EPIGRAM

ON THE INCREASED VALUE OF A CERTAIN COIN.

WE

[From the same, March 25.]

HILE, to enrich his boasted state,
Proud Boney's means are ceasing,
Old England sees, with pride elate,
Her CROWN in worth increasing.

G.

I

THE ADDRESS OF A NOBLE DUKE TO THE
CAMBRIDGE SENATE.

[From the Morning Chronicle, March 25.]

HAVE, doubtless, oft heard sage philosophers tell,
While there's life, there's a chance the sick man may
get well:

But, the poor Duke of Grafton as doctors give over,
(The doctors you 'll blame if His Grace should recover,)
I boldly come forward your votes to entreat
For the honour of filling the Chancellor's seat.
My pretensions! some Jacobin fellow may cry ;
I'll deign to inform him-no claims are so high:
My pretensions are sanctioned by M-j-y's self;
Now I think I've dumbfounded this impudent elf.
But if not, I can easily set him at rest,

And prove, past contradiction, my party the best.

Listen, Cambridge Electors! and brighten each face!
*** Mr. Perceval says I'm the man for the place..
This settles the business at once-you 'll all bend
To the mighty First Lord of the Treasury's friend.
You 're parsons, two-thirds of you-parsons, no fear,
At the mention of Perceval prick up the ear.

The loaves! hungry voters! the loaves! I'll be sworn,
You all flock to my standard, like rats to the corn.

IMPROMPTU

IMPROMPTU

ON THE FRENCH GENERAL VICTOR'S DEFEAT BEFORE

HIS

CADIZ.

[From the Morning Herald, March 26.]

IS VICTOR vanquish'd, and his eagle taken,
Boney will stay at home to save his bacon;
Sip caudle with his wife, and for young Nap
Make with parental daddle sugar'd pap!
Content to see the nurs'ry colours fly,

By holding out his bantling's clouts to dry!

NIM.

THE

IMPROMPTU.

[From the same.]

HE mountain's labour now is o'er; they've given us their mus ;

VICTOR, Who Cadiz went to take, has run away VICTUS.

ON THE DEFEAT OF MARSHAL VICTOR.

VICT

[From the Morning Post.]

ICTOR no more is victor," Quibble cried-
Why? because Victor's vanquish'd," he replied.

A VICTOR formerly the battle won,
But now a Victor is in fight undone.

ON OUR LATE VICTORY..

[From the same.]

No wonder that, on Cadiz' glorious coast,
Britain's proud arms so happily should fare:

One Victor only have the French to boast,

While we have got some thousand victors there.

C. T.

VICTOR VANQUISHED.

[From the same.]

ALLIA's boastful Emperor
Is once more foil'd by us;
His mighty General Victor,
Graham has made Victus.

THE BATTLE OF BARROSA AND MASSENA'S
RETREAT.

To our gallant Heroes in Spain and Portugal.

BY WILLIAM THOMAS FITZGERALD, ESQ.
[From the same.]

WHILE ruin'd nations heave the inward groan,

And waste their blood to prop a tyrant's throne

They see Britannia, in that awful hour,

Foe to his crimes, but rival of his power!
Where'er her gallant sons the falchion wield,
The Gallic legions, vanquish'd, quit the field:
Iberia's plains the glorious truth attest,

Where vict'ry plumes her wings on Graham's crest!
Numbers, in vain, oppose his valiant bands,
Who hold their country's honour in their hands;
Resolv'd to die, or conquer, they advance,
And tear the Eagle from presumptuous France;
Through hosts of foes they cut their glorious way,
And fame immortal marks Barrosa's day!
To those who fell let grateful tears be shed,
For glory crowns the living and the dead.
On every side the patriot turns his eye,
And sees his country's flag triumphant fly!
Near Tagus' banks, on Lusitania's shore,
Thrice-laurel'd Wellesley gains one trophy more;
One trophy more! to those so nobly won,
From Orient Regions to the Western Sun!

The

The baffled chief must now forget his name,
The favour'd child of fortune, and of fame * !
His flying troops no more our hero face,
But seek, by flight, their safety in disgrace.
France will not now her usual boast maintain,
That Britons only conquer on the main :
Then let her tyrant's vanity subside-
His ships are strangers to the ocean's tide!
While on the seas he dares not trust his slaves,
The majesty of England walks the waves!

I

OLD Q.'s TOKAY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PUBLIC LEDGER, &c.

SIR,

your

KNOW few ways in which the spare part of paper is better employed, than in giving us those little anecdotes and traits of manners which describe a class, at least, if they do not a nation. One would not wish that every folly you record were considered as characteristic of the people of England; but in as far as the manners of the people of fashion are depicted, something is gained to the stock of useful information; and, perhaps, some reasonable check administered.

The information you gave us, a few days ago, of the sale of the late Duke of Queensberry's Tokay, at seven pounds sterling per bottle, has no doubt 'amazed the little people, who have been for some years brooding over the hardness of the times, lamenting over the price of butcher's meat, and bewailing the rising state of the quartern loaf. They cannot conceive how such things are: finding some difficulty in procuring a glass of port wine for cases of sickness, they have no conception of a race of beings, who will give seven pounds, for a bottle of Tokay, which is to be drank for plea

* Massena has been called the Spoiled Child of Fortune.

sure.

sure. Others again, who profess to be political calculators, and who see our once eminent merchants and manufacturers applying to Parliament for relief, begin to doubt the validity of their calculations, and to question whether, after all, there is not a great deal of money somewhere in this kingdom.

But I know not, Sir, that the speculations of the one or the other party, on such subjects, will deserve the attention of persons of fashion; and I would rather, therefore, suggest to the latter, that they should endeavour to study a consistency in their expenses; and, when they can place wine on their tables at eighty-four pounds per dozen, take care that every thing else is in proportion. For want of attention to this rule, I have often witnessed, at the tables of the great, a heterogene ous mixture of cheap and dear ingredients, as absurd, in my humble opinion, as a party of nobility and vulgar placed at the same table.

I own, however, that there is some difficulty in this. I have not the honour of knowing any of the gentlemen who have purchased the Duke of Queensberry's Tokay, but I humbly conceive they will find it rather difficult to bring the other articles, either of the dinner or dessert, up to the standard of his Grace's wine. I am afraid that the markets of this metropolis, the owners of which are by no means deficient in charging, nor even the landlords of our taverns, who are privileged to make many comfortable additions to the expense of a dinner-I say, Sir, I am afraid that all these put together, and with the kind aid of the Covent Garden fruiterers, will never be able to bring a mouthful up to the price of a glass-full of his Grace's Tokay. On the contrary, the inferiority of price must be in most cases so striking as to discompose that uniformity of extravagance which constitutes the eclat of a feast. We have no reason to complain of the cheapness of turtle and venison, of green peas in January,

or