“She saw the temper of the noisy Hall,
And wept the Churches’ stars that downwards fall.”
In vain does the antique beldame recall the “bad old times” of fanaticism and oppression (when in a former reign the civic charters were taken away perforce), and exhort the sympathies of the crowd to turn from Whiggism and embrace the abuses of the Stuarts:—
“Poor I, the city Sybil of renown,
Am disrespected by the nauseous Town:
Of Innovations daily I complain,
But, like Cassandra, prophesy in vain.”
Next comes the hustings:—
“When on the Rostra, as upon a stage,
The Candidates their partizans engage;
You’d think the Hall an Amphitheatre
And these the furious Gladiators were.”
The author first introduces the candidates who were obnoxious to him, and he certainly roasts them royally, and serves with a right pungent sauce. Priso, the first candidate to appear before the freeholders, had degraded himself as a tool of the late Court, and when in possession of the chair had basely surrendered the liberties of the city corporation.
“First Priso mounts the stage, and shows himself;
The crowd unanimous did hiss the elf,
And vow’d no Representative they’d have,
Who to a Tyrant their old Charter gave.”
Candidate number two, Child, was, it is hinted, in the interests of the “prince over the water,” whom he was hopeful of converting from popery.
“Next him an infant comes, a Babe of Grace,
And steps into his abdicated place,
Where from his throne he, lisping out aloud,
In words like these bespoke the noisy crowd.
‘You’re govern’d, sirs, but by uncommon rules,
If you elect such men as are not fools.
In hopes of this, this doubtful stage I enter,
And at much cost on an election venture.
I hope you’ve read the letter which I sent,
Design’d each silly sot to circumvent.
Tho’ I’m a Child,[32] my parts are come to age,
And for my sense the monied men engage:
Both kings and people have esteemed it fit,
That those who have most money have most wit.
Men they are pleas’d with great and manly toys,
But baubles are the true delight of boys.
I hate of Barons the renownèd Tales
And recommend you to the Prince of Wales.
Who in the Senate I will move to come
Into our Church from the curst See of Rome;
Where he shall hector like the Son of Priam,
And be as wise a Protestant as I am.’”
The sentiments put into the mouths of the candidates contain enlightenment upon city matters, as well as upon prominent citizens, both under the reign of William III. and his predecessors from the Restoration. Another candidate is thinly disguised under the nickname of “the Czar.” He is made to thus candidly address the “medley voting crowd:”—