While Genius sketched, and Humour grouped,
Then it sickened, then it drooped;

Saddened with laughter, wasted with a sneer,

And the long minuet shortened its career.
With cadence slow, and solemn pace,
Th' indignant mourner quits the place,
For ever quits-no more to roam
From proud Augusta's regal dome.
Ah! not unhappy who securely rest
Within the sacred precincts of a court;

Who then their timid steps shall dare arrest?

White wands shall guide them and gold sticks support.

In vain-these eyes, with tears of horror wet,
Read its death-warrant in the Court Gazette.
"No ball to-night," Lord Chamberlain proclaims,
"No ball to-night shall grace thy roof, St. James !"
"No ball!" the Globe, the Sun, the Stars repeat,
The morning paper, and the evening sheet:
Through all the land the tragic news has spread,
And all the land has mourn'd the minuet dead.
So power completes, but satire sketched the plan,
And Cecil ends what Bunbury began.

ADDRESS TO THE ALPHABET.

Anonymous.

I WONDER, O Alphabet, what could have been
The fate of this world as we mortals pass through,
And what would have cheer'd, and what sadden'd the scene,
Had not Cadmus, or somebody else, thought of you?

As matters now stand, or in sorrow or joy,

Almost all that affects, those who read must agree, The news that delights, the commands that employ, We gain at thy hands, potent, famed A BC.

A B C, mind, I take as the name of the firm,
You're entitled to claim, or to sue or be sued,
Initials that now form a popular term,

With Alphabet mostly synonymous view'd.
Had you not been fashion'd our planet to glad,

What different amusements, and studies, and ways, Must needs have been sought, if we could not have had Novels, histories, newspapers, poems, and plays.

They little foresaw, who first call'd for your use,
The part you would have to perform in late times;
The odd combinations that scribes would produce,

By their labours in prose, or their frolics in rhymes;
If the nonsense which you have on all countries hurl'd
Had never been written-of course never read-
Had so much of folly been spared to the world,

Or would it have burst forth in actions instead?

The mischief you've done, as I cannot now write,
Of folio volumes, a thousand or two,

I will not approach at this time of the night,
For the terrible task I should never get through;
But just in a general way I may hint,

Though Liberty's interests by you may prevail,
Your agency giving opinions to print,

Has doom'd many hundreds to languish in gaol.

How the savage must stare, in the world's ruder state, At the part play'd by you, when he suddenly found, While conference joining, or eager debate,

'Twas your's to arrest, and to shape reduce sound, To be carried o'er oceans! It scarcely could seem, Had thunder acknowledg'd a mortal command, More strange, or had lightning submitted its gleam To be carried away in the pocket or hand.

How mighty the change, could you now be withdrawn!
Full many a ranting M.P. would not spout,

If no journal could issue the following dawn,
To tell all the world what he spouted about.
Poets, printers, and critics, and playwrights must go,
With library-keepers, and booksellers gay,

While patriots and loyal petitioners low,

Would be laid, in a moment, if you were away.

Were this beneficial?-Hang me, if I know!

Much wisdom you furnish; but, 'twixt you and me, You give too of folly so boundless a flow, That, seeking the former, we're wholly at sea; And falsehood so soberly imitates truth,

As nonsense will, frequently, clearness of head, That, seeking for knowledge, too credulous youth Become worse than ignorant, being misled.

What your true value, then, I am puzzled to tell;

Or whether most good or most harm you have done; And, being uncertain, perhaps 'tis as well

To finish my musings just where they begun. But, dear A B C, think not hostile my lay;

In spite of misgivings, attach'd to you still, A sword of defence I would not throw away, Because an assassin may use it to kill.

Takings, or the Life of a Collegian.

THE END.

SHACKELL AND ARROWSMITH, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET-STREET,