To sign away the Rights of Man

To Russian threats and Austrian juggle; And leave the sinking African1

To fall without one saving struggle'Mong ministers from North and South,

To show his lack of shame and sense, And hoist the sign of "Bull and Mouth" For blunders and for eloquence!

In vain we wish our Secs. at home2

To mind their papers, desks, and shelves, If silly Secs. abroad will roam

And make such noodles of themselves.

But such hath always been the case-
For matchless impudence of face,
There's nothing like your Tory race!3

4

First, PITT, the chosen of England, taught her
A taste for famine, fire, and slaughter.
Then came the Doctor," for our ease,
With E-D-NS, CH-TH-MS, H-WK-B-S,
And other deadly maladies.

When each, in turn, had run their rigs,
Necessity brought in the Whigs:
And oh, I blush, I blush to say,

When these, in turn, were put to flight, too, Illustrious T-MP-E flew away

With lots of pens he had no right to!"

In short, what will not mortal man do!

And now, that-strife and bloodshed pastWe've done on earth what harm we can do, We gravely take to Heaven at last;" And think its favouring smile to purchase (Oh Lord, good Lord!) by-building churches!

No. IV.

BOB GREGSON,

POET LAUREATE OF THE FANCY.

"For hitting and getting away (says the elegant Author of Boriana) RICHMOND is distinguished; and the brave MOLINEUX keeps a strong hold in the circle of boxers, as a pugilist of the first class; while

1

-præcipitem Africum Decertantem Aquilonibus.

2 Nequicquam Deus abscidit

Prudens oceano dissociabili

Terras, si tamen impia

Non tangenda Rates transiliunt vada.

ed Rats that attended the voyager.

3 Audax omnia perpeti

Gens ruit per vetitum nefas.

4 Audax Japeti genus

Ignem fraude mala gentibus intulit.

5 Post

6

-macies, et nova febrium

Terris incubuit cohors.

-tarda necessitas

Ah, never be false to me, fair as thou art,
Nor belie all the many kind things thou hast said;
The falsehood of other nymphs touches the Heart,
But THY fibbing, my dear, plays the dev'l with the
Head!

Yet, who would not prize, beyond honours and pelf,
A maid to whom Beauty such treasures has granted,
That, ah! she not only has black eyes herself,
But can furnish a friend with a pair, too, if wanted!
Lord ST-W-RT's a hero (as many suppose,)

And the Lady he woos is a rich and a rare one; His heart is in Chancery, every one knows,

And so would his head be, if thou wert his fair one.

Sweet Maid of the Fancy! when love first came o'er me,

I felt rather queerish, I freely confess; But now I've thy beauties each moment before me, The pleasure grows more, and the queerishness less. Thus a new set of darbies,' when first they are worn, Makes the Jail-bird2 uneasy, though splendid their ray;

But the links will lie lighter the longer they're borne, And the comfort increase, as the shine fades away!

I had hoped that it would have been in my power 'to gratify the reader with several of Mr. GREGSON'S lyrical productions, but I have only been able to procure copies of Two Songs, or Chaunts, which were written by him for a Masquerade, or Fancy Ball, given lately at one of the most Fashionable Cock-andHen clubs in St. Giles's. Though most of the company were without characters, there were a few very lively and interesting maskers; among whom, we particularly noticed BILL RICHMOND, as the Emperor of Hayti, attended by SUTTON, as a sort of black Mr. V-NS-T-T; and IKEY PIG made an excellent L-s D-XH-T. The beautiful Mrs. CROCKEY,4 who keeps the Great Rag Shop in Bermondsey, went as the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street. She was observed to flirt a good deal with the black Mr. V—NS—T—T, but, to do her justice, she guarded her "Hesperidum mala" with all the vigilance of a dragoness. JACK HOLMES," the pugilistic Coachman, personated Lord C-ST-R-GH, and sang in admirable style

Ya-hip, my Hearties! here am I That drive the Constitution Fly. This Song (which was written for him by Mr.

GREGSON, and in which the language and sentiments of Coachee are transferred so ingeniously to the Noble person represented) is as follows:

YA-HIP, MY HEARTIES!

Sung by JACK HOLMES, the Coachman, at a late Masquerade in St. Giles's, in the character of Lord C-ST-R-GH.

I FIRST was hired to peg a Hack1
They call "The Erin," sometime back,
Where soon I learn'd to patter flash,2
To curb the tits and tip the lash-
Which pleased the Master of THE CROWN
So much, he had me up to town,
And gave me lots of quids1 a year
To tools "The Constitution" here,

So, ya-hip, Hearties! here am I
That drive the Constitution Fly.

Some wonder how the Fly holds out,
So rotten 't is, within, without;
So loaded too, through thick and thin,
And with such heavy creturs IN.
But Lord, 't will 'ast our time-or if
The wheels should, now and then, get stiff,
Oil of Palm's the thing that, flowing,
Sets the naves and felloes" going!

So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

Some wonder, too, the tits that pull
This rum concern along, so full,
Should never back or bolt, or kick
The load and driver to Old Nick.
But, never fear-the breed, though British,
Is now no longer game or skittish;
Except sometimes about their corn,
Tamer Houyhnhnms ne'er were born.
So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

And then so sociably we ride!-
While some have places, snug, inside,
Some hoping to be there anon,
Through many a dirty road hang on.
And when we reach a filthy spot
(Plenty of which there are, God wot,)
You'd laugh to see, with what an air
We take the spatter-each his share!

So, ya-hip, Hearties! etc.

1 To drive a hackney coach. Hack, however, seems in this place to mean an old broken down stage-coach. 2 To talk slang, parliamentary or otherwise. 3 Horses.

4 Money.

5 A process carried on successfully under the Roman Emperors, as appears from what Tacitus says of the "Instrumenta Regni."-To tool is a technical phrase among the Knights of the Whip; thus, that illustrious member of the Society, Richard Cypher, Esq. says: "I've dash'd at every thing-pegg'd at a jervy-tool'd a mail-coach." 6 Money.

7 In Mr. Gregson's MS. these words are spelled "knaves and fellows," but I have printed them according to the proper wheelright orthography."

8 The extent of Mr. Gregson's learning will, no doubt, astonish the reader; and it appears by the following lines, from a Panegyric written upon him, by One of the Fancy, that he is also a considerable adept in the Latin language "As to sciences-Boв knows a little of all,

And, in Latin, to show that he's no ignoramus,
He wrote once an Ode on his friend, Major Paul,
And the motto was Paulo majora canamus !"

THE Gentleman, from whose Journal the following extracts are taken, was obliged to leave England some years ago (in consequence of an unfortunate attachment, which might have ended in bringing him into Doctors' Commons,) and has but very recently been able to return to England. The greater part of these poems were, as he himself mentions in his Introduction, written or composed in an old caleche, for the purpose of beguiling the ennui of solitary travelling; and as verses made by a gentleman in his sleep have lately been called "a psychological curiosity," it is to be hoped that verses made by a gentleman to keep himself awake may be honoured with some appellation equally Greek.

INTRODUCTORY RHYMES.

Different Attitudes in which Authors compose.-Bayes,
Henry Stephens, Herodotus, etc.--Writing in Bed.-
in the Fields.-Plato and Sir Richard Blackmore.-
Fiddling with Gloves and Twigs.-Madame de
Stael.-Rhyming on the Road, in an old Caleche.
WHAT various attitudes, and ways,

And tricks, we authors have in writing!
While some write sitting, some, like BAYES,
Usually stand while they're inditing.
Poets there are, who wear the floor out,
Measuring a line at every stride;
While some, like HENRY STEPHENS, pour out
Rhymes by the dozen, while they ride.'

HERODOTUS Wrote most in bed;

And RICHERAND, a French physician, Declares the clock work of the head

Goes best in that reclined position.

If you consult MONTAIGNE and PLINY on
The subject, 't is their joint opinion
That Thought its richest harvest yields
Abroad, among the woods and fields;
That bards, who deal in small retail,

At home may, at their counters, stop;
But that the grove, the hill, the vale,
Are Poesy's true wholesale shop.

1 Pleraque sua carmina equitans composuit.-Paravicin. Singular.

2 Mes pensées dorment, si je les assis.-Montaigne. Animus eorum, qui in aperto aëre ambulant, attollitur.Pliny.

And truly I suspect they're right

For, many a time, on summer eves, Just at that closing hour of light,

When, like an eastern Prince, who leaves For distant war his Haram bowers, The Sun bids farewell to the flowers, Whose heads are sunk, whose tears are flowing 'Mid all the glory of his going

Even I have felt beneath those beams,

When wand'ring through the fields alone,
Thoughts, fancies, intellectual gleams,
That, far too bright to be my own,
Seem'd lent me by the Sunny Power,
That was abroad at that still hour.
If thus I've felt, how must they feel,
The few, whom genuine Genius warms,
And stamps upon their soul his seal,

Graven with Beauty's countless forms;-
The few upon this earth who seem
Born to give truth to PLATO's dream,
Since in their souls, as in a glass,

Shadows of things divine appearReflections of bright forms that pass Through fairer worlds beyond our sphere ! But this reminds me I digress ;

For PLATO, too, produced, 't is said (As one indeed might almost guess,) His glorious visions all in bed.' 'T was in his carriage the sublime Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE used to rhyme; And (if the wits don't do him wrong,) "Twixt death and epics pass'd his time, Scr.bbling and killing all day longLike Phoebus in his car, at ease,

Now warbling forth a lofty song,
Now murdering the young Niobes.

There was a hero 'mong the Danes,
Who wrote, we're told, 'mid all the pains

And horrors of exenteration,

Nine charming odes, which, if you look,
You'll find preserved, with a translation,

By BARTHOLINUS in his book.2

1 The only authority I know for imputing this practice to Plato and Herodotus, is a Latin poem by M. de Valois on his Bed, in which he says:

Lucifer Herodotum vidit vesperque cubantem;
Desedit totos hic Plato sæpe dies.

2 Eadem cura nec minores inter cruciates animam infelicem agenti fuit Asbiorno Pruda Danico heroi, cum Bruso

Anxious to reach that splendid view
Before the day-beams quite withdrew;
And feeling as all feel, on first

Approaching scenes where, they are told, Such glories on their eyes shall burst

As youthful bards in dreams behold. 'Twas distant yet, and, as I ran,

Full often was my wistful gaze
Turn'd to the sun, who now began
To call in all his out-post rays,
And form a denser march of light,
Such as beseems a hero's flight.
Oh, how I wish'd for Joshua's power,
To stay the brightness of that hour!
But no—the sun still less became,

Diminish'd to a speck, as splendid
And small as were those tongues of flame,

That on th’ Apostles' heads descended!

In short, 't were endless to recite
The various modes in which men write.
Some wits are only in the mind

When beaux and belles are round them prating; Some, when they dress for dinner, find

Their muse and valet both in waiting,
And manage, at the self-same time,
To adjust a neckcloth and a rhyme.
Some bards there are who cannot scribble
Without a glove, to tear or nibble,
Or a small twig to whisk about-

As if the hidden founts of Fancy,
Like those of water, were found out

By mystic tricks of rhabdomancy.
Such was the little feathery wand'
That, held for ever in the hand
Of her who won and wore the crown

Of female genius in this age,
Seem'd the conductor, that drew down

Those words of lightning on her page.
As for myself—to come at last,

To the odd way in which I writeHaving employed these few months past

Chiefly in travelling, day and night,
I've got into the easy mode,

of rhyming on the road-
Making a way-bill of my pages,
Counting my stanzas by my stages
'Twixt lays and re-lays no time lost-
In short, in two words, writing post.
My verses, I suspect, not ill
Resembling the crazed vehicle
(An old caleche, for which a villain
Charged me some twenty Naps at Milan)
In which I wrote them-patch'd-up things,
On weak, but rather easy, springs,
Jingling along, with little in 'em,

And (where the road is not so rough,
Or deep, or lofty, as to spin 'em,

Down precipices) safe enough.-
Too ready to take fire, I own,
And then, too, nearest a break-down;
But, for my comfort, hung so low,
I have n't, in falling, far to go.-
With all this, light, and swift, and airy,

And carrying (which is best of all)
But little for the Doganieri?

Of the Reviews to overhaul.

You see,

'Twas at this instant-while there glow'd

This last, intensest gleam of lightSuddenly, through the opening road,

The valley burst upon my sight! That glorious valley, with its lake,

And Alps on Alps in clusters swelling, Mighty, and pure, and fit to make

The ramparts of a Godhead's dwelling! I stood entranc'd and mute-as they

Of ISRAEL think th' assembled world Will stand upon that awful day,

When the Ark's Light, aloft unfurl'd, Among the opening clouds shall shine, Divinity's own radiant sign! Mighty Mont Blanc! thou wert to me,

That minute, with thy brow in heaven, As sure a sign of Deity

As e'er to mortal gaze was given. Nor ever, were I destined yet

To live my life twice o'er again, Can I the deep-felt awe forget

The ecstasy that thrill'd me then !

RHYMES ON THE ROAD.

'Twas all that consciousness of power,
And life, beyond this mortal hour,-
Those mountings of the soul within
At thoughts of Heaven-as birds begin
By instinct in the cage to rise,
When near their time for change of skies—
That proud assurance of our claim

To rank among the Sons of Light, Mingled with shame-oh, bitter shame!

At having risk'd that splendid right, For aught that earth, through all its range Of glories, offers in exchange! "T was all this, at the instant brought, Like breaking sunshine, o'er my thought'Twas all this, kindled to a glow

Of sacred zeal, which, could it shine Thus purely ever-man might grow,

Even upon earth, a thing divine, And be once more the creature made

To walk unstain'd the Elysian shade!

EXTRACT I.

Geneva. View of the Lake of Geneva from the Jura.'- Anxious

to reach it before the Sun went down.-Obliged to proceed on Foot.-Alps.--Mont Blanc.--Effect of the Scene. "T was late-the sun had almost shone

His last and best, when I ran on, ipsum, intestina extrahens, immaniter torqueret, tunc enim novem carmina cecinit, etc.—Bartholin. de causis contempt. mort.

1 Made of paper, twisted up like a fan or feather. 2 Custom-house officers. 3 Between Vattay and Gex.

No-never shall I lose the trace
Of what I've felt in this bright place.