[56] Cowper alludes to this afflicting page in our domestic history, in his Table Talk:—
When tumult lately burst his prison door,
And set plebeian thousands in a roar;
When he usurp'd authority's just place,
And dared to look his master in the face.
When the rude rabble's watch-word was—Destroy,
And blazing London seem'd a second Troy.
[57] The surrender of Charles-Town, in South Carolina, to Admiral Arbuthnot and General Sir Henry Clinton.
[58] Verses on the burning of Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's house, during the riots in London.
[59] These lines of Mr. Unwin, and here retouched by Cowper's pen, bear a strong resemblance to the beautiful Epitaph composed by Bishop Lowth, on the death of his beloved daughter, which seem to have suggested some hints, in the composition of the above epitaph to Northcote.
Cara, vale, ingenio præstans, pietate, pudore,
Et plus quam natæ nomine cara, vale.
Cara Maria, vale: at veniet felicius ævum,
Quando iterum tecum, sim modo dignus, ero.
Cara redi, lætâ tum dicam voce, paternos
Eja age in amplexus, cara Maria, redi.
[60] Private correspondence.
[61] The alarm taken at the concessions made in favour of the Catholics was such, that many persons formed themselves into an association, for the defence of Protestant principles.—Ed.
[62] These lines are founded on the suspicion, prevalent at that time, that the fires in London were owing to French gold, circulated for the purposes of corruption.