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The Works of the Right Honourable Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams

... From the Originals in the Possession of His Grandson The Right Hon. The Earl of Essex and Others: With Notes by Horace Walpole ... In Three Volumes, with Portraits

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collapse sectionI. 
  
  
  
  
  
(Written in December 1741.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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 III. 


28

(Written in December 1741.)

UNHAPPY England, still in forty-one,
By Scotland art thou doom'd to be undone;
But Scotland now, to strike alone afraid,
Calls in her worthy sister Cornwall's aid;
And these two common strumpets, hand in hand,
Go forth and preach up virtue through the land;
Start at corruption, at a bribe turn pale,
Shudder at pensions, and at placemen rail.
Peace! peace! ye wretched hypocrites, or rather,
With Job, say to Corruption, thou'rt our father;
But how can Walpole justify his fate,
He trusted Isla till it was too late.
Where were those parts, where was that piercing mind,
That knowledge, and that judgment of mankind.

29

To trust a traitor, whom he knew so well,
Strange truth betray'd, yet not deceiv'd he fell:
He knew his heart was, like his aspect, vile;
Knew him the tool and brother of Argyle.
Yet to his hands his power and hopes gave up,
And tho' he knew 'twas poison, drank the cup;
Trusted to one he never could think true,
And perish'd by a villain whom he knew.