“This City fam’d for Aldermen and Mayors,
The best intrusted with the public cares,
In former ages have obtained renown,
Great as the deeds our Ancestors have done.
I, tho’ of mean descent, and void of fame,
My ancestors obscure in birth and name,
By gold ennobl’d, am come here to serve ye
As once I did my master—that’s to starve ye.
E’er I a representative commence,
I’ll make confession here of all my sins;
I Judas first for my just pattern took,
Betray’d my master, and his cause forsook.
This made me rise, as other courtiers do,
T’ attempt high Crimes, and Villainies pursue.
Jemmy a special Banker had in me,
His coin lay safe as in his Treasury:
It was no cheat his money to purloin,
He knew not how, alas, to use his coin.
My breach of promise is so small a fault,
That no wise man can wonder at.
But that you might not of my wit complain,
I’ve been a cheat in every monarch’s reign.
When paper was equivalent to gold,
And paper-skulls their paper-credit sold,
I, by my cunning and my wise designing,
Soon got the modern art of paper-coining.”
The poetaster has nothing but good repute to shower on the late representatives of the city of London; he bids his Muse—
“Tell to Augusta’s sons, the worth disclose
Of those good patriots whom they lately chose.
In front of these the aged Clito place,
A better man did ne’er the City grace:
Generous and brave, and true in former time,
When Honesty was thought the highest crime.
He in the Oxford Senate bravely stood,
Like some tall tree, the Giant of the Wood,
O’ertopping all in courage and address,
Invaded-Rights and Freedoms to redress;
Brought in a Bill t’ exclude a Popish prince,
The want of which we have lamented since.
And when the Chair he did most justly fill,
And tempted was to serve a Tyrant’s will,
Would not his fellow-citizens disarm,
But boldly did withstand th’ impending storm.
He in the Senate sits unbrib’d, and knows
No cause—but where the common interest goes.
He, unconcern’d, the dangerous path doth tread,
Where Faction shakes its dire envenom’d head.”
Another favourite and patriotic candidate is “Asto,” who—
“early did his country’s cause embrace
And opposed villains even to their face.
The Charter he would not consent to yield,
But did defend it in th’ open field.
Gold never could his interest engage,
The common vice of this polluted age;
Whereby they villains into office vote,
Such as would cut their King’s and country’s throat.”
The other candidates—“friends to their country all,” according to the bard—are christened “Witho,” “Hethban,” and “Pastor.”
With the death of William III. the Tory prospects revived, and their attacks became bolder. In alluding to the accident which caused the king’s end, the party lyrists showed no compassion for “a fallen foe.”
“Let’s ’em mourn on, ’twould lessen much our woe
Had Sorrel stumbled thirteen years ago.”