The songs of Joseph Mather

Awake from your letharghy, Britons, awake,
Your lives and your liberties all are at stake;
Why should you repose in security's arms,
When every moment's expos'd to alarms;
The powers of darkness afresh are enrag'd,
To work out your ruin they all are engaged.
See liberty banish'd! the clergy deprav'd!
Religion in sackcloth! the people enslaved!

Last Monday, if Beelzebub had not been chained
A most diabolical point he had gained,
He stretched the last link to collect a vile crew,
To render thanksgiving where stripes were most due.
He rallied his forces his cause to maintain,
At Bang-beggar Hall he assembled his train,
With teeth and nails sharpen'd soliciting power,
Like ferocious hell-hounds the poor to devour.

A fire engine pan when discharging the stream,
Those fiends represented when backing their scheme;
Their breath was so hot, made me stand in amaze,
Expecting to see it break forth in a blaze;
Such infernal sulphur and sparks flew about,
Some coughing, some sneezing, some f---ing came out,
Declaring when they had recover'd their breath,
That Bang-beggar Hall was a hell upon earth.

Like Jericho's walls, the address tumbled down,
Which gave satisfaction to thousands in town,
Bur gave the vile crew both the cholic and gripes,
They all stood in need of old B---n's glister pipes.
When R---l discovered his scheme was made void,
Altho' a black hell-hound some thought he'd have dy'd,
An ague fit seized him, convulsions ensued,
And all the way home fire and brimstone he spued.

Old B---n, with two faces, a popular tool,
That day filled the chair to keep order and rule;
His gilded deception threw dust in some eyes,
All could not descern him a fiend in disguise.
A vile proclamation pick'd up at hell's mouth,
That means to make libels or treason of truth—
They met to give sanction, but I must confess
I've seen a more excellent speech by an ass.

University of Virginia Library

Song XXVII. BRITONS, AWAKE.