THE POLL-TAX. A NEW SONG. Tune-"O, Dear, what can the matter bè." Ho, ho, young and old, men and maids, To mimick your betters, what proof of infanity! 1 Grudge not then this mere bagatelle; Let not paffion your bofom fwell; What its advantages are: A well powder'd noddle, though empty's respectable; Young men Powder'd, look neat and clean; Wives too, be they fat or lean, Powder'd look cleanly and fair: To fet forth its benefits yet in a stronger view; Once more-bear it with pleasure pray, For pay but this POLL-TAX-detefted by ninny WHIGS, Turns you that moment from SWINE into GUINEA-PIGS! Come, Come, come, no longer hesitate; No longer akin to the grunting minority, John may with master, and mistress with Dorothy,. LINES. Written by a PRIVATE, at Spithead. SING heavenly mufe, the lovely spouse of Wales, Rejoice ye fons of earth, in fea you whales, Her German Highness's a charming pretty wench, So beautiful, the Parfon took his flight, The ftrongest marks of love and loyalty, Nought could retain this holy man of God: } NAUTICUS. No. 20. THE PHILANTHROPIST. MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1795. LONDON: Printed for and fold by DANIEL ISAAC EATON, Printer and Bookfeller to the Supreme Majesty of the People, at the Cock and SWINE, No. 74, Newgate street. 1795. PRICE ONE PENNY. For the PHILANTHROPIST. A CIVIC ESSAY. O quifquis volet impias Cædes, aut rabiem tollere civicam, Si quæret pater urbium Subfcribi ftatuis; imdomitam audeat Refrænare licentiam, Clarus poft genitis: quatenus (heu nefas!) Virtutem incolumem odimus, Sublatam exoculis quærimus invidi. Quid triftes querimoniæ, Si non fupplicio culpa recinditur ? Quid leges fine moribus Vanæ proficiunt? Britannia! give the civic crown The niteh of glory, give To him that fmooths grim war his frown ;. And bids your people live. HOR. Why, From loves and friends, as virtue's foe: For virtues gone why fickle grieve, Or why of wicked men complain, If fuch unpunifh'd can remain. What use your laws, your boafted rights, LIFE is full of trouble and deceit; for in our very make there is a malignity of thinking, that turns to cruelty of acting; Ambition ever actuates the mind, and hence, in the general aim to eminence, envy ftimulates more than emulation urges. The man who rifes to honeft glory has thoufands to rejoice in his fall, and tear his laurels. Ariftides, who lives for ever a fhining example of all that is good and great and just, had not been banished Athens but for this invidious nature, that irretates the paffions, and fours the affections of our kind. The clown not able to write down his vote, who unwittingly gave the tyle to Ariftides himself to mark his own profcription, had no other caufe than this. This is the caufe that virtue is exploded, and genius left to perish in the walks of men; and thạt they are applauded and loved when they go away where the wicked cannot trouble, and the weary reft. This is the caufe that patriots are facrificed by the citizens they defend; that abufe moftly attends fortitude, and virtue while they live; and that they must look to pofterity and futurity for their justice and merits. And, befides this malignant temper, the bad influence of power raifes and feduces numbers against the faviours and promoters of fociety. But to benefit mankind was the firft, if not the only, reward of the heroes and worthies of the world; and the foul alive to this glowing fenfation defpifes (and even rejoices in) perfecution. Bleffed are you when men fhall revile, and perfecute you, faid he that breathed out love and charity to hiş his murderers with his lateft gafp. To multiply examples is needlefs; it is well known that fome even in this ifland who went to the scaffold or faggot, among crouds of fcorners and abusers, are now lamented and cherished in memory. It is known that much of the liberty we have, was bequeathed to us by fuch; and ftill if any, in this feafon, dare to imitate glorious patterns, he is difgraced, imprisoned, and perhaps lofes his country, or even his life. This must be always in fome degree the cafe; for it is hard to distinguish real colors in a troubled atmosphere, where illufive fhades cheat and confound the vifion; but when the clouds of interest and prejudice break away, purity and integrity are fure to charm in happy light. It is indeed a melancholy idea to him that pants for his country, or human community at large, to know that he must be perfecuted by them he ferves; and I am fain to think that thus a furfeit of unworthy pain, difcourages many from proceeding in the glorious courfe. But, the wife and great ever make their minds to the circumftances of a bad life; and a good confcience gives vigor equal and fuperior to the difadvantages and obftacles of time and chance. It is a remark of the Roman orator, that no wife one would undergo the vexations and evils this our short career is exposed to, were he not elevated in the hopes and joys of immortality. Many oppofite cases must feize every thinking mind from the occurrences of experienee and hiftory: I will put one. Mr. Locke, in his effays on the understanding, and on government, has, I take it, faid more against the divine power of kings and priests, and for the rightful confent and reafon of the people, than any democrat of them all. His buft has a nitch in the gallery, and his treatises are taught by a public profeffor, in the hall of science: but were this friend to fociety referved to our time, I do think, his productions had got to him, perhaps, the dishonor of being burned in effigy like Mr. Pain; and had made him as odious to the ruling powers, as the reverend Mr. Palmer and Mr. Muir and others, who were tranfported from their friends, and their homes, for recommending his theory, that 1 they |