of mind for which even party-spirit can be an excuse, I leave to the determination of those who, whatever their attachments be, stick to the primary principle-Love to our country. I am, Sir, yours, &c.

MEDIUS.

EFFECTS OF PREACHING.

[From the British Press, Dec. 25.] GOOD Doctor, a word,” cried an impudent knave,

“Do you know, in our village, they style you the Grave* « The Grave !" said the Doctor, “ why where is the jest "

Why, they say that your hearers are always--at rest .'"?

THE BERNE BEAR: A TALE,

(From the Morning Chronicle, Dec. 25.)

“ Honi soit qui mal y pense.” WH

HEN Switzerland was free, we learn,

A powerful Canton once-call'd Berne
With anxious zeal, and ceaseless care,
Kept (with the public purse) a Bear.
So gentle, he with ease was led !
And yet so pamper'd and high-fed,
That strangers, far and near, did feast
Their wond'ring eyes upon the Beast :
For Somerville's fat kine would seemn
Like Pharaoh's lean, compar'd with him i
Though he his fat did never spoil
With cramming grease in cakes of oil !

This many a living wight can tell,
Who saw the Bear, and knew him well,
Which doth the faithful Muse enable
To say, this Tale is not a Fable.

Not that the animal was shown
To please the public gaze alone!
Since, though he play'd not any tricks
lo aught regardivg Politics,

Historiographers

}

Historiographers relate
He was connected with the State ;
Which fear'd that all might go to ruin,
If any harm befell poor Bruin.

Thus, that no mischief might ensue,
Berne's Bruiv had a leader too,
Who taught him all he had to do.
So I my readers can assure
He did not bold a sinecure,
Which, being now grown out of fashion,
Puts every Patriot in a passion :
Besides, the Leader must provide
A successor when Bruin died;
That none might controvert the lie,
“ That the Berne Bear can never die!”.

Yet, as this world will have its rubs,
Berne lost at once both Bear and Cubs ;
And, since the ills that inan betide
Ne'er single cone, the Leader died.
A fatal stroke! since people said,
He never once the Bear misled!.
Happy could I the same relate
Of ev'ry other Bear of State !
But since, my Muse! it is not wise

time to moralize, With all the pathos that is due

To the great Hero of your Story,

Dead in his plenitude of glory!
The sequel of your Tale pursue ;
First making, with all just discretion,
Apology for this digression:
And here my word of honour giving,
The Berne Bear means no creature living.

Dark clouds of sorrow Berne o'ercast,
When hapless Bruin breath'd his last;
Which, soon awak’ning all her fears,
Burst into deluges of tears ;
While, in the anguish of despair,
Shrill notes of woe thus rent the air-
" Or Berne must fall, or have a Bear !",

E 6

Before your

But when (since I the truth must tell)
Berne found she prosper'd fall as well;
That no portents were seen to fly
In storms, or lightnings through the sky;
Or, when she sate her down to eat,
No Harpies seiz'd upon her meat ;
And when she thought, as Buffon writes,
That Bears have monstrous appetites,
And that their hugs oft cover hate,
Like the caresses of the Great;:
The tears, that erst her grief supplied,
Soon, like th’ Ephesian Dame, she dried ;
From Bruin her regrets withdrew,
And voted, he was useless too :
For in all realms, whate'er their name,
Republicans are still the same *.

So, for the Muse should never fail
To draw a moral from her Tale,
Some men, who hold the reins of State,
Seem anxious to procrastinate,
As if they wish'd the Muse should sing,
(Though all indignant at the thing!)
" That we can do without a King ;'
The Stute Wheels round the same Orls turning
By the mere Motion of Adjourning;
But, their designs while thus they broach,
The Lord have mercy on the Coach!
For, from the box till they retire,
They'll plunge it deeper in the mire;
Since all their ways too plainly show'd
They still preferr'd the dirtiest road!

}

1

THE GREAT SEAL IN THE THAMES ; . OR, THE
DEVIL AMONG THE FISHES: A FABLE.

[From ihe same]
I think thee for the hint.

SHAKSPEARE.
WHEN King James in the night

Cross'd, the Thames in his flight,
He Aung the Great Seal in the stream;

Alluding to the House of Lords being put hors du combat, at the commencement of the Commonwealth.

At

At the bottom it lay,

All depriv'd of its sway-
Of its powers the fishes ne'er dream :

Till at length a sly Eel

Cried, “ Behold the Great Seal!
I'll make myself King of the Flood;

For a Seal-keeper sly,

When the King is not by,
"T is known is a King just as good.

a
" The Parliament met,

To debating I'll set,
And then two Commission's I'll frame;

First to license what 's said,

For King absent or dead,
*Then give Royal Assent in His name.

“What though Common Sense shows,

Common Sense will oppose,
With this salvo-'I'll cure ev'ry flaw;

Though he does not appear,

Still His Majesty's here-
This is true, for 't is Fiction of Law'."

IMPROMPTU
ON A STATE VAULTER EXTRAORDINARY,

[From the Morning Herald, Dec. 26.]
AN
MID the feats of modern art,

In this our varying clime,
Where some 'gainst wind and tide be-start,

While others fly 'gainst Time ;-
We see (what's surely lold enough)

With giant resolution,
A tiny Lawyer stripp'd in buff

T' o'erleap the Constitution* ! John Doe. Ms. Gillray, with other daring Caricaturists, are hereby cautioned to restrain any wanton propensity to sketch this heroic attempt of the State Vaulter Extraordinary of all England, either on brass, or any other inappropriate metal whatsoever, on pain of a legal premunire.

(Signed) Richard Roe, Solicitor to said State Vaulter Extraordinary:

ON

ON THE LIMITATIONS OF REGENCY,

A'S DETERMINED UPON IN 1799.

[From the Morning Chronicle, December 26.]
T HB brightest jewels from th' Imperial Crown,

Like Blood, Pitt's keen Administration snatches;
And throwing at their feet the Regent down,
Makes him a sort of King “of shreds and patches."

"

THE AGE WE LIVE IN.

[From the British Press, December 27.] ÖVID has given a very fine description of the earlier

ages of the world, and has told us a beautiful story about things which, in our times, it is scarcely possible to conceive to be any better than pure fictions of the poet's brain. We are informed, for instance, that there was an Age called “ the Golden,” from some precious metal, which, on account of its super: excellence, was applied allegorically to designate the most happy, innocent, abundant, and delightful era that ever existed on the earth. What this metal conld have been it is not in the power of a modern writer to imagine; but, from our absolute ignorance of the ineaning of the term “ Golden,” it may fairly be presumed, that it is altogether a fabulous expression, and refers to something as unreal as the unicorn, the phenix, the sphynx, or the flying dragon; for who can sup pose, that if such a metal as this called Gold had existed at any period, it would have been unknown to the chemists of the 18th century, who have explored the

very arcana of nature, and niade such notable dis. coveries respecting zinc, bismuth, and a hundred other

a mongrel metals, which the ancients had no more conception of than we have of Gold? It is therefore clear, that this part of Naso's story is all my eye; and we