VI.

Old PULTENEY[77][78] too, your influence feels, And asks from you th’ Exchequer Seals, To tax and save the nation: TOOKE trembles,[79] lest your potent charms Should lure CHARLES FOX from _his_ fond arms, To YOUR Administration.[81] 36

[TRANSLATION OF HORACE, BOOK II., ODE VIII.

BY ARCHDEACON WRANGHAM.

Avenger of insulted truth, Had Heaven, Barine, dimm’d one tooth; Or bade, in justice bade, thee wail A speck upon a single nail— I’d trust thee: but ere well the vow Has passed those treacherous lips, there glow New beauties mantling o’er thy cheek; And thee the youth, thee only seek.

It profits thee to be forsworn By thy dead mother’s hallowed urn; By heaven, and each mute nightly sign, And every deathless power divine. Yes: Venus laughs well-pleased, and lo! The gentle Nymphs are laughing too; And Cupid, who his burning darts Whets with fresh blood from lovers’ hearts.

Boyhood is rising to thy sway, Thy train of slaves augments: e’en they, Who swore thy threshold to forsake, Hug the fond chain they cannot break. Thee for their sons pale mothers fear, The frugal father for his heir: And plighted maidens, lest thy charms Keep the false truants from their arms.—ED.]

NOTES TO THE ODE TO LORD MOIRA.

[This Ode, written by GEORGE ELLIS, refers to the wish of a “Third Party” in the House of Commons, who were dissatisfied with the conduct of the war, the embarrassed state of the finances, and the alarming situation of the country, to have an interview with LORD MOIRA, with a view to effect a change of Ministry. The following extracts from a letter from his Lordship to COL. M‘MAHON, dated June 15, 1797, will throw some light on this negotiation. “They requested that I would endeavour, on the assurance of their support, to form an administration, on the principle of excluding persons, who had on either side made themselves obnoxious to the public. I strenuously recommended them to form an alliance with MR. FOX’S party, that might be satisfactory to themselves, and reduce to strict engagement the extent of the measures, which MR. FOX, when brought into office by themselves, would propose. Hitherto nobody has been designated to any particular office but SIR WILLIAM PULTENEY. The gentleman had said that he was the person whom they should be most gratified in seeing CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, and I had professed to them and to him that there was not any person with whom I could act more confidently. I added, the introduction of LORD THURLOW, SIR W. PULTENEY, and myself, into the Cabinet, would not assure the public of a change of system.”—ED.]

[Illustration]

No. XII.

Jan. 29, 1798.

The following Ode[A] was dropped into the letterbox in our Publisher’s window. From its title—“A BIT OF AN ODE TO MR. FOX”—we were led to imagine there was some mistake in the business, and that it was meant to have been conveyed to Mr. Wright’s neighbour, Mr. Debrett, whom we recollected to have been the Publisher of the “Half of a Letter” to the same gentleman, which occasioned so much noise (of horse-laughing) in the world. Our politics certainly do not entitle us to the honourable distinction of being made the channel for communicating such a production to the public. But, for our parts, as we are “not at war with genius,” on whatever side we find it, we are happy to give this Poem the earliest place in our Paper; and shall be equally ready to pay the same attention to any future favours of the same kind, and from the same quarter.

The Poem is a free translation, or rather, perhaps, imitation, of the twentieth Ode of the second Book of HORACE. We have taken the liberty to subjoin the passages of which the parallel is the most striking.

A BIT OF AN ODE TO MR. FOX.[82]