A Metrical History of England Or, Recollections, in Rhyme, Of some of the most prominent Features in our National Chronology, from the Landing of Julius Caesar to the Commencement of the Regency, in 1812. In Two Volumes ... By Thomas Dibdin |
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 | A Metrical History of England |  |
Per contra, we must now relate,
Nor Arbuthnot, ('tis battles fate,)
Nor Graves, nor Hotham, each as brave
As any he that stems the wave,
Had such good fortune in their fighting,
As those of whom we've just been writing.
Mars too, in India, made a sally,
Under the flag of Hyder Ally;
Who, join'd by Fortune, murrain fetch her!
Defeated Baillie and bold Fletcher.
In seventeen hundred eighty-two,
The Parliament found much to do;
Each party t'other undermining,
Which ended in Lord North's resigning:
Him scarcely Rockingham in pow'r replaced,
With “royal honors guarded round and graced,”
When Death, who sometimes sides with opposition,
Made room for a new state physician.
FOX now resigns; and, lo! where sit
In council, Shelburnf, Townshend, Pitt;
The former ministry began
The work of reconciliation,
The latter well pursued the plan,
And met successful termination.
The curse of human slaughter 'gins to cease,
Old England and America shake hands;
All Continental Europe bows to peace,
While commerce promises encrease,
Where war late drain'd so many luckless lands.
Nor Arbuthnot, ('tis battles fate,)
Nor Graves, nor Hotham, each as brave
As any he that stems the wave,
Had such good fortune in their fighting,
As those of whom we've just been writing.
245
Under the flag of Hyder Ally;
Who, join'd by Fortune, murrain fetch her!
Defeated Baillie and bold Fletcher.
In seventeen hundred eighty-two,
The Parliament found much to do;
Each party t'other undermining,
Which ended in Lord North's resigning:
Him scarcely Rockingham in pow'r replaced,
With “royal honors guarded round and graced,”
When Death, who sometimes sides with opposition,
Made room for a new state physician.
FOX now resigns; and, lo! where sit
In council, Shelburnf, Townshend, Pitt;
The former ministry began
246
The latter well pursued the plan,
And met successful termination.
The curse of human slaughter 'gins to cease,
Old England and America shake hands;
All Continental Europe bows to peace,
While commerce promises encrease,
Where war late drain'd so many luckless lands.
Vice Admiral Arbuthnot engaged the French fleet under Monsieur de Ternay, off Virginia, the action was indecisive, and the British squadron much damaged—Commodore Hotham, while convoying the St. Eustatia fleet, was intercepted by M. la Motte Piquet, with seven sail of the line, who captured twenty-one of the merchantmen; and the British fleet under Admiral Graves had an unsuccessful engagement with the French (commanded by M. Du Barras) in the Bay of Chesapeake.
| A Metrical History of England | |