Stray leaves from the portfolios of Alisander the seer, Andrew Whaup, and Humphrey Henkeckle

STRAY LEAVES.
99
To give to the Church for the loss of her tithes.
Or the Planters, to make them remove the soft withes,
That wreath round the limbs of their thrice-happy blacks,
While the cart-whip is gently applied to their backs.
The Commons, thus docile and ready to grant.
Pray, how should my Lord feel the bother of want ?
It ne’er can intrude, his exertions to cramp.
Then why should he care for the Newspaper stamp
A low paltry duty of fourpence per sheet ?
He values it less than the dust on the street.
‘ Then why not forego it,’ cries each stupid dunce,
‘ And let us have duty-free knowledge at once ?
e We want to be knowing—we want to get wise—
‘ Then why clap a pair of tax-blinds on our eyes,
‘ That keep us still groping as blind as a stone,
‘ And wont let us see how the world’s getting on ?’
‘ Aye, there’s the rub,’—truly you’ve hit it at last,
But just have some patience, and don’t be so fast;
These blinds are your safeguards, as well as they’re ours:
For if you could see to put forth all your powers.
Your c destructive opinions ’ would send us adrift.
And, wanting our guidance, pray how would you shift ?
You’d be ruined and lost were we driven away—
Curs’d with your own stupid anarchical sway—
Each low wretched scribbler would set up a press.
And, pretending to teach you your wrongs to redress,
Would only increase your ‘innate thirst for evil,’
And make you tenfold more the sons of the devil.
Till, losing all sense of what’s right and what’s wrong.
You’d set up a republican system ere long;