University of Virginia Library

Ye Londoners, with smiles regard
The homage of a nameless bard,
(Ambitious, had he power, to raise
A lasting monument to your praise,)
Who reads you with a lover's eye,
Exalts your virtues to the sky,
Admires your zeal and public spirit,
In strains unequal to your merit,
And with astonish'd Europe sees
Your truly wonderful police.

All-wise omnipotent creators
Of senates, kings, and legislators;
Creators, and deliverers too,
Our safety we ascribe to you.
Whose magnanimity so late
Redeem'd us on the edge of fate,
And from a general conflagration
Preserved the city and the nation.

Yet having your dear country freed,
Ye lessen the heroic deed,
The plot your valour has defeated
By you is as a nothing treated,
Who now with confidence maintain
“The mob had no concerted plan,
No thought, or previous consultation
For burning, or for desolation.
But simply meant to do no more
Than all the mischief in their power:
No counsel was in the destroyers;”
But was there none in their employers?
Here, gentlemen, we issue join:
The mob, you say, had no design:
The mob had no design, we say,
Only for plunder and for pay:
The instruments ostensible,
Actors howe'er of every ill,
Contrivers they were not, that's certain:
But were there none behind the curtain?
No heads, or counsellors more able
To influence the thoughtless rabble?
To teach them what, and how perform?
To manage and direct the storm?
Were none of the Associators
American or English traitors?
It cannot now be doubted whether
They help'd to bring the mob together:
But could it not be once suspected
The rabble might be ill-directed?
Or would the multitude increase
To myriads, and then part in peace?

We grant it, the Associate host,
The bulk of them were dupes at most:
But might not some be hired to' advance
The cause of Congress, and of France?
A knave behind a madman lurk?
A G--- be the tool of ------?
America might seize the' occasion,
And use the blind Association,
Amidst our national confusion,
To put their scheme in execution,
To perpetrate their hellish plan,
And kings by our excision reign?

Why would ye then, ah, tell us why,
Through modesty the truth deny,
Ye rulers of the gallant town
That still subsists to your renown?
Your fame, which fears no more eclipses
From boys, or chimney-sweeps, or gipsies,
In spite of all your foes' designs,
Illustrious, and immortal shines.

If bards on those who greatly dare
Can immortality confer,
Your patriotic deeds shall blaze,
Brilliant, in everlasting lays.
But stand it, far above the rest,
In England's chronicles confess'd,
That when our foes had laid the train,
And ripen'd their pernicious plan,
Rebels with regicides conspired,
And London was already fired;
Then all who wore the scarlet gown
Stood up—and trod the ruffians down:
A W--- did on our side appear,
And charged the faction—in the rear;
A B--- preserved the City's right,
And put the soldiery to flight,
A second Walworth graced the chair,
And Kennet was our glorious mayor!