With Oaths they storm their Monarch’s name,
And curse their Hands that form’d the Scheme.
“All Billingsgate their Case Bemoan,
And Rag-fair Change in Mourning’s hung;
Queen Gin, for whom they’d sacrifice
Their Shirts and Smocks, nay, both their Eyes.
Rather than She want Contribution,
They’d trudge the Streets without their shoes on.”
The following verses on the Gin Act, in 1736, are supposed by John Nichols to be the production of Dr. Johnson.
“Pensilibus fusis cyatho comitata supremo,