VOL. XVI. No. 18.] LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1809. [Price 1s.

TO WILLIAM BOSVILLE, ESQ.

DEAR SIR;

POPE.

-[642

And, first, pray notice the trick, resorted to, in order to excite a shouting, and other signs of joy amongst the people. You will FEW things have given me greater remember, that, when any one, no matter pleasure than to hear, that you resisted whom, or upon what ground, has stood the mandates of the venal crew, on the forward in defence of popular rights and night of what they called a day of Ju- privileges, though those rights and privibike, and, in spite of the yells of their leges are clearly established by the condrenched mob, consisting chiefly of Jews stitution, such person has, by those who and foreigners, refused to be guilty of that have now called for a Jubilee, always basest of all acts, namely, the exhibiting of been represented as a courter of the mob; signs of joy while (being a true friend to as appealing to the passions of the people, your country) sorrow and shame were at and not to their reason; as a demagogue, the bottom of your heart. Yes, it would, whose object it was to seduce the ignorant indeed, have been a cruel mortification to crowd by flattering their vanity, and fillhear, that, from any motive whatever, and ing their heads with false notions of their especially from the beggarly motive of own importance. Well, now, then, let saving a few pounds in glass, you, who, these high-minded gentlemen, who have perhaps, of all men living prove by your talked so prettily against flattering the mob practice, that you best know the real use into an adoption of one's views; let them of money, and whose abhorrence of hy tell us, what, if it be base to flatter the pocrisy is proverbial amongst all those mob into an approbation of one's doctrines; who have the honour to know you; it if that be an act of baseness; if it be an would, indeed, have been a cruel mortifi- act of Laseness to obtain the plaudits of cation to hear, that you should, on any the common people by the means of words; account that can be named or thought of, if that be an act of baseness, let them tell have been induced to give the proceedings us how we shall characterize the conduct of that day the semblance of your approba- of those, who have purchased, actually bartion; and, I must confess, that, of all the gained for and bought, the shouts of the numerous proofs of good sense, independ-half-starved people, not with flattery, not ence of mind, public spirit, and a contempt with empty words, but with food and of hypocrisy, which have appeared upon drink; who have clubbed their pounds for this occasion, none has given me so much the purpose of bribing those, who wanted a satisfaction as to hear that your hospitable meal, to put up shouts of joy for the prosdwelling became an object of the violence of a herd, whose attachment and whose services had been purchased with offal from the shambles, and with dregs from the cellar, to fill whose bellies and to turn whose brains a robbery had been committed upon the dogs and the hogs.

perity, in which they have lived, and are still living. Really the story you told me, during our journey from Honiton, about the fellows whom you saw in Morocco, hardly comes up to this. The Jews, Contractors, Pensioners without services, Sinecure Placemen, Nabobs, and the rest of the Of my sentiments, relative to the keep- tribe, who set the Jubilee on foot, and whom, ing of a Jubilee upon account of the king's to prevent repetition, we may as well call having entered on the fiftieth year of his the Jubilee crew: These people have the reign, you are, through the pages of the impudence to pretend, that it was proper Register, already put in possession. Here, for the people to rejoice on the 25th of therefore, I shall content myself with a few October, because they were in the enjoyobservations upon the manner of the cele- ment of prosperity; but, you perceive, that bration, and on certain remarkable in-they were not content to leave this proscidents, which ought, while they are fresh in our memory, to be put upon record.

perity to produce the wished-for shouts. If the people felt themselves so happy; if

they had enjoyed, and were enjoying, such of late years, so many things taken place, prosperity as to call for a Jubilee, they would, degrading to the character of this country, of course, rejoice, they would sing and that oue cannot say, without much time dance and shout, without being fed and for reflection, which of them is the most drenched by way of hire to sing, dance, so; but, the least so, certainly is not this and shout. Of the particular time the subscription, (from the purses of those, who, mass of the people might, indeed, be ig- in one way or another, live upon the taxes,) norant; but, then, it was easy to inform for the purpose; for the openly avowed them of that; and, if they felt an incli- purpose, of giving the people a meal of vicnation to rejoice, they would, of course, tuals and drink; and, as if it were a subhave rejoiced. But, the hypocrites knew ject of great national pride, our hireling the situation of the people too well to ex- prints announce to the world, that Engpect them to put up voluntary shouts of lishmen have, for once, for once in this joy; and, therefore, they, as the least of long reign, had a belly full. What a two evils, resolved upon purchasing those subject for national exultation! And, as if shouts; so that, as the thing now stands, this did not render the mixture of folly those, to whom the gift of a single meal and baseness complete, these same prints, of food and drink was an object worth so- and also the crew by whom they are paid, licitation; aye, these very wretches are are continually reminding us of our happy said to have shouted for joy on account of state, compared to that of the people of other the prosperity they have enjoyed and are still countries. Nay, one of the specific topics enjoying. As to the people of England, pro- of rejoicing is, that we are much more perly so called, the Jubilee crew knew very happy than other nations are; and yet, in well that it was useless to appeal to them. the very same breath, we proclaim, that They, therefore, addressed themselves to there are thousands and hundreds of the twelve hundred thousand miserable crea- thousands of our countrymen, who are in tures, called paupers; to these they ten- want of a meal; to whom the gift of a dered their offal and their dirty drink; to single meal of victuals is an object of these they tendered that rarity, that lux-importance; with whom to have had ury, a belly-full; and, it is to the shouts a belly-full will become a memorable of these poor creatures, thus purchased, epoch. that they bid us refer for a knowledge of the public sentiment. Sentiment, indeed! Aye, if, like Congreve's soldier, their brains lie in their belly, these wretched beings may, upon this occasion, be said to have given utterance to their sentiments. Talk of Paine's seducing the ignorant! What did he give them in exchange for their plaudits? Men of honest minds count it very base to purchase, at an election or elsewhere, the shouts of those who are willing to sell them for food and drink; but, the case of the Jubilee has this aggravated circumstance belonging to it, that the poor wretches necessarily expose themselves to the charge of falshood and hypocrisy. The man, who shouts at an election, may, by bare possibility, be sincere, and may utter well-merited praise. But, the creature, who is in want of a meal; for, observe, the Jubilee subscriptions were for the purpose of feeding the poor; the receiver, the feaster, the convive, must, to entitle him to a seat at the festive board, be in want of a meal; and, this wretch, whose very presence upon the occasion implies that he lives a life of almost starvation, shouts for joy for the prosperity he has enjoyedunt is still enjoying. There have,

Upon an occasion like the Jubilee, it would have been strange indeed, if any one of the pensioned rhyme-makers, and still more strange if that indefatigable grinder of doggerel, Mr. FITZGERALD, had been silent. The stuff, which has, within these three weeks, been poured, I had almost said puked, out upon the public, in the form of verse, upon the subject of the Jubilee, would add to the disgrace of any nation upon earth, England only es cepted. The song of" God save the King," that piece of clumsy and stupid flattery, without one poetical thought or elegant expression, has, I perceive, been sung i many of the churches, whose congrega tions have, in this respect, become the rivals of the Covent Garden row. But, the pieces, written for the occasion of the Jubilee, are infinitely more fulsome, more gross, and, if possible, more stupid, than that song: and, in no other country upon earth would there have been found men so shameless as to give them circula tion in print. I have, however, noticed these effusions of stupidity and baseness only for the purpose of shewing the falsehood of a part of one of them, and I am desirous of exposing that falsehood,

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the monks are themselves the dupes of the imposture which they assist in supporting; whereas our political impostors cannot possibly be ignorant upon the subject of the deceptions they practise. That they should write and print and circulate barefaced falsehoods is not wonderful; that, when these falsehoods are detected and exposed, they should again publish them as admitted truths; that they should be base enough to rely for success upon the ignorance of those amongst whom their falsehoods are intended to circulate; that every one of these impostors should do all this is by no means wonderful; but, really, how any two or more of them can meet, look one another in the face, and even hold council as to the best means of effecting their purposes, is wonderful even to me, who have so long been in the habit of examining their conduct, and exposing their detestable manoeuvres. Only think of the state of mind, into which they must have fallen before they could meet and deliberate upon the lie most likely to succeed, and upon the means of circulation most cheap and extensive. Only think of that. When you have thought of it, I am sure you will be satisfied, that the human mind can conceive nothing too base for such men to attempt.-The wretched poetaster, who has led me into these remarks, would have performed but half his task, if he had not preferred the charge of disloyalty against all those who refused to join in the act of hypocrisy which he was celebrating. Accordingly he says:

"If there's a Traitor in the land:

"Who will not raise for George his hand,
"Whose heart malignant grieves to sec
"All England rise in Jubilee !
"Let the detested Monster find,
"Some cavern blacker than his mind!
"There let him waste his life away,
"Nor with his presence blast this day."

So, you see, that you, who refused to put a single candle in your windows, and, of course, who did not "raise your hand for George," on that day, are, according to this pensioned poetaster, a " traitor" and a "detested monster;" and this wretch, whose very bread comes, in part, out of your estates, has the impudence to send you to waste your life away in some black and dismal cavern. Verily, if your heart were no truer to your country than the heart of this impudent pensioner, you would, when you saw yourself thus insulted by those

whom the government compels you to feed, care very little indeed what happened, or whose authority prevailed, so that you could but obtain vengeance upon those, from whom such insolence proceeded.The " Ode," as it is called, upon which I have been offering you some remarks, was, it seems, recited at a dinner of the Merchants and Bankers of London, at whose dinner, many of the ministers, and of the leading men of both factions, attended. It is said, too, that the Ode was received with universal approbation. Let the world judge, then, of the character of those, who could bestow their approbation, FIRST, upon so vile and gross a falsehood as that which I have noticed above; and, SECONDLY, upon an assertion, according to which every man, who disapproved of the Jubi lee, was a "traitor" and a "detested mon"ster." The persons, present upon this occasion, knew well not only that the measure of holding a Jubilee had been distinctly disapproved of by many persons at public meetings, held even in the city of London; not only did they know this full well, but they knew also, that, in the whole kingdom, there were not, in all likelihood, one hundred men of sense, who did not, in their hearts, decidedly disapprove of the thing; that there was scarcely one, who took any active part in promoting it, who was not actuated by some selfish motive; that the shouts put up by the rabble, were actually bought with bread, meat, beer, and gin; and, in short, that the whole thing was invented purely with a view of reviv ing, or exciting, if possible, a set of feelings in the popular breast, which feelings might serve as a counterpoise to other feelings, excited by recent events and disclosures, and which latter feelings were, it was perceiv ed, making their way deep into the minds of even the least informed part of the people. The Jubilee men at Merchant Taylor's Hall knew all this very well, at the moment that they were cheering the pensioned poetaster's charge of treason against such men as Mr. Waithman and you.At first sight, it appears strange, that, when it is their business to make the world, and especially the Emperor Napoleon, believe that the nation is unanimous on their side, they should let any thing drop, which amounts to a confession, that there are people, who think differently from themselves, and, in fact, who, as you and I do, very anxiously desire to see them put down. One would suppose, that they would take all possible pains to disguise

"to the neck of the horse a placard, with "the following words:

But, although the miscreant strained his "throat till he was hoarse with buzzaing, "he could not get a solitary individual to join "him in this incitement to riot and bloodshed, and the spectators treated the at"tempt with the scorn which it deserved."

this fact; and so they would, if they did not love themselves much better than their cause. Regular mole-catchers will never catch in breeding-time; and rat-catchers of eminence hold it to be a pity to kill females with young. For reasous similar to those by which these regular tradesmen are actuated, and which are too obvious to be pointed out, the Jubilee crew, the regular-" traders in Anti-Jacobinism and loyalty, take special care to lose no opportunity that offers itself of inculcating a belief, that there are jacobins and traitors in the country. It is true, that in whatever degree they are believed, they give encouragement to the foreign enemy; but, though they do not wish to assist that enemy, because it is not to be believed that he, if he became master of the country, would give them so much for doing nothing as they now get; though they do not wish to assist that enemy, they wish to live upon the public; and it is upon the ground that the king has enemics at home, and upon that ground alone, that they can pretend to any merit in being his "friends," or, indeed, that they can justify the use of that appellation. How often has it been thus, and how many thrones have been overturned, in great part, at least, from this cause! It is in courts and governments as in private life is there a base insinuating knave, who, for his own selfsh purposes, wishes to be thought the friend of a man capable of doing him service; the first thing he does is to make that man believe that he has enemies. The persons, thus misrepresented, in consequence of being considered and treated as enemies, do, in time, become enemies in reality; and, as they have justice on their side, it is ten to one, that, in the end, they triumph, and that he who has been flattered into an abuse of his power experiences the mortification, or the actual punishment, due to his folly and his injustice. How often, in all ranks of life, public and private, have we seen this verified!

Without supposing the Jubilee crew to have been actuated by motives of this selfish description, it is quite impossible to account for their placard respecting me, exhibited at Charing Cross, on the day of the Jubilee, and of which the STATESMAN news-paper gives the following account:

"An ineffectual attempt to produce a riot was made at Charing Cross, where "about four o'clock in the afternoon, a person in a sailor's jacket, mounting on "horseback before King Charles, affixed

-Now, to be sure, if those who, without doubt, caused this placard to be put up, and nobody will be at a loss to know who they are; if these people had not been full as much fools as knaves, or rather more; if knavery, when it overshoots itself, did not always become folly, and if this had not been the case in the present instance, these people never would have done a thing like this, which was, in fact, in terms the most distinct, in a manner the most impressive, in a place proverbially the most public, and on an occasion the most memorable, to proclaim..... what? Why, in the first place, that there were, at least, some persons, who disapproved of the Jubilee; but, in the next place, it was to proclaim, that I, the man whom they are known to hate, and whom they affect to contemn, has, in the country . . . what? Not readers; no, nor merely partizans, as some others have; not merely these, but that I have VOTARIES; that is to say, that I am a man, who is almost, if not quite, worshipped, by a part, at least, of the people of England, and that, too, just after not less than fifty thousand pounds is well known to have been expended for the purpose of circulating, gratis, publication upon the back of publication, and each teeming with the most atrocious falsehoods, the sole object of which publications was to put me down. Oh! these men, though precious knaves, are certainly less of knaves than of fools, or they never would have given me and the public this irrefragable proof of my having triumphed over them, aided by all the numerous herds of venal scribes.

"Hated by fools, and fools to hate: "Be that my motto, that my fate." The Editors of the hireling prints, albeit not amongst the Solomons of the age, have, as far as I have been able to ascertain the fact, taken not the smallest notice of this famous placard, though it was hung