Councils, like fenates, that enforce debate
With fluent eloquence and reafon's weight.
Whofe patriot virtue, lawlefs power controls;
Their British emulating Roman fouls.
Of thefe the worthieft ftill felected stand,
Still lead the fenate, and ftill fave the land:
Social, not felfish, here, O Learning, trace
Thy friends, the lovers of all human race!
In a dark bottom funk, O Bristol now,
With native malice, lift thy lowering brow!
Then as fome hell-born fprite in mortal guife,
Borrows the shape of goodness and belies,
All fair, all finug, to yon proud hall invite,
To feaft all ftrangers ape an air polite!
From Cambria drain'd, or England's western coast, 35
Not elegant, yet coftly banquets boaft!
Revere, or feem the stranger to revere;
Praife, fawn, profefs, be all things but fincere ;
Infidious now, our bofom fecrets steal,
And these with fly farcaftic fneer reveal.
Prefent we meet thy fneaking treacherous fimiles;
The harmless abfent ftill thy faeer reviles;
Such as in thee all parts fuperior find,
The fneer that marks the fool and knave combin'd;
When melting pity would afford relief,
The ruthless fneer that infult adds to grief.
What friendship canft thou boaft? what honours claim?
To thee each ftranger owes an injur'd name.
What fimiles thy fons muft in their foes excite!
Thy fons, to whom all difcord is delight;
From whom eternal mutual railing flows;
Who in each other's crimes, their own expose:
Thy fons, though crafty, deaf to wisdom's call;
Defpifing all men, and defpis'd by all;
Sons, while thy cliffs a ditch-like river laves,
Rude as thy rocks, and muddy as thy waves,
Of thoughts as narrow as of words immense,
As full of turbulence as void of fenfe?
Thee, thee, what fenatorial fouls adorn!
Thy natives fure would prove a fenate's scorn.
Do strangers deign to serve thee; what their praise?
Their generous fervices thy murmurs raise.
What fiend malign, that o'er thy air prefides,
Around from breast to breast inherent glides,
And, as he glides, there fcatters in a trice
The lurking feeds of every rank device?
Let foreign youths to thy indentures run!
Each, each will prove, in thy adopted fon,
Proud, pert, and dull-though brilliant once from
Will scorn all learning's as all virtue's rules ;
And, though by nature friendly, honest, brave,
Turn a fly, felfish, fimpering, fharping knave.
Boaft petty-courts, where 'ftead of fluent eafe,
Of cited precedents and learned pleas;
'Stead of fage counsel in the dubious cause,
Attornies, chattering wild, burlesque the laws-
(So fhameless quacks, who doctors rights invade,
Of jargon and of poison form a trade.
So canting coblers, while from tubs they teach,
Buffoon the gospel they pretend to preach.)
Boaft petty courts, whence rules new rigour draw,
Unknown to Nature's and to Statute-law;
Quirks that explain all faving rights away,
To give th' attorney and the catchpoll prey.
Is there where law too rigorous may descend,
Or charity her kindly hand extend?
Thy courts, that, shut when pity would redress,
Spontaneous open to inflict distress.
Try misdemeanours!-all thy wiles employ,
Not to chaftife th' offender, but destroy;
Bid the large lawless fine his fate foretel;
Bid it beyond his crime and fortune fwell;
Cut off from fervice due to kindred blood,
To private welfare and to public good,
Pitied by all, but thee, he fentenc'd lies;
Imprifon'd languishes, imprison'd dies.
Boaft fwarming veffels, whofe plebeian state
Owes not to merchants but mechanics freight.
Boaft nought but pedlar-fleets-in war's alarms,
Unknown to glory, as unknown to arms.
Boaft thy bafe Tolfey, and thy turn-fpit dogs,
Thy Halliers horfes and thy human hogs;
Upftarts and mushrooms, proud, relentless hearts;
Thou blank of fciences! thou dearth of arts!
Such foes as learning once was doom'd to fee!
Huns, Goths, and Vandals, were but types of thee.
Proceed, great Bristol, in all-righteous ways,
And let one Justice heighten yet thy praise;
Still fpare the catamite, and swinge the whore,
And be, whate'er Gomorrha was before.
A place where the merchants used to meet to tranfact their affairs before the Exchange was erected. See Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. XIII. p. 496.
Halliers are the perfons who drive or own the fledges, which are here ufed inftead of carts.
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