"Delightful are the charms attached to power; "More sweet than honey in the vernal flower: And, oh! 'twas well, when fortune drave us thence, "We lost not with our fame, our consequence! "Yes, Grenville, yes; Oxonia's robes be thine; "Th' Exchequer, Lansdown's; and the coinage, mine! 324 "The hand and head were never lost of those, "Who dealt in doggrel, or who pun'd in prose."-Dryden. " The career is consequently safe if not honorable; and the Right Hon. Senator will not be the first who has relinquished honor as a compromise for security.dodatus 324 The EXCHEQUER, Lansdown's; and the COINAGE, mine! -A pretty division of the plunder truly! But the nation has had experience, which teaches wisdom. What did Sheridan, when he was master of the mint before? Did he put the establisment on a more economical footing? Did he not, on the contrary, make heavy and superfluous additions to the former expenditure? Did he improve the current coin of the realm? Did he, in the fulness of his invention, discover a method to pevent the growing evil of counterfeiting it? He promised wonderfully; what did he perform? Nothing! Nothing! Nothing! He was, however, not more backward than his associates. Their whole conduct, while in power, convinced the people that their only object in obtaining it was to fatten themselves upon the public burdens-to fill their pockets from the national treasury-and to glut their gorges with the vital blood of their benefactors! They did it nobly-they were no novices in robbery; and had not the guardian genius of Britain driven them "Erskine shall hold the seals; and righteous Grey "Naval corruptions banish in a day! "Then shall the nation all our sins forget, Again to goad the nation with its prayer! "But doubts and fears are not for souls like our's ; ́ "We strive the more, the more the prospect lowers. " Be not a moment lost; to-morrow's sun "Should not go down before some good is done. from their seats, it had not been for want of their exertions, if Englishmen had at this moment possessed a shadow of their former independence; and yet these are the men who have still the bare-faced impudence to talk of their patriotism and virtue; who exclaim, that they are men "" more sinned "against than sinning;" and whilst they can find a single dolt to believe them, they will never hesitate to sell their souls for the gratification of procuring a proselyte! · "Swear to the trencher'd tribe, that Popery's train 341 341 Swear to the trencher'd tribe, &c.-There cannot be a doubt that every method of intrigue will be resorted to, to secure Lord Grenville's election; and perjury, in such a cause, will, by his adherents, be deemed honorable. It will be doubly necessary, since Mr. O'Connell has procured his lordship the honor of becoming the champion of St. Peter, to give some pledge to the Oxonians of his indisposition to the Romish cause; and this he cannot do without a sacrifice of truth. Without such a pledge, will the gentlemen of the University consent to receive the avowed advocate of Popery? Impossible! And will his lordship have the unblushing effrontery to yield such a promise? Surely, this is scarcely less possible! Then, methinks, the noble peer has betrayed a great want of judgment, in thus exposing himself to the certainty of a public defeat; since either the seat of learning must suddenly change its character, and become the seat of folly; or my lord Grenville must commit himself most decidedly, if the election should terminate according to his wishes. "Well may por Alma Mater weep and moan, The Pope, Lord Grenville, Heresy, and Hell! * Oaths were but made the vulgar herd to awe; "Men of superior souls despise the law! "I close, my friends, well cogitate my speech; "Election oaths are honor'd by the breach! "We know no qualms, what virtue conscience calls, 349 "But to the lot of meaner mortals falls! 349 We know no qualms, &c.—Of this fact the public have had pretty ample specimens. The murderer at the gallows, the thief under the cat-o'nine tails, and the traitor at the scaffold-all are liable to this disorder; but these men, these stoics in iniquity, by the carelessness with which they met disgrace and infamy, discovered a callousness of feeling which is rather unusual, and gave proof that they were equally mindless of the taunts, the ridicule, the curses, and the prejudices of a nation on which they had delighted in heaping accumulated insults. Whether such a disposition of mind be enviable, or the contrary, remains for the decision of those who have sinned in like manner: it becomes not us to sit in judgment on such an occasion. The sentiments with which Mr. Sheridan terminates his speech confer little credit either on his head or his heart; it proves the former to be shallow, and the latter corrupt. But it would be needless to expatiate on this subject, since the qualifications and active virtues of Sheridan are too well known to receive any additional illustration here. Ask of his tradesman, his bottle companions, his intimates, and his "We seek no heaven, but place-no God but power "Of priestly dupes, be greater bliss the dower! "You have my words, the echoes of my soul, "And death or conquest constitutes the whole." iema Scarce had the last words issued from his tongue, 'Ere the stunn'd walls with thundering plaudits rung: Long through the room the repercussion ran, And every senator seem'd more than man! A pause ensued; 'till shuffling from his chair, Windham uprose, and fix'd the general stare; Windham-for noise and impudence renown'd, Whose sense lies buried 'neath a load of sound Windham-important in his own conceit, A snarling knave amidst the little great In longing cue, like Tantalus he stood, And first with tasty touch he rais'd his hair, His neckcloth primm'd, for action to prepare ; His arms akimboed-fill'd his eyes with fire, Bowed down his head, and twang'd the vocal wire. domestics, and a pretty accurate notion of his character may be drawn from the result of the inquiries. |