Nay, ev'n the persons most inclin'd

Through thick and thin, for Kings to stickle, Thought him (if they'd but speak their mind, Which they did not) an odious pickle.

At length some patriot lords-a breed
Of animals they've got in Thibet,
Extremely rare, and fit, indeed,

For folks like Pidcock, to exhibit

Some patriot lords, who saw the length

To which things went, combin'd their strength, And penn'd a manly, plain and free Remonstrance to the Nursery;

Protesting warmly that they yielded

To none, that ever went before 'em, In loyalty to him who wielded

Th' hereditary pap-spoon o'er 'em; That, as for treason, 'twas a thing

That made them almost sick to think of

That they and theirs stood by the King,
Throughout his measles and his chin-cough,
When others, thinking him consumptive,
Had ratted to the Heir Presumptive! -

But, still-though much admiring Kings (And chiefly those in leading-strings),

They saw, with shame and grief of soul,

There was no longer now the wise And constitutional control

Of birch before their ruler's

eyes;

But that, of late, such pranks, and tricks, And freaks occurr'd the whole day long, As all, but men with bishopricks,

Allow'd, in ev'n a King, were wrong. Wherefore it was they humbly pray'd That Honourable Nursery,

That such reforms be henceforth made,

As all good men desir'd to see; — In other words (lest they might seem Too tedious), as the gentlest scheme For putting all such pranks to rest, And in its bud the mischief nippingThey ventur'd humbly to suggest

His Majesty should have a whipping!

When this was read, no Congreve rocket, Discharg'd into the Gallic trenches,

E'er equall'd the tremendous shock it
Produced upon the Nursery benches.
The Bishops, who of course had votes,
By right of age and petticoats,

Were first and foremost in the fuss

"What, whip a Lama! suffer birch "To touch his sacred

"Deistical!—assailing thus

infamous !

"The fundamentals of the Church!"No-no-such patriot plans as these,

(So help them Heaven—and their Sees!) "They held to be rank blasphemies."

Th' alarm thus given, by these and other
Grave ladies of the Nursery side,

Spread through the land, till, such a pother,
Such party squabbles, far and wide,
Never in history's page had been
Recorded, as were then between

The Whippers and Non-whippers seen.
Till, things arriving at a state,

Which gave some fears of revolution,
The patriot lords' advice, though late,
Was put at last in execution.

The Parliament of Thibet met

The little Lama, call'd before it, Did, then and there, his whipping get, And (as the Nursery Gazette

Assures us) like a hero bore it.

And though, 'mong Thibet Tories, some
Lament that Royal Martyrdom

(Please to observe, the letter D

In this last word's pronounc'd like B),
Yet to th' example of that Prince

So much is Thibet's land a debtor,
That her long line of Lamas, since,

Have all behav'd themselves much better.

FABLE VII.

THE EXTINGUISHERS.

PROEM.

THOUGH Soldiers are the true supports,
The natural allies of Courts,

Woe to the Monarch, who depends
Too much on his red-coated friends;

For even soldiers sometimes think—

Nay, Colonels have been known to reason,—

And reasoners, whether clad in pink,

Or red, or blue, are on the brink

(Nine cases out of ten) of treason.

Not

many soldiers, I believe, are

As fond of liberty as Mina;

Else-woe to Kings, when Freedom's fever Once turns into a Scarletina!

For then-but hold-'tis best to veil

My meaning in the following tale :