In vain may Heroes fight, and Patriots rave; .
If fecret Gold fap on from knave to knave.
Once, we confefs, beneath the Patriot's cloak, 35
From the crack'd bag the dropping Guinea fpoke,
And gingling down the back-ftairs, told the crew,
"Old Cato is as great a Rogue as you."
Bleft paper-credit! laft and beft fupply!
That lends Corruption lighter wings to fly! 40

COMMENTARY.

it artfully denounces, in our entrance on the main Question, the principal topics intended to be employed for the dilucidation of it, namely AVARICE, PROFUSION, and PUBLIC CORRUP

TION.

NOTES.

VER. 33. and Patriots rave;] The character of modern Patriots was, in the opinion of our poet, very equivocal; as the name was undiftinguishingly beftowed on every one in oppofition to the court; of whofe virtues he gives a hint in 139. of this Epiftle. Agreeably to thefe fentiments, his predicate of them here is as equivocal,

In vain may Patriots rave;

which they may do either in earnest or in jeft; and is a conduct, in the opinion of Sempronius in the Play, best fitted to hide their game.

VER. 34. If fecret Gold fap on from knave to knave.] The expreffion is fine,and gives us the image of a place invested, where the approaches are made by communications which fupport each other; as the connexions amongst knaves, after they have been taken in by a ftate engineer, ferve to screen and encourage one another's private corruptions.

VER. 35. beneath the Patriot's cloak,] This is a true story, which happened in the reign of William III. to an unfufpected old Patriot, who coming out at the back-door from having been clofeted by the King, where he had received a large bag of Guineas, the bursting of the bag difcovered his bufinefs there. P.

Gold imp'd by thee, can compass hardest things,
Can pocket States, can fetch or carry Kings;
A fingle leaf shall waft an Army o'er,
Or ship off Senates to a diftant Shore;
A leaf, like Sibyl's, fcatter to and fro

45

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

Oh! that fuch bulky Bribes as all might fee, Still, as of old, incumber'd Villainy! 50 Could France or Rome divert our brave designs, With all their brandies or with all their wines?

VARIATIONS.

After 50. in the MS.

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

NOTES.

VER. 42.-fetch or carry Kings ;] In our author's time, many Princes had been fent about the world, and great changes of Kings projected in Europe. The partition-treaty had disposed of Spain; France had set up a King for England, who was fent to Scotland, and back again; King Staniflaus was fent to Poland, and back again; the Duke of Anjou was fent to Spain, and Don Carlos to Italy. P.

VER. 44. Or fhip off Senates to fome 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. P.

VER. 47. Pregnant with thousands fits the Scrap unfeen,] The imagery is very fublime, and alludes to the courie of a VOL. III.

R

What could they more than Knights and Squires

confound,

Or water all the Quorum ten miles round? A statesman's lumbers how this fpeech would spoil! "Sir, Spain has fent a thousand jars of oil; 56

Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door; "A hundred oxen at your levee roar."

ба

Poor Avarice one torment more would find; Nor could Profufion fquander all in kind. Aftride his cheese Sir Morgan might we meet; And Worldly crying coals from street to street, Whom with a wig fo wild, and mien fo maz'd, Pity mistakes for fome poor tradesman craz'd. HadColepepper's whole wealth been hops and hogs, Could he himself have fent it to the dogs? 66 His Grace will game: to White's a Bull be led, With fpurning heels and with a butting head.

NOTES.

deftroying peftilence. The Pfalmift, in his expreffion of the Peftilence that walketh in darkness, fupplied him with the grandeur of his idea.

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 these Mifers was worth ten thousand, another feven thoufand a year. P.

VER. 65. Colepepper] Sir WILLIAM COLEPEPPER, Bart. a Perfon of an ancient family, and ample fortune, without one

70

To White's be carry'd, as to ancient games,
Fair Courfers, Vafes, and alluring Dames.
Shall then Uxorio, if the ftakes 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 fwine?
Oh filthy check on all industrious skill,

75

To fpoil the nation's last great trade, Quadrille ! Since then, my Lord, on fuch a World we fall, What fay you? B. Say? Why take it, Gold and all.

VARIATIONS.

VER. 77. Since then, &c.] In the former Edd.
Well then, fince with the world we ftand or fall,
Come take it as we find it, Gold and all.

COMMENTARY.

VER. 77. Since then, my Lord, on fuch a World, &c.] Having thus ironically defcribed the incumbrance which the want of money would occafion to all criminal exceffes in the ufe of Riches, particularly to Gaming, which being now become of public concern, he affects much regard to :

Oh filthy check on all industrious skill,

To spoil the Nation's laft great trade, Quadrille !

NOTES.

other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself 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 to enter into any reputable method of life, and refufing a Poft in the army which was offered him. P.

P. What Riches give us let us then enquire:

Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat, Cloaths, and Fire.

COMMENTARY.

80

he concludes the previous Queflion without deciding it, in the fame ironical manner,

Since then, my Lord, on fuch a World we fall:

What fay you? Say? Why take it, Gold and all.

That is, fince for thefe great purposes we must have Money, let us now feriously inquire into its true Ufe.

VER. 79. What riches give us &c.] He examines therefore in the first place (from 78 to 97) 1. Of what Ufe Riches are to ourselves:

What Riches give us let us then enquire:

Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. What more? Meat, Cloaths, and Fire. The mere turn of the expreffion here fhews, without further reasoning, that all the infinite ways of fpending on ourselves, contrived in the infolence of Wealth, by those who would more than live, are only these three things diverfified throughout every wearied mode of Luxury and Wantonness.

Yet as little as this is, adds the poet (from 81 to 85) it is only to be had by the moderate ufe of Riches, Avarice and Profufion not allowing the poffeffors of the most exorbitant wealth even this little :

Alas! 'tis more than Turner finds they give.
Alas! 'tis more than (all his vifions paft)
Unhappy Wharton, waking, found at last!

But what is it you would expect them to give ? continues the poet (from 84 to 91.) Would you have them capable of refloring thofe real bleffings, which men have lost by their Vices or their Villainies; or of fatisfying thofe imaginary ones, which they have gotten by their irregular Appetites and Paffions? Thefe, fure, the bad or foolish man cannot have the face to demand; and thofe, by the wife provifion of Nature, Riches are incapable of giving, if he had.

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