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"Videlicet of your best friends!

"Which—if not yours-will serve OUR ends;

"And that is, you may well discern all, "The self-same thing 'twixt blades fraternal. "Then swear, as we do, on this jorum,

"In sæcula, boys, sæculorum,

"'Gainst Britain's insolent dominion,

"(As swore the one-eyed Carthaginian

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Against Rome's peace ;-nor deem, applied

"This simile, to your blind side)—

"Inveterate enmity to nourish,

"And shew, like Us, in actions currish,
"Who'd fire the globe, set hell in motion,
"To crush those tyrants of the ocean.

" "Tis well!-Our Mandate You've obey'd.-"Now, of Dependence, who 's afraid?-"DE WINTER, see, the rogues have beat: "You're independent of your Fleet."Lo, to the South, their course they shape! "You're independent of the Cape, "Amboyna, Banda's isles, Ceylon.

"(Who nutmegs wants, or cinnamon ?)

"For Zealand and

your

Netherlands

"Care not. We'll take them off your hands;

"And garrison your frontier towns.

"Thus France your independence crowns!

"Yet, one thing please to note beside, "That France must be indemnified

"For these kind services she 's done ye:
"Stand and deliver, Sirs, your MONEY!
"Grudge it not Us who came so far
"To sell you assignats at par.

"And, 'till sly RAMEL * knock' o' the head it,
"ENRICH'D YOU WITH OUR PAPER-CREDIT!

"We ask but-all that's in your chest ;

"Pay that:-We'll trust you for the rest.

"Though you dared keep, ('till the Great Nation

"Effected your regeneration,)

"To fight pro aris and pro focis,

"A STADTHOLDER, beneath our noses.

"Down with your cash!-Well; since you've

done 't,

"We'll pocket it besides th' affront;

* French Minister of Finance.

"And beg you'll live content and easy

""Till, as OUR SPONGE, AGAIN we squeeze ye."

The Horseleech * and her daughters twain,

Saith Solomon, the life-blood drain

Unsated, and athirst for more

They cry,

66

Give, give, da, da," encore.

Here doubtless, in prophetic trance,

Of THAT FELL HORSELEECH, MODERN FRANCE,

The sapient writer had a glimpse,
And saw her two accursed imps,
Rapacity, and t'other daughter,
Still more unconscionable, Slaughter:
For 'though her reformation zeal
Made of Sev'n Provinces a meal,
Still rages, ne'er to be controll'd,
Her appetite for blood and gold.-
Cold, temperate, and torrid clime
Sees her infuriate lust of crime
Burst ev'ry social bond, confound
Order, spread insurrection round;

* The Horseleech hath two daughters, crying give, give,

da, da,

Proverbs, 30.

Rob, outrage, massacre, and spoil
Mankind from Holstein to the Nile.

Yet Opposition France acquit,* "The common enemy is PITT," Justly abhorr'd by each New Whig

Because he never cared a fig

How much his martial provocation

Incens'd their friends of the Great Nation.-
Yet ERSKINE will our ears be dinning †
With "France more sinn'd against than sinning,"-

* Whig Club, Freemason's Tavern.—Mr. Sheridan said, that Mr. Fox had delivered an excellent speech against the foreign enemy, and against "the COMMON ENEMY, MR. PITT." He dreaded the French more, on account of the provocations they had received from this government. Courier, May 2, 1798.

Mr. Erskine assures us, that the FRENCH REPUBLIC is more sinned against than sinning.

Anti-Jacobin, December 25, 1797. "On this ground (his having given from their chair-" The "Sovereignty of the People,") his Majesty was advised, at a

moment when it was thought that light from every quarter "ought to be let in upon the councils of the kingdom,-TO 66 EXTINGUISH THE LIGHT OF MR. Fox. Put out the light, " and then-What then?-To put down the recollection of "the legitimate legal Sov'reignty of the People derived from "the law and constitution of England."

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And vent in egotistic prose his

Profound concern lest Whiggish noses
Should smell if not a rat-a stink,
Since GEORGE extinguish'd Fox's link;
Yet CHARLES-despairing of resistance-
Still from St. Stephen's keeps his distance:
Resistance-You'll perhaps suppose
The patriot means-to Britain's foes.
Mistake him not! Fox recommends
Resistance to Britannia's friends,

Kings, Lords, and Commons: these, he fears,
Are but so many ROBESPIERRES;

Whom, since they've cured us of sedition,

He fain would cure, as Whig-physician,

Of playing such another trick

On England's body-politic.*

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TERMINED to disappoint them.--On мY MOTION the "Club resolved. &c. &c. &c.".

Mr. Erskine's Speech.-Whig Club, March 5, 1799. * After the repeal of the Bill of Rights in the Sedition Bill, &c. &c. still less could I be surprized at any proceeding of the present government. After our experience of the system they have adopted in Ireland, which I have no doubt we should look at as a picture of the tyranny which they will introduce into England. Whether it be owing to the want of power, or the want of disposition in the body of the people of this country to resist this tyranny, I cannot pretend to deter

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