University of Virginia Library

Who calls peers proud? Do they not always try
To enlist the rich untitled, who might vie
With them successfully? Are they not ever ready
To receive an heiress, or bestow ‘my lady’?
A sort of moral whirlpool is the peerage,
A rich craft near it must beware her steerage;
At first, half drunk, she reels in outer eddies;
But, if well freighted, gradually steadies,
Narrows her circle—near and nearer draws,
And falls at length into the monster's jaws.
Who calls peers proud? Not I; for I have seen
These very nobles bow before a queen.
'Tis but their duty you will say; but I
Do not allude at all to Royalty.
I mean the Queen of Spades, whose charming manners
Drew England's chivalry beneath her banners;
And whose good man's successful speculation
Engaged the attention of the entire nation.
Now, my good lord, I beg you'll understand
Why I thus blame the magnates of the land.
Were all their follies kept in their own class,
Wise men might be content to let them pass;
But (here's the mischief) all the minor fools
Ape at a distance fashion's tinsel rules.

But shall the vices of the baser brood,
Scathless, escape the impartial censor's rod?
Amongst the class commercial we shall find
Those faults which most proclaim a want of mind.
Pride, avarice, and meanness are the sins
Hugged to their hearts, by London's citizens.
Had I the power, their statue of the duke
No longer should be clothed in city smoke;
But, on its site, a figure should appear
Much better suited to the atmosphere.
A civic group, or allegory witty;
Or better still, ‘the Genius of the City,
Some well known Plutus, holding up on high
A giant purse, which would attract each eye.
Kneeling before him, bowed with awe and fear,
A group of Mammon's worshippers appear.
Behind him, scowling hideously, might stand
Hatred and venomed Malice, hand in hand:
Whilst Envy, with her eyes fixed on the purse,
In act to spring, should seem to mouth a curse.
Dead at his feet a fleshless beggar might,
By contrast, aid its towering opposite.
A group like this, methinks, would really be
Well worthy citizens' idolatry.
Their god, raised high, its worshippers might see;
To whom, in passing, they might bow the knee;
If lower still their eyes they chanced to turn,
Their deity's attendants they would learn:
Thus, on their mood dependent, bull and bear
Might read a sermon, or repeat a prayer.
This should be placed where ‘men of business’ pass,
The base of granite, and the figure brass.

The vices of the men of low estate
Ought to be charged upon the rich and great.
Virtue will scarcely flourish in the ‘den’
Which forms the nightly refuge of poor men.
Outward associations, more or less,
Upon the mind a certain stamp impress.
A plant, deprived of wholesome light and air,
Droops to its mother earth in mute despair;
No modest bud bursts forth in beauty bright,
No dazzling flower charms the sense of sight;
Life struggles feebly on, till winter's breath
Ends its long agony by welcome death.
And what is virtue but a goodly plant,
Which cannot thrive in misery and want?
It must be planted in a generous earth;
Needs care and culture from its very birth;
As it grows up, it must be trained with care;
Or all precautions unavailing are:
The kindly dew, descending from above,
Moistening its root—the gentle ray of love,
Effulgent beaming, usher into day
A flower that knows no touch of time's decay.
Cowards! and hypocrites! how self-love prevailed
When ghastly pestilence your ranks assailed!
What schemes were started to relieve the poor!
Then those were generous who ne'er gave before.
‘You breed diseases,’ the physician cried,
‘While air and light are to the poor denied;’
‘Water!’ Hygeia shrieks, but at the cry
Up springs the Hydra of monopoly.
‘Close your foul Golgothas,’ shouts common sense;
‘Our fees!’ exclaim the clergy in defence.
Thus year succeeds to year, meanwhile the poor
Are left—exactly where they were before.
Oh, England! land of freedom and the free!
When will you understand true charity?
When will you learn that her own children are
The fittest objects of a country's care?”