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, becaufe Intereft was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put feventy thousand into the Charitable Corporation for

VARIATIONS.

VER. 77. Since then, etc.] In the former Ed.

Well then, fince with the world we stand or fall,
Come take it as we find it, Gold and all.

Alas! 'tis more than (all his vifions paft)
Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at laft!
What can they give? to dying Hopkins, Heirs; 85
Fö Chartres, Vigour; Japhet, Nofe and Ears?

better interest; which fum having loft, he took it so much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another confiderable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this courfe of life he faved both cloaths and all other expences.

VER: 84. Unhappy Wharton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies. See his Character in the first Epistle.

VER. 85. Hopkins,] A Citizen, whofe rapacity obtained hin the name of Vulture Hopkins. He lived worthlefs, but died worth three hundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no perfon living, but left it fo as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His counsel repre fenting to him how many years it must be, before this could take and that his money could only lie at intjoy thereat, and faid, They would then be as long in fpending, as he had been in getting it. But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave it to the heir at law.

terest He expreffed

66

VER. 86. Japhet, Nose and Ears?] JAPHET CROOK, allas Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of thofe parts,for having forged a conveyance of an Estate to himself, upon which he took up feveral thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable Estate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By thefe means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the small lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his executor.

EP. III.

MORAL ESSAYS.

Ask you why Phryne the whole Auction buys?
Phryne foresees a general Excife.

Why the and Sappho raise that monftrous fum ?
Alas! they fear a man will cost a plum.

Wife Peter fees the World's refpect for Gold,
And therefore hopes this Nation may be fold:
Glorious Ambition! Peter, fwell thy ftore,
And be what Rome's great Didius was before.
The Crown of Poland, venal twice an age,
To just three millions ftinted modest Gage.

135

120

125

luxury of the South-fea year, the price of a haunch of Venison was from three to five pounds.

VER. 120.

general Excife.] Many people about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation.

VER. 123. Wife Peter] PETER WALTER, a perfon not only eminent in the wisdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a safe, conveyancer; extremely respected by the Nobility of this land, though free from all manner of luxury and oftentation: his wealth was never feen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own fon, for whom he procured an employment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him.

VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, fo rich as to purchase the Empire when it was fet to fale upon the death of Pertinax.

.

VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, etc.] The two perfons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffifippi defpifed to realize above three hundred thousand pounds ; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a vifion of the like royal nature.