chosen in the purest possible manner from their own pure House of Commons.

1

Thine is the glorious measure; thine alone:
Thee father of the Scrutiny, we own.
Ah! without thee what treasures had we lost,
More worth than twenty Scrutinies would cost!
To' instruct the Vestry, and convince the House,
What Law from MURPHY! what plain sense from
Rous!

t

A

What wit from MULGRAVE from DUNDAS,
what truth!.

What perfect virtue from the VIRTUOUS YOUTH!
What deep research from ARDEN the profound!.
What argument from BEARCROFT ever sound!
By MUNCASTER, what generous offers made;
By HARDINGE, what arithmetic display'd!
And, oh! what rhetoric, from MAHON that broke
In printed speeches, which he never spoke !
Ah! without thee, what worth neglected long,
Had wanted still its dearest meed of song!

In vain high-blooded ROLLE, unknown to fame,
Had boasted still the honours of his name:
In vain had exercis'd his noble spleen

On BURKE and Fox-the ROLLIAD had not been.

But, alas! SIR LLOYD, at the very moment, while I am writing, intelligence has reached me, that the Scrutiny is at an end. Your favourite measure is no more. The child of your affection has met a sud

den and a violent fate. I trust, however, that the Ghost of the departed Scrutiny" (in the bold but beautiful language of Mr. DUNDAS) will yet haunt the spot, where it was brought forth, where it was fostered, and where it fell. Like the Ghost of Hamlet it shall be a perturbed spirit, though it may not come in a questionable shape. It shall fleet before the eyes of those to whom it was dear, to admonish them, how they rush into future dangers; to make known the secret of its private hoards; or to confess to them the sins of its former days, and to implore their piety, that they would give peace to its shade, by making just reparation. Perhaps too, it may sometimes visit the murderer, like the ghost of Banquo, to dash his joys. It cannot indeed rise up in its proper form to push him from his seat, yet it may assume some other formidable appearance to be his eternal tormentor. These, however, are but visionary consolations, while every loyal bosom must feel substantial affliction from the late iniquitous vote, tyrannically compelling the High-Bailiff to make a return after an enquiry of nine

months only; especially when you had so lately armed him with all power necessary to make his enquiry effectual.

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* Ah! how shall I the unrighteous vote bewail?
Again corrupt Majorities prevail
Poor CORBETT's Conscience, 'tho' a little loth,
Must blindly gape, and gulp the' untasted oath;
If he, whose conscience never felt a qualm,
If GROGAN fail the good man's doubts to calm.
No more shall MORGAN, for his six months' hire,
Contend, that Fox should share the' expence of fire;
Whole Sessions shall he croak, nor bear away
The price, that paid the silence of a day:

* I shall give the Reader in one continued note, what information I think necessary for understanding these verses. During the six months that the Scrutiny continued in St. Martin's, the most distinguished exhibition of Mr. Morgan's talents was the maintenance of an argument, that Mr. Fox of fire in the room where the ought to pay half the expence Witnesses attended. The learned Gentleman is familiarly called Freg, to which I presume the Author alludes in the word croak. Mr. Rous spoke two hours to recommend Expedition. At the time the late Parliament was dissolved, he wrote two Pamphlets in favour of the Ministry. I have forgot the titles of these pamphlets, as probably the reader. has too, if he ever knew them. However, I can assure him of the fact. Mr. Collick, the Witness-General of Sir Cecil Wray, is a Hair-Merchant and Justice of Peace. Sir Cecil's taste both for Poetry and Small-beer are well known, as is the present unfinished state of his newly-fronted house in Pall Mall.

No more, till COLLICK some new story hatch,
Long-winded Rous for hours shall praise Dispatch;
COLLICK to Whigs and Warrants back shall slink,
And Rous, a Pamphleteer, re-plunge in ink:
MURPHY again French Comedies shall steal,
Call them his own, and garble, to conceal ;
Or, pilfering still, and patching without grace
His thread-bare shreds of Virgil out of place,
With Dress and Scenery, Attitude and Trick,
Swords, Daggers, Shouts, and Trumpets in the nick,
With Ahs! and Ohs! Starts, Pauses, Rant, and Rage,
Give a new GRECIAN DAUGHTER to the stage:
But, Oh, SIR CECIL!-Fied to shades again;
From the proud roofs, which here he raised in vain,
He seeks, unhappy! with the Muse to cheer
His rising griefs, or drown them in small-beer!
Alas! the Muse capricious flies the hour
When most we need her, and the beer is sour:
Mean time Fox thunders faction uncontroul'd,
Crown'd with fresh laurels, from new triumphs bold.

These general evils arising from the termination of the Scrutiny, YOUR HONOUR, I doubt not, will sincerely lament in common with all true lovers of their King and Country. But in addition to these, you, SIR LLOYD, have particular cause to regret, that "the last hair in

This appears to be the last hair in the tail of procrastination" The Master of the Rolls, who first used this phrase, is a most eloquent speaker. See Lord Mulg. Essays on Eloquence, Vol. II.

you

this tail of procrastination" is plucked. I well know, what eager anxiety you felt to establish the suffrage, which you gave, as the delegate of your Coach-horses: and I unaffectedly condole with you, that you have lost this great opportunity of displaying your unfathomable knowledge and irresistible logic to the confusion of your have enemies. How learnedly would quoted the memorable instance of Darius, who was elected King of Persia by the casting vote of his Horse! Though indeed the merits of that election have been since impeached, not from any alledged illegality of the vote itself, if it had been fairly given; but because some jockeyship has been suspected, and the voter, it has been said, was bribed the night before the election! How ably too would you have applied the case of Caligula's horse, who was chosen Consul of Rome! For if he was capable of being elected (you would have said) à fortiori, there could have been no natural impediment to his being an elector; since omne majus continet in se minus, and the trust is certainly greater to fill the first offices of the state, than to have one share