Then meanly to correct the brute pretend,
And claim the merit of the Fair One’s friend?”
He had the courage to say a good word for Paine and “The Rights of Man”:
“O Paine! thy vast endeavour I admire.
How brave the hope, to set a realm on fire!
Ambition smiling praised thy giant wish.
Compared to thee, the man, to gain a name,
Who to Diana’s temple put the flame,
A simple Minnow to the Prince of Fish.”
He was fearless in his denunciation of the Duke of York, when it transpired that during the latter’s occupation of the position of Commander-in-Chief, his mistress had been selling commissions and offices, and he voiced the public clamour: