recognise the features of some celebrated scold, or more celebrated misanthrope.

"However engaging these modern inventions are, yet, it must be allowed that the flower of fancy bloomed in the most attractive colours on the bank of Avon. To the poet of nature then, to the immortal Shakspeare, I make this humble offering:

HYMN TO SHAKSPEARE.

"SWEET offspring of nature, soft rebel to art,
Whom Fancy gave passions, and Pity a heart,
From thine Avon repair on the wings of delight,
And gild with thy glories the horrors of night.
Thy Ariel will light up his glow-worms, to shew
Thy rapturous path to a mortal below;
Thy Ob'ron will bid all his small subjects fly,
And revel and trip to the glance of thine eye;
While the weird sisters vanish from off the wild heath,,
And cowslips and eglantines spring forth beneath.
The moon shall delay to illumine the east,
And thy glad inspiration reign full o'er my breast:
My breast, that shall glow with pure thoughts evermore,
And the secrets of feeling, of laughter, explore;
Pour joy o'er the earth, if envigour'd by thee,
And pay every rite to thy mulberry-tree."

แ

A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS!

OR,

REMARKS ON THE PRESENT STATE OF AFFAIRS; IN · A LETTER (JUST ARRIVED) FROM JOHN BULL, ESQ. TO MR. PADDY WHACK.

UTILE DULCI.

Introduction.

"IT is very extraordinary that the following epistle hath not come through the hands of our most accomplished and erudite viceroy; it being certainly a paper of great moment, and written with a degree of perspicuity and elegance seldom seen in modern composition. The proemium is in my opinion very sublime, and the delicate strokes of pity and pathos throughout the whole are sketched with the most polishpen imaginable. Nothing less could be expected from Mr. Bull, that patron of

ed

literature and glory of Europe. It is to be hoped that Mr. Whack's answer will not fall short in style and reasoning. Indeed it is almost impossible, in a country abounding with so many political link-boys, and humorous and learned chairmen, that any thing unworthy of the noblest genius can be produced. Thank heaven! our island is not a place where merit may be a moment undiscovered. The eye of taste is unavoidable, and talents are literally forced into the sunshine of fortune. Such uncommon encouragement is the true mark of our national judgment: it is our highest honour, and a little vanity in such a case is pardonable.

"PHELIM O'GALLAGHER."

"MR. WHACK,

"We have for some time been sorely grieved, and at many moments very much amazed, at the indecent and ungracious behaviour on your side of the Channel.

My poor friend, thou hast foolishly rejoiced in thine own weakness, and falsely deemed that thy Irish wolf-dogs could annoy the British lion. What! hast thou heard with thine ears, and read with thine eyes? Thou hast, Paddy; and darest thou then presume to scramble for rights, and privileges, and abolition of taxes, and such trash? Darest thou dispute the ipse dixit of thy superiors, and kick up a dust against the sun? Paddy, I trust in the Lord thou hast imbibed none of the infernal maxims of the French. Hast thou not every comfort, nay every luxury, of life? Hast thou not food and raiment; with free room to walk, and weep, and laugh, like us? Ungrateful! thou wouldst aspire to think and act for thyself; to bluster, stalk, look big, and neigh rebellion. Thou wouldst aspire to groan under no tribute; to put the saddle and the pack upon thy dear mother's back; to side with that arch-infidel Thomas Paine, and that military firebrand and rebel Napper

Tandy. Yes, thou hungerest after the flesh-pots of Egypt, and hast already strayed into the paths of unrighteousness. We are hurt to suppose that a person who has so long assisted us, so long borne our commands with humility and meekness, should now toss up the head of defiance, and snort out rebellion and nonsense; that a person who has fought our battles nobly, should now meditate battle against ourselves. By my soul, reprobate, thou deservest fines, and imprisonments, and bastinadoes; and fines, and imprisonments, and bastinadoes, tenfold, and even thirty fold, shalt thou incontinently receive. Beware of the wrath and iron scourge of the mighty.

"But this, Paddy, was only a flash in the pan, just to inspire reverence; for I shall now descend from the tone of authority (which, I modestly confess, does not very much become me), and deliver my free opinion on the present conjuncture.