humanity, take such steps in these premises as may relieve your Petitioners from this their distressing pre dicament, and restore them, and the drama in general, to their proper place, and their appropriate functions. And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever make you laugh.

[From the Morning Chronicle, May 6.]

EPIGRAM.

[From the same, May 7.]

No more the poet's strains engage

Our admiration of the stage;
For there, instead of actors playing,
Nothing is heard but horses neighing,
While they curvet it on each leg:
But none have wings-alas, poor Peg!
Hampstead Heath, May 6.

CIRCULAR ADDRESS TO THE FRIENDS OF
REFORM,

AS PERFORMED BY MAJOR J. CARTWRIGHT,

AT THE SELECT MEETING HELD BY THOSE GENTLEMEN ON THE 6TH OF APRIL.

A CANTATA:

CONTAINING THE ORIGINAL SENTIMENTS AND LANGUAGE OF THE CIRCULAR LETTER SINCE DISTRIBUTED AMONG THE SUPPORTERS OF THAT GOOD OLD CAUSE.

[From the Morning Post, May 8.1

MAJOR CARTWRIGHT.

AIR" Sir, prior to the Revolution."-See Address in the Morning Post of Friday last.

17

SIR, prior to the Revolution,

Notwithstanding all the teaching
Of our holy Constitution,

Rights from Magna Charta preaching,

We never have had or have heard of;

An old constitution that never existed,

Old rights which our ancestors always resisted, And many wise people despair'd of.-(Da Capo.)

A

CHORUS.

We'll recover and 'stablish fair Liberty's reign;
We ne'er had it before-so we 'll get it again.

GRAND MOVEMENT.

"Those whose guide is truth," &c.

The men whose guide is truth are the enlighten'd,
Those who appeal to reason can't be frighten'd ;.
We're temperate and moderate, wise and chaste;
Be just in future, we 'll forget what 's past.
Fee-faw-fum,

This is the way to tranquillity;

But falsehood, fraud, force, and oppression,
In vain hope for any concession,

Or even for common civility.

MADRIGAL.

"As the beneficial effects,”. &c.

As nine parts in ten
Are not Gentlemen,

Of those who attend at our meeting,

If a few would but come
To keep up the hum,

They should not complain of their treating.
Or if even their names,
To strengthen our claims,

Would give an eclat to the party,

Though in person they fail,
From sickness or jail,

We'll swear that they're all well and hearty.

1

Then, Sir, let me put

Your name at the foot

Of my list, and believe an old stager,

If your friends too should come,
There is plenty of room,

And I rest your obedient, MAJOR.

IMPROMPTU

ΟΝ

IMPROMPTU

THE PRINCE'S ABSENCE FROM THE CEREMONY OF LAYING THE FIRST STONE OF THE VAUXHALL BRIDGE.

[From the Morning Chronicle, May 11.]

AN arch wag has declar'd, that he truly can say

Why the Prince did not lay the first stone t' other day: The Restrictions prevented-the reason is clear; The Regent can't meddle in making a pier.

STATE OF THE COIN.

T. H.

[+

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

[May 13.]

SIR,

I

HAVE been lately taking what Mawworm calls an excrescence into the country, to keep up my in terest with my constituents, and prevent any other candidate from insinuating himself into the repair of their pots and their frying-pans. It is with sincere satisfaction that I perceive, on my return, the complete adoption of the schemes proposed in my former letters, and that my coadjutors the State Tinkers (who are so laudably polishing the handle of the State Kettle while they are boring a large hole in its bottom) have so thoroughly entered into and adopted my plans. No man, though I say it who should not say it, takes a warmer interest in the welfare of my country than myself. I never replace the nozzel in the extremity of a decayed pair of bellows, without glowing at the hope of a Reform in Parliament; or solder a tin spout on a dismantled teapot, unmoved by the services of the Bullion Committee: judge, then, of my rapture at the adoption of the Irish plan of a depreciated currency, and the oracular words" a new coinage is about to be introduced to the public, and directions

""

66

have been already given at the Mint for the imme-
diate preparation of silver pieces of coin, one of which is
to pass for three shillings, and the other for eighteen-
pence.'
Mind, Mr. Editor, the precious words-
they are to pass for three shillings and eighteen-
pence"-they are not said to be intrinsically worth
three shillings and eighteen-pence, for then they would
follow the gold out of circulation, before perhaps the
last of them was issued from the Mint. But they are
said to pass for three shillings and eighteen-pence !
Here is a stroke of artificial finance, worthy of that
first of all tinkerly Statesmen, yea even of Pitt him-
self! And observe too, Mr. Editor, how respectfully
the nation is treated in this business-a new coinage
is about to be introduced to the public: this is quite in
the style of a presentation at a drawing-room, or the
first appearance of a country cousin of a Ministerial
Member of Parliament, who is cringing for a place, at
the levee of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

It is, I must confess, Mr. Editor, with genuine complacency I look upon this realization of my Irish plan. The Irish early saw the necessity of marrying depreciated silver to depreciated paper, which now, like man and wife, jog on very contentedly together. In England there was a balance of impediment in the obstinate prejudices of John Bull, which are at length happily giving way-his note is changed as well as depreciated he no longer grumbles at the disappearance of guineas, and will pocket these representatives of shillings with just as much glee as Perceval pockets any other Representatives; and every man will walk about with a Parliament of counter-votes in his purse, in which the alloy will universally obtain a dead majority. I am, Sir, your humble servant,

T. TINKER.

HORACE,

0

W

At

A

T

(2

HORACE, ODE XXII.

Vili potabis modicis Sabinum
Cantharis.

[From the same.]

TO J. P. Kemble, Esq.

COME, Kemble, thou chivalrous wight,

And tipple my humble Brown Stout; 'T was bottled and seal'd on the night When Timour the Tartar came out.

The Theatre set up a bawl

On seeing his cream-colour'd hobby, That made Shakspeare shake in the hall, And startled the Muse in the lobby. Thalia, Melpomene-shrews!

A fig for their Ladyships' ireHalf your stage is already a Mews, I offer you Meux's Entire!

THE LONG-EARED REFORMERS.
A FABLE. 1

[From the Morning Post, May 14.]

THAT Asses once could speak we know,
In history 't is recorded so;

And that shrewd beast which Balaam rode,
Who stopp'd to gossip with his load,
Had a most numerous progeny
(Although we've lost the pedigree),
Who long surviv'd to rail and chatter
On whate'er chanc'd to be the matter.

Once on a time a general meeting.
Was call'd for speaking and for eating;
At which these sages rose to prate,
And talk about affairs of State.
They held their meeting in a cavern
(To them a sort of London Tavern),

H