INTRODUCTION
1
Early in 1778 a new satirical poet caused a flutter in the polite circles of London. Within a few weeks of one another two poems, The Project and The Wreath of Fashion, were issued by Becket, the bookseller of the Adelphi in the Strand. Though anonymous, their author was soon known to be a young barrister named Richard Tickell. The Project treats of a scheme overlooked by the Academy of Projectors which Captain Gulliver visited in the course of his third voyage. In deft octosyllabics the satirist proposes applying Montesquieu’s discovery of the effect of climate on character to the problem of the parliamentary Opposition:
Suppose the Turks, who now agree
It wou’d fatigue them to be free,
Should build an ice-house, to debate
More cooly on affairs of state,
Might not some Mussulmen be brought,
To brace their minds, nor shrink at thought?