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Or find fome Doctor that would fave the life
Of wretched Shylock, fpite of Shylock's Wife:
But thousands die, without or this or that,
Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.

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To fome, indeed, Heav'n grants the happier fate, T'enrich a Baftard, or a Son they hate.

Perhaps you think the Poor might have their part? Bond damns the Poor, and hates them from his heart:

NOTES.

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VER. 100. Bond damns the Poor, &c.] This epiftle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was eftablished to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of thofe unhappy fuf

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ferers, and three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire. into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended removal of the office, that the Poor, for whose use it was erected, would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Poor. That "God hates the "poor," and, "That every

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man in want is knave or "fool," c. were the genuine apothegms of fome of the perfons here mentioned. P.

The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule,

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That" ev'ry man in want is knave or fool: "God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearlefs eyes) "The wretch he starves"—and piously denies : But the good Bishop, with a meeker air, Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care.

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Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his Neighbour as himself: Damn'd to the Mines, an equal fate betides The Slave that digs it, and the Slave that hides. 110 B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own, Muft act on Motives pow'rful, tho' unknown. P. SomeWar, fome Plague, or Famine they foresee, Some Revelation hid from and me.

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Why Shylock wants a meal, the cause is found, 115
He thinks a Loaf will rife to fifty pound.
What made Directors cheat in South-fea year?
To live on Ven'fon when it fold fo dear.
Afk you why Phryne the whole Auction buys?
Phryne forefees a general Excise.

NOTES.

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VER. 118. To live on from three to five pounds: Ven'fon] In the extrava- P. gance and luxury of the South-fea year, the price of a haunch of Venifon was

VER. 120. general Excife.] Many people about the year 1733, had a con

Why she and Sappho raise that monstrous sum ?
Alas! they fear a man will coft 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 modeft Gage.

NOTES.

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ceit that fuch a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have fome intimation. P. VER. 123. Wife Peter] PETER WALTER, a perfon not only eminent in the wifdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a fafe, conveyancer; tremely respected by the Nobility of this land, tho' 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 em ployment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was neceffa

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ry. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. P.

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. P.

VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, &c.] The two perfons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffiffippi defpis'd 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. They fince retired inL

But nobler scenes Maria's dreams unfold,

Hereditary Realms, and worlds of Gold.

Congenial fouls! whofe life one Av'rice joins,
And one fates buries in th' Afturian Mines.

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Much injur'd Blunt ! why bears he Britain's hate?

A wizard told him in these words our fate : "At length Corruption, like a genʼral flood,

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(So long by watchful Ministers withstood) "Shall deluge all; and Av'rice creeping on, "Spread like a low-born mift, and blot the Sun;

NOTES.

to Spain, where they are ftill in fearch of gold in the mines of the Afturies. P. VER. 133. Much injur'd Blunt!] Sir JOHN BLUNT, originally a fcrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South-fea company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous scheme in 1720. He was alfo one of thofe who fuffer'd most severely by the bill of pains and pe nalties on the faid directors. He was a Diffenter of a moft religious deportment, and profefs'd to be a great believer. Whether he did

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really credit the prophecy here mentioned is not certain, but it was conftantly in this very ftyle he declaimed against the corruption and luxury of the age, the partiality of Parliaments, and the mifery of partyfpirit. He was particularly eloquent against Avarice in great and noble perfons, of which he had indeed lived to see many miserable examples. He died in the year 1732. P.

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"Statesman and Patriot ply alike the stocks, "Peerefs and Butler share alike the Box, "And Judges jobb, and Bishops bite the town, "And mighty Dukes pack cards for half a crown. "See Britain funk in lucre's fordid charms,

"And France reveng'd of ANNE's and EDWARD'S "arms?"

'Twas no Court-badge, great Scriv❜ner! fir'd thy

brain,

Nor lordly Luxury, nor City Gain :

No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see

Senates degen❜rate, Patriots disagree,

And nobly wishing Party-rage to cease,

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To buy both fides, and give thy Country peace. 150 "All this is madness," cries a fober sage: But who, my friend, has reason in his rage?

NOTES.

tremely appofite, implying that this vice is of bafe and mean original; hatched and nurfed up amongst Scriveners, Stock-jobbers, and Citts; and unknown, 'till of late, to the Nobles of this land: But now, in the fulness of time, the rears

her head, and afpires to cover the moft illuftrious ftations in her dark and peftilential shade. The Sun, and other luminaries of Heaven, fignifying, in the high eastern ftyle, the Grandees and Nobles of the earth.

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