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 M ' F I N G A L 
 
 A MODERN EPIC POEM, 
 
 KEVISED AND CORRECTED, • 
 
 WITU COPIOUS AXD EXPLANATORY NOTES, 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN TRUMBULL, LL. D. 
 
 WITH A 
 
 MEMOIE OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 HARTFORD : 
 S. ANDRUS AND SON, 
 
 1850. 
 

MEMOIR 
 
 OF THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS OF JOHN TRUMBULL, LL D. 
 
 FINGAL, tte principal Poem in this col- 
 lection, has been more than forty years be- 
 91 ) Wofj)^^ fore the public, and has passed through the 
 "^^^ ts^Ffli- ordeal of criticism, in all its various forms 
 of gazettes, magazines, and reviews, both in England and 
 America. Being published anonymously, the world wore 
 left to their conjectures, as to the author. The first part 
 of the poem, containing the two first cantos, was printed 
 in Philadelphia, in the fall of the year 1775 ; and in the 
 course of the next year, reprinted in London, where it 
 passed through several editions. The nature of the sub- 
 ject and the situation of the times gave it popularity with 
 the anti-ministerial party, who were averse to the war 
 with America: but it was asserted that the author was an 
 Englishman. Sometimes he was affirmed to be an Oxford 
 scholar, then on his travels in this country ; sometimes a 
 British officer, who had been superceded in their service, 
 had joined the Americans and written the poem in re- 
 When it was afterwards discovered that the writer 
 
 1* 
 
 venge 
 
 L: 
 
6 
 
 MEMOIK OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 was a native of New England, he of course received his 
 due share of that obloquy and contempt, which is lavished 
 by their compilers of reviews, on every thing which ap- 
 pertains to this country. The Quarterly Beview, with its 
 usual accura(!y of information, has lately declared that the 
 poem was written by one Mr. Fingal, who, :'i assures us, 
 is no descendant of the hero of Ossian. The Edinburgh 
 Review contents itself with simply asserting that "the 
 Americans have no literature." In the United States, the 
 conjectures were for a long time equally various; and 
 afler his name became generally known, many false anec- 
 dotes, and several erroneous accounts of his life, have been 
 printed by those who had no other information than ru- 
 mour and hearsay. Hundreds of essays have been charged 
 upon his pen, containing principles which he never held, 
 abuse on persons whom he respected, and low attempts at 
 humor, which would have disgraced the scurrility of 
 Peter Pindar. In a word, to him have been ascribed, 
 as he once complained, 
 "Jests he ne'er utter'd, deeds he ne'er achiev'd, 
 Rhymes he ne'er wrote, and lires (thank heaven) he never lived." 
 
 On these accounts, it seems necessary that a short and 
 accurate Memoir of his life and writings should accom- 
 pany this collection of his poems. 
 
 The family of Trumbull was among the early settlers 
 in New England. ♦Their ancestor came from England, 
 and in 1645 fixed his residence at Ipswich in Massachu- 
 setts. His son, named John, removed and established 
 himself at Sufiield in Connecticut. He had three sons, 
 John, Joseph, and Benoni, whose descendants are still liv- 
 
MEMOIR OF TUK AUTHOR. 7 
 
 ing in this state. The Rev. Benjamin Trumbull, D.D., 
 the respectable historian of Connecticut, was the grandson 
 of Benoni. Joseph settled in Lebanon, and at his death 
 hft one son, Jonathan Trumbull, who was governor of 
 th», state during the whole revolutionary war, and whose 
 patnotic exertions are amply .'ecorded in history. Two 
 of hu sons were Jonathan Trumbull, afterwards governor 
 of the state, and John Trumbull, the celebrated painter, 
 whose nerits have long been distinguished, both in Eu- 
 rope and America. 
 
 The aufaor of these poems is the grandson of John 
 Trumbull, e'-dest son of him who first settled in Suffield. 
 He was born on the 13th day of April, old style, (the 24th 
 according to the present mode of computation,) in the 
 year 1750, in the parish of Westbury, then a part of the 
 town of Waterbury, in New Ilaven county, but since 
 formed into a separate township, by the name of Water- 
 town, and annexed to the county of Litchfield. The set- 
 tlement of that village was begun a few years before his 
 birth. His father, who was the first minister of the Con- 
 gregational church in that place, was a good classical 
 scholar, highly respected by his brethren, and for many 
 years one of the trustees, or fellows, of Yale College. His 
 mother was a daughter of the Rev. Sam ■:•/ Whitman, of 
 Farmington, in Hartford county, and granddaughter of 
 the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, D.D., of Northampton, in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Being an only son, and of a very delicate and sickly 
 constitution, he was of course the favorite of his mother. 
 She had received an education superior to most of her 
 
/ 
 
 8 
 
 MEMOIR OF TllK AUTllOK 
 
 sex, and not only instructed him in reading, from Ins ear- 
 liest infancy, but finding him possessed of an extraordi- 
 nary memory, taught him all the hymns, songs, andothe; 
 verses, with which she was acquainted. His father's smyll 
 library consisted mostly of classical and theological borks. 
 The Spectator and "Watts' Lyric Poems were the only 
 works of merit in the belles-lettres, which he posiessed. 
 Young Trumbull not only committed to memory most of 
 the poetry they contained, but was seized with an unac- 
 countable ambition of composing verses himsel', in which 
 he was encouraged by his parents. The country clergy 
 at that time generally attempted to increase their income, 
 by keeping private schools for the educgtion of youth. 
 When he was about five years of age, his father took un- 
 der his care a lad, seventeen years old, to instruct and 
 qualify him for admission as a member of Yale College. 
 Trumbull noticed the tasks first imposed; which were to 
 learn by heart the Latin Accidence and Lilly's Grammar, 
 and to construe the Select Colloquies of Corderius, by the 
 help of a literal translation. "Without the knowledge of 
 any person, except his mother, he began in this way the 
 study of the Latin language. After a few weeks, his father 
 discovered his wishes, and finding that by the aid of 
 a better memory, his son was able to outstrip his fellow- 
 student, encouraged him to proceed. At the commence- 
 ment in September 1757, the two lads were presented at 
 college, examined by the tutors and admitted as members. 
 Trumbull, however, on account of his extreme youth at 
 that time, and subsequent ill health, was not sent to reside 
 at college till the year 1763. He spent these six years in 
 
@ 
 
 MEMOIB OV THE AUTHOR. 
 
 9 
 
 a miscellaneous course of study, making himself master of 
 the Greek and Latin authors usually taught in chat semi- 
 nary, reading all the books he could meet with, and occa- 
 sionally attempting to imitate, both in prose and verse, 
 the style of the best English writers, whose works he 
 could procure in his native village. These were of course 
 few. The Paradise Lost, Thompson's Seasons, with some 
 of the poems of Dryden and Pope, were the principal. 
 On commencing his collegiate life, he found little regard 
 paid to English composition, or the acquirement of a cor- 
 rect style. The Greek and Latin books, in the study of 
 which only, his class were employed, required but a small 
 portion of his time. By the advice of his tutor, he turned 
 his thoughts to Algebra, Geometry, and astronomical cal- 
 culations, which were then newly introduced and encour- 
 aged by the instructors. He chiefly pursued this course 
 during the three first years. In his senior year he began 
 to resume his former attention to English literature. 
 After receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1767, 
 he remained three years longer at college as a graduate. 
 Being now master of his own time, he devoted himself 
 chiefly to polite letters; reading all the Greek and Latin 
 classics especially the poets and orators, and studying the 
 style and endeavoring to imitate the manner of the best 
 English writers. 
 
 His acquaintance now commenced with Doctor Dwight, 
 afterwards president of the university, who was then in 
 his third year in college, and two years his junior in age. 
 That young gentleman had translated two of the finest 
 Odes of Horace, in a manner so ekgant and poetical, as 
 
1 
 
 10 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 fi 
 
 would not have disgraced his moro mature productions. 
 Happy in the discovery of a rising genius, Mr. Trumbull 
 immediately sought his acquaintance, and began an inti- 
 macy, which continued during their joint residence at New 
 Haven, and a fViendship terminated only by death. 
 
 At this period the learned languages, mathematics, 
 logic, and scholastic theology, were alone deemed worthy 
 of the attention of a scholar. They were dignified with 
 the name of^olid Learning. English poetry and the belles 
 lettres were called folly, nonsense, and an idle waste of 
 time. The two friends were obliged to stem the tide of 
 general ridicule and censure. This situation first called 
 forth the satirical talents of Trumbull, in occasional hu- 
 morous and poetical essays. Their party was soon in- 
 creased by the accession of several young men of genius; 
 and a material change was eventually effected in the taste 
 and pursuits of the students. 
 
 In 1769, they began the publication of a series of essays 
 in the manner of the Spectator, in a gazette printed in 
 Boston, and continued it for several months. They next 
 commenced a course of similar essays in the newspapers 
 printed at New Haven, which they increased occasionally 
 to more than forty numbers. 
 
 Yale College was founded in the year 1700, by the do- 
 nations of a number of the Congregational clergy ; and a 
 Board of Trustees was soon after incorporated by a charter 
 from the legislature. It was designed as a religious insti- 
 tution for the education of youth for the ministry. In 
 1739, the Rev. Thomas Clapp was appointed president, 
 and continued in office almost thirty years. He was an 
 
MKMOIK OF TUE AUTIIOK. 
 
 11 
 
 accurate scholar in the learned languages, particularly 
 fond of the Hebrew, and uncommonly skilled in gcometr 
 rical and astronomical calculations. By his aid and influ- 
 ence, some of the students were induced to turn their at* 
 tention to these subjects. About the year 1740, a few 
 members of the higher classes had attempted the cultiva- 
 tion of polite literature, and produced some successful es- 
 says in English poetry. But when they quitted the col- 
 lege they left no successors; and the poem entitled. Phi- 
 losophic Solitude, by William Livingston, afterwards gov- 
 ernor of New Jersey, is all that remains to the public of 
 their productions at that period. In 1768, the study of 
 Algebra was first introduced by the tutors, and made a 
 part of the collegiate exercises. 
 
 But Yale College had now become unpopular among a 
 large proportion of the inhabitants of the colony. The 
 trustees, relying on their charter, claimed to be completely 
 independent of the government; and denied its right of 
 visitation, or of any interference with the management of 
 the institution. They were charged with illiberality 
 towards all denominations of Christians but their own. 
 Many civilians encouraged the students in opposition to 
 their authority. A petition was drawn and signed by al- 
 most every member of the higher classes, addressed to the 
 trustees, containing a variety of charges against their in- 
 structors, and praying for their dismissal from office. All 
 authority and subordination were now at an end; the tu- 
 tors abdicated, and the scholars were dispersed during the 
 summer of the year 1766. After holding the commence- 
 ment in September, the president resigned his office. The 
 
12 
 
 MEMOIK OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 r-r 
 
 professor of theology was appointed president j:)ro tempore. 
 Three very respectable geiitlcneu and accomplished 
 scholars were chosen to the tutorship ; one of whom was 
 Mr. Mitchell, since Chief Justice of the State. After the 
 vacation the students were assembled, and order was again 
 established. The management of the institution fell al- 
 most entirely into the hands of the tutors. They encour- 
 aged the study of the English grammar and language, 
 and excited some attention to composition and oratory. 
 But the state of the college precluded any great or imme* 
 diate innovation in the usual course of instruction. 
 
 In 1769, Mr. Joseph Howe, afterwards pastor of a church 
 in Boston, was appointed one of the tutors. He was not 
 only a good classical scholar, out possessed an elegant taste 
 and considerable poetical talents. Besides the usual col- 
 legif.te studies, he employed the class under his immediate 
 care in English compositions, instructed them in the beau- 
 ties of style, and exercised them frequently in public dec- 
 lamation. A relish for polite iHeratare became general 
 among the students. 
 
 In September 1771, all the tutors, except Mr. Howe, 
 resigned the oflQ.ce. Messrs. Trumbull and Dwight were 
 chosen to supply the vacancies. From this period, every 
 effort was unanimously made, to cultivate in that semi- 
 nary, a correct taste in style and elocution. 
 
 In 1772, Trumbull published the first part of a poem, 
 which he entitled, the Progress of Dulness, designed to 
 expose the absurd methods of education, which then pre- 
 vailed ; he added a second and third part in the course of 
 the next year. Dwight published a poem entitled, Amer- 
 
 
MKMOIK OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 13 
 
 ica, written in the manner of Pope's Windsor Forest. He 
 had some time before begun his greatest poetical work, 
 The Conquest of Canaan; and' now completed his first 
 sketch in five books. By the advice of Mr. Ilowe, he 
 added the Vision of Futurity, which now makes the tenth 
 book, and upon the suggestion of Mr. Trumbull, he in- 
 serted the night-scone of the battle, illuminated by the 
 flames of the burning city of Ai. The whole was the 
 work of Dwight; those gentlemen assisted him, only by 
 their criticism and advice. After their dispersion he con- 
 siderably altered and enlarged the poem, and published it 
 in its present form, in eleven books. 
 
 During their residence at the university, several young 
 gentlemen were associated in their literary and poetical 
 society, particularly Messrs. David Humphreys and Joel 
 Barlow. 
 
 Trumbull, while he held the offi;;e of tutor, paid as 
 much attention, as his other avocations would admit, to 
 the study of law, which he had now selected as his future 
 profession. In November 1773, he was admitted as a 
 practising attorney at the bar in Connecticut, but imme- 
 diately went to Boston, and entered as a student in the 
 office of John Adams, Esq., since president of the United 
 States; and took lodgings with Thomas Cushing, Esq., 
 then speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, afterwards 
 a delegate to the first Congress, and lieutenant-governor 
 of the state of Massachusetts. He was "now placed in the 
 center of American politics. The contest between Great 
 Britain and the colonies approached rapidly towards a 
 
 crisis. The violence of party was extreme. The gov- 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
'^^ 
 
 14 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 ; I 
 
 • 
 
 ernor, council, judges, and all the legal authority under 
 the crown, employed their utmost efforts to establish the 
 universal supremacy, and enforce the oppressive acts, of 
 the English parliament. The leaders of the popular party 
 had the complete control of the House of Eepresentatives, 
 and directed every movement of the populace. By means 
 of an extensive correspondence, with men of the best in- 
 formation at the British and French courts, they were fully 
 convinced, at that early period, that nothing short of war- 
 like resistance, could successfully oppose the claims of 
 Great Britain to unlimited authority; and that, without 
 eventually declaring independence and assuming the rights 
 of sovereignty as a nation, no important assistance could 
 be obtained from France, Spain, or any European power. 
 Still the people were impressed with an awful idea of the 
 omnipotence of Britain, and shuddered at the thought of 
 attempting a separation. They placed their hopes on the 
 effect of their petitions to the king, their agreements to 
 stop all commercial intercourse, and the exertions of their 
 numerous friends in the British nation and parliament. 
 To cement the union of all the colonies, to counteract the 
 fears of the people and encourage their confidence in their 
 own strength and resources, to lead them into measures 
 decisive in their consequences, and to prepare their minds 
 for resistance by arms, was the only policy which the 
 leaders could, at that time, pursue. Trumbull entered 
 into their sentiments, with all the ardor in favor of liberty, 
 which characterizes a youthful politician. Though he 
 prosecuted the study of law with the utmost attention he 
 frequently employed his leisure hours in writing essay t- u 
 
 f 
 
MEMOIR OF TJIE AUTHOR. 
 
 15 
 
 political subjects, in the public gazettes ; which had per- 
 haps a greater effect from the novelty of his manner, and 
 the caution he used to prevent any discovery of the real 
 author. Nor did he neglect occasionally to cultivate the 
 muse; and just before he left Boston, anonymously pub- 
 lished his Elegy on the Times, which is contained in the 
 present collection. Every thing then verging towards 
 hostility in Massachusetts, the session of the courts being 
 suspended, and Mr. Adams absent at the Congress in 
 Philadelphia, he returned to New Haven, and successfully 
 commenced practice at the bar, in November 1774. 
 
 The year 1775 was a period of terror and dismay. The 
 war had commenced by the battle at Lexington. Uncon- 
 ditional submission, or a total rejection of the authority 
 of the crown, presented the only alternative. Every ex- 
 ertion was made by the friends of American liberty, to 
 inspire confidence in our cause, to crush the efforts of the 
 tory party and to prepare the public mind for the declar- 
 ation of independence. With these views, at the solicita- 
 tion of some of his friends in Congress, Trumbull wrote 
 the first part of the poem of M'Fingal, which they imme- 
 diately procured to be published at Philadelphia, where 
 Congress was then assembled. He had also formed the 
 plan of the work, sketched some of the scenes of the 
 third canto and written the beginning»of the fourth, with 
 the commencement of the Vision, at which point, not be- 
 ing gifted with the prophetical powers of his hero, he was 
 obliged to leave it then unfinished. 
 
 In November 1776, he married Miss Sarah Hubbard, 
 
 daughter of Colonel Leverett Hubbard of New Haven. 
 B 
 
16 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 That town being exposed to invasion, and all business 
 rapidly declining, be returned in May 1777 to his native 
 place, where he remained four succeeding years. Too 
 constant application to his studies, and the fatigue of at- 
 tending courts at a distance, \n all seasons, and especially 
 during the severe winter of 1780, occasioned the loss of 
 his health by a nervous decline. With the hope of re- 
 covery, by a change of situation to a place more advanta- 
 geous for his professional business, and more agreeable by 
 its literary society, he removed, in June 1781, with his 
 family, to Hartford, where he has ever since resided. 
 
 A friendly club was soon after established, who assem- 
 bled once a week for the discussion of questions on pro- 
 posed subjects, legal, philosophical and political. Trum- 
 bull, though fully employed in the duties of his profession, 
 was one of its most active members. The fate of the 
 revolutionary war being now eventually decided by the 
 capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army, the friends of 
 the author urged him to complete the poem of M'Fingal ; 
 and having obtained his promise, immediately put into 
 circulation a subscription for the work. Thus situated, he 
 employed his leisure hours in revising the first half of the 
 poem, which he divided into two cantos, and in composing 
 the last. The whole was finished, and the first edition 
 published at Hartford, before the close of the year 1782. 
 As no author, at that period, was entitled by law to the 
 copyright of his productions, the work soon became the 
 prey of every bookseller and printer, who chose to appro- 
 priate it to his own benefit. Among more than thirty 
 different impressions, one only, at any subsequent time, 
 
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 17 
 
 was published with the perhiission, or even the knowledge 
 of the writer; and the poem remained the property of 
 newsmongers, hawkers, pedlars, and petty chapmen. 
 
 After the peace in 1783, the United States were left 
 without any efficient government, and connected only by 
 the Articles of Confederation. Each state was an inde- 
 pendent sovereignty and pursued its own separate plans 
 of policy. The officers of the revolutionary army were 
 every where unpopular, on account of the extra pay for 
 five years, granted them by Congress in lieu of half pay 
 for life, which was first stipulated. Their remaining in 
 combination by forming the society of the Cincinnati was 
 also a subject of general jealousy and clamour. A large 
 addition to the national debt arose from the unpaid arretrs 
 of the army, and the sums promised to the soldiers, as a 
 compensation for payments in depreciated bills, and as a 
 douceur, to pei:suade them to retire peaceably to their 
 homes, on being disbanded at the close of the war. The 
 country was greatly impoverished; and almost every in- 
 dividual believed, that he had already paid and suffered 
 more than his just proportion of the public expense. 
 
 In Connecticut, mobs were raised to prevent the officers 
 from receiving their certificates for the five years' pay. 
 A self-constituted convention assembled to second the 
 views of the populace, and for that purpose, to effect a 
 revolution in the state, and fill every office with the lead- 
 ers of disorganization. Had not the insurrection of Shays, 
 in Massachusetts, been speedily crushed, the eastern states 
 would have become a scene of anarchy and confusion. A 
 considerable proportion of the people of Connecticut were 
 
 2* 
 
18 
 
 MEMOIK OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 rf 
 
 m 
 
 
 prepared to join in a general opposition to government, 
 and involve the country in the horrors of civil war. The 
 friends of order, justice, and regular authority, endeavored 
 to counteract this spirit by every effort in their power — • 
 by remonstrance, argument, ridicule, and satire. Among 
 other occasional productions, a course of essays was pub- 
 lished under the signature of Lycurgus, in a strain of 
 ironical humor, exposing to contempt the principles and 
 views of the Jacobinical party. 
 
 The public in time became sensible of the want of a 
 general and efficient government ; and the contest ended 
 happily in the adoption of the federal constitution. Dur- 
 ing most of this period, several of the principal literary 
 characters of the state were resident in Hartford, and 
 gave to the friends of order whatever assistance could be 
 afforded by their publications. The principal work they 
 produced was a set of essays, entitled American Antiqui- 
 ties, first printed in the gazettes in Hartford and New 
 Haven, and reprinted in other newspapers, in almost every 
 part of the United States. At this time public curiosity 
 had been awakened by the discovery of ancient Indian 
 fortifications, with other relics, which were considered as 
 proofs, that this country had once been inhabited by a 
 people highly advanced in the arts of civilized life. Tlie 
 story of the emigration of Madoc, with a body of Britons 
 and Welch, about the year 800, and of an existing tribe 
 of their descendants in the interior part of the continent, 
 was revived and circulated. These writers assumed the 
 fiction, that in digging among the ruins of one of those 
 forts, an ancient heroic poem in the English language was 
 
 i'i 
 
 ■:'t 
 
 1 
 
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 19 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 found. The essays consisted of supposed extracts from 
 that poem, (which they styled, The Anarchiad,) accompa- 
 nied with critical remarks in prose. Colonel Humphreys, 
 who had seen in England a similar work, called the Rol- 
 liad, ascribed to Fox, Sheridan and their associates, was 
 the first proposer of the design. Most of the essays were 
 written in concert. The writers were Humphreys, Barluw, 
 Doctor Lemuel Hopkins, and our author. The publica- 
 tions of these gentlemen were supposed, at the time, to 
 have had considerable influence on the public taste and 
 opinions; and by the boldness of their satire, to have 
 checked and intimidated the leaders of disorganization 
 and infidel philosophy. 
 
 After the adoption-of the federal constitution, Trumbull 
 was first called forth to act in a public capacity. In 1789, 
 he was appointed attorney to the state for the county of 
 Hartford. In May 1792, he was representative of the 
 town of Hartford in the state legislature, where he took 
 an active and influential part in their debates and delib- 
 erations; particularly in obtaining an enlargement of 
 the funds, and an alteration of the charter of Yale Col- 
 lege. But the increasing burthen of his employments, 
 public and professional, again impaired his health, and at 
 length reduced him to the lowest stages of nervous debil- 
 ity. He spent his summers, for two or three successive 
 years, in taking long journies and visiting the most noted 
 mineral springs, in quest of health, but in vain. In 1795, 
 he resigned his office of State's Attorney, and declined all 
 public business. In November 1798, he experienced a 
 severe fit of sickness, from which, contrary to expectation. 
 
20 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 he escaped with life, and which appeared to form the crisis 
 of his nervous disorders. • His convalescence, though slow, 
 was favorably progressive; and as, during his long con- 
 finement, he never relinquished his habits of reading, nor 
 his attention to public affairs, he was enabled, on his re- 
 turn to society, to resume his former rank, in professional 
 business, and official employments. In May 1800, he was 
 again a member of the legislature. In 1801, he was a])- 
 pointed a Judge of the Superior Court of the state of Con- 
 necticut. From this period he declined any interference 
 in the politics of the state, and applied himself exclusively 
 to the duties of his office — being of opinion, that the char- 
 acter of a partizan and political writer was inconsistent 
 with the station of a judge and destructive of the confi- 
 dence of suitors in the impartiality of judiciary decisions. 
 In 1808, he received from the legislature the additional 
 appointment of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. 
 lie was happy in the society of his brethren on the bench ; 
 and the courts of the state were at no period more respect- 
 able for legal science, or more respected for the justice and 
 integrity of their adjudications. 
 
 To these offices he was annually appointed by the legis- 
 lature, till their session in May 1819, when * * 
 Desunt nonnulla. ******* 
 
 
M'F ING A L. 
 
 CANTO I. 
 
 THE TOWN-MEETING, A. M. 
 
 HEN Yankees,* skill'd in martial rule, 
 Firstf put the British troops to school, 
 Instructed them in warlike trade, 
 And new manoeuvres of parade, 
 
 The true war-dance of Yankee reels. 
 
 And manual exercise of heels; 
 
 Made them give up, like saints complete, 
 
 The arm of flesh, and trust the feet, . 
 
 The notes marked London Editor are copied from the ffth 
 English edition, printed at London in the year 1792. 
 
 * Yankees — a term formerly of derision, but now merely 
 of distinction, given to the people of the four Eastern 
 states. Land. Edit. 
 
 t At the battle of Lexington. The reader will easily 
 recollect how often these salutary lessons have been since 
 repeated — from the action at Bunker-hill to the battle of 
 New Orleans inclusive. 
 
Il 
 
 !!(■ 
 
 iiiiii! 
 
 22 
 
 M ' F I N G A L . 
 
 And works, like Christians undisscmbling, 
 Salvation out, by fear and trembling; 
 Taught Percy fashionable races, 
 And modern modes of Chevy-Chases:* 
 From Boston, in his best array. 
 Great 'Squire M'Fingal took his way. 
 And graced with ensigns of renown, 
 Steer'd homeward to his native town. 
 
 His high descent our heralds trace 
 From Ossian'sj famed Fingalian race : 
 For though their name some part may lack. 
 Old Fingal spelt it with a Mac ; 
 "Which great M'Pherson, with submission, 
 We hope will add the next edition. 
 
 His fathers flourished in the Highlands 
 Of Scotia's fog-benighted islands; 
 
 * Lord Percy commanded the party that was first op- 
 posed to the Americans at Le^^ngton. This allusion to 
 the family renown of Chevy-Chase arose from the precip- 
 itate manner of his lordship's quitting the field of battle, 
 and returning to Boston. Lond. Edit. 
 
 f See Fingal, an ancient epic poem, published as the 
 work of Ossian, a Caledonian bard of the third century, 
 by James M'Pherson. The complete name of Ossian, ac- 
 cording to the Scottish nomenclature, will be Ossian 
 M'Fingal. 
 
 !» J 
 
M'FINQ AL. 
 
 23 
 
 Whence gain'd our 'Squire two gifts by right, 
 
 RebeUion, and the Second-sight. 
 
 Of these, the first, in ancient days, 
 
 Had gain'd the noblest palm of praise, 
 
 'Gainst kings stood forth and many a crown'd head 
 
 With terror of its might confounded; 
 
 Till rose a king with potent charm 
 
 His foes by meekness to disarm. 
 
 Whom evpr-j Scot and Jacobite 
 
 Strait fell in love with at first sight; 
 
 Whose gracious speech with aid of pensions, 
 
 Hush'd down all murmurs of dissensions. 
 
 And with the sound of potent metal 
 
 Brought all their buzzing swarms to settle ; 
 
 Who rain'd his ministerial manna, 
 
 Till loud Sedition sung hosanna; 
 
 The grave Lords-Bishops and the Kirk 
 
 United in the public work; 
 
 Rebellion, from the nA-thern regions. 
 
 With Bute and Mansfield swore allegiance ; 
 
 All hands combin'd to raze, as nuisance. 
 
 Of church and state the Constitutions, 
 
 Pull down the empire, on whose ruins 
 
 They meant to edify their new ones; 
 
 Enslave th' Amer'can wildernesses. 
 
 And rend the provinces in pieces. 
 
fttf 
 
 I'Mr .. 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 24 
 
 MK IN G A L. 
 
 With these our 'Squire, immiig the valiunt'st, 
 Euiploy'd his time, nnd tools nud talents, 
 And found this new rebellion plensing 
 As his old king-destroying treason. 
 Nor less avail'd his optic sleight. 
 And Scottish gift of second-sight.* 
 No ancient sybil, famed in rhyme, 
 Saw deeper in the womb of time; 
 No block in old Dodona's grove 
 Could ever more orac'lar prove. 
 Nor only saw he all that could be, 
 But much that never was, nor would be ; 
 Whereby all prophets far outwent he, 
 Though former days produced a plenty : 
 For any man with half an eye 
 What stands before him can espy; 
 But optics sharp it needs, I ween, 
 To see what is not to be seen. 
 As in the days of ancient faAe, 
 Prophets and poets were the same. 
 And all the praise that poets gain 
 Is for the tales they forge and feign : 
 
 * They who wish to understand the nature and modus 
 operandi of the Highland vision by second-sight, may 
 consult the profound Johnson, in his "Tour to the 
 Hebrides." 
 
 VJ 
 
1** 
 
 M'FINOAL. 26 
 
 So gain'd our 'Squire his fame by seeing 
 Such things^, as never .vould have being; 
 Whence he lor orncles was grown 
 The very tripod* of his town. 
 Gazettes no sooiier rose a lie in, 
 But strait he fell to prophesying; 
 Made dreadful slaughter in his course, 
 O'erthrew provincials, foot and horse, 
 Brought armies o'er, by sudden pressings. 
 Of Hanoverians, Swiss, and Hessians, 
 Feasted with blood his Scottish clan, 
 And hang'd all rebels to a man. 
 Divided their estates and pelf, 
 And took a goodly share himself. 
 All this with spirit energetic. 
 He did by second-sight prophetic. 
 
 Thus stored with intellectual riches, 
 Skill'd was our 'Squire in making speeches; 
 Where strength of braifls united centers 
 With strength of lungs surpassing Stentor's.* 
 But as some muskets so contrive it. 
 As oft to miss the mark they drive at, 
 
 * The tripod was a sacred three-legged stool, from which 
 the ancient priests uttered their oracles. 
 
 f Stentor, the loud-voiced herald in Homer. 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 ^It' 
 
 And though well aim'd at duck or plover, 
 Bear wide, and kick their owners over: 
 So fared our 'Squire, whose reas'ning toil 
 Would often on himself recoil, 
 And so much injured more his side, 
 The stronger arguments he applied; 
 As old war-elephants, dismay 'd, 
 Trod down the troops they came to aid. 
 And hurt their own Side more in battle. 
 Than less and ordinary cattle. 
 Yet at Town-meetings every chief 
 Pinn'd fuiih on great M'Fingal's sleeve; 
 Which when he lifted, all by rote 
 Raised sympathetic hands to vote. 
 
 The Town, our hero's scene of action. 
 Had long been torn by feuds of faction, 
 And as each party's strength prevails. 
 It turn'd up different, heads or tails; 
 With constant rattling, in a trice, 
 Show'd various sides, as oft as dice. 
 As that famed weaver, wife t' Ulysses,* 
 By night her day's-work pick'd in pieces. 
 And though she stoutly did bestir her. 
 Its finishing was ne'er the nearer: 
 
 * Homer's Odyssey. 
 
M'FINGAL. 27 
 
 So did this town with ardent zeal 
 
 Weave cobwebs for the public weal, 
 
 Which when completed, or before, 
 
 A second vote in pieces tore. 
 
 They met, made speeches full long-winded, 
 
 Resolv'd, protested and rescinded; 
 
 Addresses sign'd ; then chose committees 
 
 To stop all drinking of Bohea teas;* 
 
 With winds of doctrine veer'd about. 
 
 And turn'd all whig committees out. 
 
 Meanwhile our hero, as their head. 
 
 In pomp the tory faction led. 
 
 Still following, as the 'Squire should please. 
 
 Successive on like files of geese. 
 
 And now the town was summon'd, greeting, 
 To grand parading of Town-meeting; 
 A show, that strangers might appal, 
 As Rome's grave senate did the Gaul. 
 
 * One of the subjects of dispute, which brought on the 
 war, was a tax upon tea, on its importation into the colo- 
 nies. And therefore one of the weapons of opposition 
 was an universal agreement by the people, not to drink 
 any tea, till the tax was taken off. The committees re- 
 ferred to, were called Committees of Correspondence : part 
 of their business was to enforce the execution of the vol- 
 untary regulations made by the people in the several towns. 
 
"H 
 
 pi 
 
 5! I 
 t'i i 
 
 !% 
 
 28 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 * 
 
 High o'er the rout, on pulpit stairs,^ 
 Mid den of thieves in house of prayers, 
 (That house, which loth a rule to break 
 Serv'd heaven, but one day in the week, 
 Open the rest for all supplies 
 Of news, and pohtics, and lies;) 
 Stood forth the constable; and bore 
 His staff, like Merc'ry's wand of yore, 
 Waved potent round, the peace to keep, 
 As that laid dead men's souls to sleep. 
 Above and near th' hermetic staff. 
 The Moderator's! upper half 
 In grandeur o'er the cushion bow'd, 
 Like Sol half seen behind a cloud. 
 Beneath stood voters of all colours, 
 "Whigs, tories, orators, and brawlers; 
 With every tongue in either faction 
 Prepared like minute-men J for action ; 
 
 * In country towns in New England, the town-meeting 
 is generally held in the church, or meeting-house. 
 
 f Moderator is the name given to the chairman or 
 speaker of a town-meeting. He is here seated in the pulpit. 
 ' X Minute-men were that part of the militia of our coun- 
 try, who being drafted, and enrolled by themselves, were 
 prepared to march at a minute's warning wherever the 
 public safety required. 
 
 i 
 
 i 'I 
 
 i 
 
w 
 
 M'FINGAL. 29 
 
 Where truth and falsehood, wrong and right, 
 Drew all their legions forth to fight. 
 With equal uproar scarcely rave 
 Opposing winds in iEolus' cave ; 
 Such dialogues with earnest face 
 Held never Balaam with his ass. 
 
 With daring zeal aud courage blest, 
 Honorius first the crowd address'd. 
 When now our 'Squire, returning late, 
 Arrived to aid the grand debate; 
 With strange, sour faces sate him down. 
 While thus the orator went on. 
 — " For ages blest thus Britain rose, 
 The terror of encircling foes; 
 Her heroes ruled the bloody plain. 
 Her conq'ring standard awed the main. 
 The different palms her triumph grace 
 Of arms in war, of arts in peace. 
 Unharrass'd by maternal care, 
 Each rising province flourish'd fair; 
 Whose various wealth, w4th liberal hand, 
 By far o'erpaid the parent land.* 
 
 * Before tlie revolution, the colonies ever styled Britain 
 their mother-country, themselves her children, and Eng- 
 land their home. 
 
 3* 
 
80 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 But though so bright her sun might shine, 
 'Tvvas quickly hasting to decHne, 
 With feeble ray, too weak t' assuage 
 The damps, that chill the eve of age. 
 
 " For states, like men, are doom'd as well 
 Th' infirmities of age to feel,* 
 And from their different forms of empire, 
 Are seiz'd with every deep distemper. 
 Some states high fevers have made head in. 
 Which nought could cure but copious bleeding; 
 While others have grown dull and dozy, 
 Or fix'd in helpless idiocy ; 
 Or turn'd demoniacs to belabor 
 Each peaceful habitant and neighbor; 
 Or vex'd with hypochondriac fits, 
 Have broke their strength, and lost their wits. 
 Thus now while hoary years prevail, 
 Good mother Britain seen/d to fail; 
 Her back bent, crippled with tiie weight 
 Of age, and debts, and cares of state. 
 For debts she owed, and those so large, 
 As twice her wealth could ne'er discharge, 
 
 * This is asserted by all the grave statesmen, who treat 
 on the disorders of that noted allegorical personage, the 
 Body Politic. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 And now 'twas thought, so high they'd grown, 
 She'd come upon the parish soon. 
 Her arms, of nations once the dread, 
 She scarce could lift above her head; 
 Her deafen'd ears, 'twas all their hope, 
 The final trump perhaps might ope; 
 So long they'd been, in stupid mood. 
 Shut to the hearing of all good. 
 Grim death had put her in his scroll 
 Down on the execution-roll ; 
 And Gallic crows, as she grew weaker. 
 Began to whet their beaks to pick her. 
 "And now her powers decaying fast, 
 Her grand climact'ric had she pass'd. 
 And just like all old women else. 
 Fell in the vapors much by spells. 
 Strange w^himsies on her fancy struck, 
 And gave her brain a dismal shock; 
 Her memory fails, her judgment ends; 
 She quite forgot her nearest friends. 
 Lost all her former sense and knowledge. 
 And fitted fast for Bedlam-college. 
 Of all the powers she once retain'd, 
 Conceit and pride alone remain'd. 
 As Eve, when falling, was so modest 
 To fancy she should grow a goddess ;* 
 
 ■ C * So says Milton. 
 
 81 
 
32 
 
 M'FING AL 
 
 As madmen, straw who long have slept on, 
 Style themselves Jupiter and Neptune : 
 So Britain in her airs so flighty, 
 Now took a whim to be Almighty;* 
 Urg'd on to desperate heights of frenzy, 
 Affirm'd her own Omnipotency ; 
 Would rather ruin all her race, 
 Than yield supremacy, an ace; 
 Assumed all rights divine, as grown 
 The church's head, like good Pope Joan;f 
 Swore all the world should bow and skip. 
 At her almighty goodyship ; 
 Anath'matized each unbeliever. 
 And vovv'd to live and rule for ever. 
 Her servants humor'd every whim, 
 And own'd at once her power supreme ; 
 
 * See the Act declaring her right to bind the colonies 
 in all cases whatsoever. See also Blackstone's remarks, in 
 his Commentaries, on the Omnipotence of the British par- 
 liament. 
 
 f Whether there actually was a woman, who assumed 
 the dress of a monk, and was finally elected Pope, has oc- 
 casioned violent disputes among the ecclesiastical histori- 
 ans. To them we must leave it — since the world have 
 not the benefit, as in the case of the Chevalier D'Eon, of 
 the report of any legal trial for ascertaining her sex, before 
 any liord Mansfield of that age. 
 
M'FIN GAL. 
 
 33 
 
 Iler follies nursed in all their stages, 
 
 For sake of liveries and wages ; 
 
 In Stephen's Chapel* then in state too 
 
 Set up her golden calf to pray to ; 
 
 Proclaim'd its power and right divine, 
 
 And call'd for worship at its shrine; 
 
 And for poor heretics to burn us. 
 
 Bade Northj prepare his fiery furnace ; 
 
 Struck bargains with the Romish churches, 
 
 Infallibihty to purchase ; 
 
 Set wide for Popery the door,J 
 
 Made friends with Babel's scarlet whore. 
 
 Till both the matrons join'd in clan ; 
 
 No sisters made a better span. 
 
 " What wonder then, ere this was over. 
 That she should make her children suffer? 
 She first without pretence or reason, 
 Claim'd right whate'er we had to seize on ; 
 And with determin'd resolution 
 To put her claims in execution, 
 
 * The parliament-bouse is called St. Stephen's Chapel- 
 
 f Her Prime Minister of State at that period. 
 
 :j: Alluding to the Act of parliament, establishing the 
 Papal worship and religion in Canada. 
 
m 
 
 I 
 
 m, 
 
 iM ; 
 
 84 
 
 Sent fire 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 i sword, and call'd it Leiiily; 
 Starv'd us, and christen'd it Humanity. 
 For she, her case grown desperater, 
 Mistook the plainest things in nature ; 
 Had lost all use of eyes or wits, 
 Took slavery for the bill of rights; 
 Trembled at whigs and deem'd them foes, 
 And stopp'd at loyalty her nose ; 
 Styled her own children, brats and catiffs, 
 And knew us not from th' Indian natives. 
 
 "What though with supplicating prayer, 
 We begg'd our lives and goods she'd spare ; 
 Not vainer vows with sillier call 
 Elijah's prophets raised to Baal ; 
 A worshipp'd stock of god or goddess 
 Had better heard and understood us. 
 So once Egyptians at the Nile 
 Ador'd their guardian crocodile, 
 Who heard them first with kindest ear, 
 And ate them to reward their prayer ; 
 And could he talk, as kings can do, 
 Had made as gracious speeches too. 
 
 "Thus, spite of prayers, her schemes pursuing, 
 She still went on to work our ruin ; 
 Annull'd our charters of releases, 
 And tore our title-deeds in pieces ; 
 
M'FINGAL. 35 
 
 Then sign'd her warrants of ejection, 
 And gallows rais'd to stretch our necks on . 
 And on these errands sent in rage 
 Her bailiff, and her hangman. Gage ; 
 And at his heels, like dogs to bait us, 
 Dispatch'd her Posse Comitatus. 
 
 " No state e'er chose a fitter person 
 To carry such a silly farce on. 
 As heathen gods in ancient days 
 Receiv'd at second hand their praise. 
 Stood imaged forth in stones and stocks, 
 And deified in barber's blocks : 
 So Gage* was chose to represent 
 Th' omnipotence of Parliament. 
 As ancient heroes gain'd by shifts. 
 From gods, as poets tell, their gifts ; 
 Our general, as his actions show, 
 Gain'd like assistance from below. 
 By Satan graced with full supplies 
 From all his magazine of lies. 
 
 * General Gage, commander-in-chief of the king's troops 
 in North America, was in 1773 appointed governor and 
 vice-admiral of Massachusetts, in the room of Hutchinson, 
 who had been the most active agent of the minister in fo- 
 menting the disputes which brouglit on the war. Lond. 
 Edit. 
 
U I 
 
 
 (1.1; 
 
 *■ ! 
 
 86 
 
 M'FI N U A L. 
 
 Yet could his practice ne'er impart 
 
 The wit to tell a lie with art. 
 
 Those lies alone are formidable 
 
 Where artful truth is mix'd with fable. 
 
 But Gage has bungled oft so vilely, 
 
 No soul would credit lies so silly, 
 
 Outwent all faith, and stietch'd beyond 
 
 Credulity's extremest end : 
 
 Whence plain it seems, though Satan once 
 
 O'erlook'd with scorn each brainless dunce. 
 
 And blundering brutes in Eden shunning. 
 
 Chose out the serpent for his cunning ; 
 
 Of late he is not half so nice. 
 
 Nor picks out aids because they're wise : 
 
 For had he stood upon perfection, 
 
 His present friends had lost th' election. 
 
 And fared as hard, in this proceeiJ'ng, 
 
 As owls and asses did in Eden. 
 
 "Yet fools are often dangerous enemies; 
 As meanest reptiles are most venomous : 
 Nor e'er could Gage, by craft or prowess. 
 Have done a whit more mischief to us ; 
 Since he began th' unnat'ral war. 
 The work his masters sent him for. 
 
 " And are there in this freeborn land 
 Among ourselves a venal band , 
 
 •1 
 
 III; 
 
 
 '-i-J 
 
M'i'lNGAL. 37 
 
 A dastard race, wlio long have sold 
 
 Their souls and consciences for gold ; 
 
 Who wish to stab their country's vitals, 
 
 Could they enjoy surviving titles; 
 
 With pride behold our mischiefs brewing. 
 
 Insult and triumph in our ruin ? 
 
 Priests, who, if Satan should sit down 
 
 To make a Bible of his own, 
 
 Would gladly, for the sake of mitres. 
 
 Turn his inspired and sacred writers ; 
 
 Lawyers, who, should he wish to prove 
 
 His claim to his old seat above, 
 
 Would, if his cause he'd give them fees in, 
 
 Bring writs of Entrtj sur disseism, 
 
 Plead for him boldly at the session, 
 
 And hope to put him in possession ; 
 
 Merchants who, for his friendly aid 
 
 Would make him partner in their trade, 
 
 Hang out their signs in goodly show, 
 
 Inscribed with, Beelzebub ^ Co. ; 
 
 And judges, who would list his pages, 
 
 For proper liveries and wages ; 
 
 And who as humbly cringe and bow 
 
 To all his mortal servants now ? 
 
 There are ; and shame, with pointing gestures, 
 
 Marks out th' Addressers and Protesters;* 
 
 * The Addressers were those who addreissed General 
 
 4 
 
n 
 
 )} 
 
 u 
 
 ill 
 
 ^L 
 
 88 
 
 M'FINO AL. 
 
 Whom following down the strenin of fate, 
 
 Contempts ineflhble awnit ; 
 
 And public infamy forlorn, 
 
 Dread hate and everlasting scorn." 
 
 As thus he spake, our 'Squire M'Fingal 
 Gave to his partisans a signal. 
 Not quicker roll'd the waves to land. 
 When Moses waved his potent wand, 
 Nor with more uproar, than the torics 
 Set up a general rout in chorus; 
 
 Laugli'd,hiss'd,hem'd,murmur'd,groan'd and jccr'd; 
 
 Ilonorius now could scarce be heard. 
 
 Our Muse, amid th' increasing roar, 
 
 Could not distinguish one word more ; 
 
 Though she sate by, in firm record 
 
 To take in short hand every word, 
 
 As ancient Muses wont ; to whom 
 
 Old bards for depositions come ; 
 
 Who must have writ them ; for how else 
 
 Could they each speech verbatim tell 's ? 
 
 G 
 
 ,ge with expressions of gratitude and attachment, on his 
 arrival with a fleet and army to subdue the country : the 
 Protesters, those who published protests against the mea- 
 sures of the first Congress, and the resolves of the people 
 in town-meetings and conventions. 
 
M'FI N(i AL. 
 
 80 
 
 And though some readers of roinnnces 
 
 Arc npt to struiii their tortured ftuicies, 
 
 And doubt (when lovers nil alone 
 
 'I'lieir sad soliloquies do groan, 
 
 (Jrieve many a page, w ith no one near 'cm, 
 
 And nought l)ut rocks and groves to hear 'em) 
 
 What sprite infernal could have tattled, 
 
 And told the authors all they prattled ; 
 
 Whence some weak minds have made objection 
 
 That wliat they scribbled must be fiction : 
 
 'Tis false ; for while the lover spoke, 
 
 The Muse was by with 1 able-book. 
 
 And least some blunder should ensue. 
 
 Echo stood clerk, and kept the cue. 
 
 And though the speech ben't w orth a groat. 
 
 It can't be call'd the author's fault ; 
 
 But error merely of the prater, 
 
 Who should have talk'd to th' purpose better : 
 
 Which full excuse, my critic brothers. 
 
 May help me out as well as others ; 
 
 And 'tis design'd, though here it lurk. 
 
 To serve as preface to this work. 
 
 So let it be — for now our 'Squire 
 
 No longer could contain his ire. 
 
 And rising 'midst applauding tories. 
 
 Thus vented wrath upon Honorius. 
 
1^ 
 
 I: 
 
 l-6'i ! 
 
 ;i ■ 
 
 40 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Quoth he, " 'Tis woiulrous what strange stuff 
 Your whij^s-heads are compounded of; 
 Which force of logic cannot pierce, 
 Nor syllogistic carte and tierce, 
 Nor weight of scripture or of reason 
 Suffice to make the least impression. 
 Not heeding what ye rais'd contest on. 
 Ye prate, and beg, or steal the question ; 
 And when your boasted arguings fail. 
 Strait leave all reas'ning off, to rail. 
 
 " Have not our High-church clergy* made it 
 Appear from Scriptures, which ye credit, 
 That right divine from heaven was lent 
 To kings, that is, the parliament, 
 Their subjects to oppress and teaze. 
 And serve the devil when they please ? 
 Did not the write, and pray, and preach. 
 And torture all the parts of speech, 
 About rebellion make a pother. 
 From one end of the land to th' other ? 
 And yet gain'd fewer proselyte whigs, 
 Than old St. Anth'ny 'mongst the pigs jf 
 
 * The absurd doctrines of passive obedience, non resis- 
 tance, and the divine right of kings, were inculcated with 
 great vehemence at this period. 
 
 f The stories of St. Anthony and his pig, and of St 
 Austin's preaching to the fishes, are told in the Popish 
 
 legends. 
 
*■£ 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 And changed not half so many vicious, 
 As Austin when he preach'd to fishes, 
 Who throng'd to hear, the legend tells, 
 Were edified, and wagg'd their tails : 
 But scarce you'd prove it, if you tried, 
 That e'er one whig was edified. 
 Have ye not heard from Parson Walter* 
 Much dire presage of many a halter ? 
 What warnings had ye of your duty, 
 From our old rev'rend Sam. Auchmutyj* 
 From priests of all degrees and metres, 
 T' our fag-end man, poor Parson Peters ?t 
 Have not our Cooper and our Seabury 
 Sung hynms, like I3arak and old Deborah ; 
 Proved all intrigues to set you free 
 Rebellion 'gainst tlie Powers that he ; 
 
 41 
 
 * High-church clergymen, one at Boston, one at New- 
 York. 
 
 f Peters, a tory clergyman of Connecticut, who after 
 
 rendering himself generally detestable, absconded from the 
 
 contempt, rather than the vengeance of his fellow-citizens, 
 
 and went to England, where he published a libel, which 
 
 he called, A History of that Colony ; Cooper, a writer of 
 
 the same stamp. President of the College at New York, 
 
 Poet, Punster and Satirist ; Seabury, a clergyman of the 
 
 same Province. 
 
 4« 
 
 r 
 
l1l 
 
 i 
 
 42 
 
 M ' F 1 N G A L . 
 
 Brought over many a scripture text, 
 That used to wink at rebel sects, 
 Coax'd wayward ones to favor regents. 
 And paraphrased them to obedience; 
 Proved every king, ev,n those confest 
 Horns of the Apocalyptic beast, 
 And sprouting from its noddles seven, 
 Ordain'd, as bishops are, by heaven ; 
 (For reasons similar, as we're told 
 That Tophet was ordain'd of old) 
 By this lay-ordination valid. 
 Becomes all sanctified and hallow'd. 
 Takes patent out as heaven has sign'd it. 
 And starts up strait, the Lord's Anointed ? 
 As extreme unction, which can cleanse 
 Each penitent from deadly sins; 
 Make them run glib, when oiled by priest. 
 The heav'nly road, like w^heels new greased ; 
 Serve them, Hke shoe-ball, for defences, 
 'Gainst wear and tear of consciences : 
 So king's anointment clears betimes, 
 Like fuller's earth, all spots of crimes. 
 For future knaveries gives commissions. 
 Like Papists sinning under license. 
 For heaven ordain'd the origin, 
 Divines declare,* of pain and sin. 
 
 * See the modern Metaphysical Divinity. 
 
 M 
 II i 
 
 
( ■ 
 
 I ■ 
 
 1 1 
 
 ! 1 
 
 I 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 ■LS 
 
 Prove such great good they both have done us, 
 
 Kind mercy 'twas they came upon us ; 
 
 For without sin and pain and folly, 
 
 Man ne'er was blest, nor wise, nor holy : 
 
 And we should thank the Lord 'tis so. 
 
 As authors grave wrote long ago. 
 
 Now heav'n its issues never brings 
 
 Without the means, and these are kings; 
 
 And he who blames VA'hen they announce ills, 
 
 Would counteract th' eternal counsels. 
 
 As when the Jews, a murm'ring race, 
 
 By constant grumblings fell from grace, 
 
 Heav'n taught them first to know their distance. 
 
 By famine, slavery, and Philistines ; 
 
 When these could no repentance bring, 
 
 In wrath it sent them last a king : 
 
 So nineteen, 'tis believ'd, in tvpenty 
 
 Of modern kings for plagues are sent you ; 
 
 Nor can your cavillers pretend 
 
 But that they answer well their end. 
 
 'Tis yours to yield to their command, 
 
 As rods in Providence's hand ; 
 
 For when it means to send you pain, 
 
 You toss your foreheads up in vain ; 
 
 Your way is, hush'd in peace, to bear it, 
 
 And make necessity a merit. 
 
1 
 
 B' 
 
 ? li 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Ilence sure perdition must await 
 
 Tlie man, who rises 'gainst the state, 
 
 Who meets at once the damning sentence. 
 
 Without one loophole for repentance ; 
 
 Ev'n though he gain the Royal See, 
 
 And rank among the Powers that be. • 
 
 For hell is theirs, the scripture shows. 
 
 Whoe'er the Powers that be oppose ; 
 
 And all those Powers (I'm clear that 'tis so) 
 
 Are damn'd for ever, ex officio. 
 
 " Thus far our clergy , but 'tis true 
 We lack'd not earthly reas'ners too. 
 Had I the poet's* brazen lungs. 
 As soundboard to his hundred tongues, 
 I could not half the scribblers muster. 
 That swarm'd round Rivingtonf in cluster; 
 Assemblies, councilmen, forsooth. 
 Brush, Cowper, Wilkins, Chandler, Booth : 
 Yet all their arguments and sapience 
 '^'ou did not value at three halfpence. 
 
 * Virgil. 
 
 t Rivington, printer of the Royal Gazette in New 
 York. The Legislature of that Province were opposed 
 to the measures of the country. 
 
 
 ■ ■ i v: r tf% -ajt- 'i i F ja 
 
v.li 
 
 M ' F 1 N G A L . 
 
 45 
 
 Did not our Massachusettensis* 
 
 For your conviction strain iiis senses ; 
 
 Scrawl every moment he could spare 
 
 From cards and barbers and the fair; 
 
 Show, clear as sun in noonday heavens. 
 
 You did not feel a single grievance ; 
 
 Demonstrate all your opposition 
 
 Sprung from the eggsf of foul sedition ; 
 
 Swear he had see;i the nest she laid in, 
 
 And knew how long she had been sitting; 
 
 Could tell exact what strength of heat is 
 
 Required to hatch her out committees ; 
 
 What shapes they take, and how much ionger's 
 
 The time before they grow t' a Congress ? 
 
 * A course of Essays under that signature was pub- 
 lished in Boston, in the latter part of 177-1 and beginning 
 of 1775. It was the last combined effort of Tory wit and 
 argument to write down the Revolution. 
 
 f " Committees of correspondence are the foulest and 
 most venomous serpent, that ever issued from the eggs of 
 Sedition," &c. Massachusettensis. 
 
 The scheme of appointing such committees in every 
 town was first devised by the celebrated Samuel Adams ; 
 they became a most powerful engine for combining the 
 sentiments and directing the energies of the people. 
 
I'l 
 
 1 
 
 46 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 He white-wash'd Hutchinson, and varnisli'd 
 Our Gage, who'd got a httle tarnish'd ; 
 Made them new masks, in time no doubt, 
 For Hutchinson's was quite worn out: 
 Yet while he muddled all his head 
 You did not heed a word he said. 
 
 * Did not our grave Judge Sewall* hit 
 The summit of newspaper wit; 
 Fill every leaf of every paper 
 Of Mills & Hicks, and mother Draper jf 
 Draw proclamations, works of toil, 
 In true sublime of scarecrow style, 
 Write farces too 'gainst sons of freedom. 
 All for your good, and none would read 'era ; 
 Denounce damnation on their frenzy. 
 Who died in whig-impenilency ; 
 Affirm that heav'n would lend us aid, 
 As all our tory writers said ; 
 And calculate so well its kindness, 
 He told the moment when it joln'd us ? 
 
 * Judge of Admiralty and Attorney-General of Massa- 
 cliusetts, Gage's chief adviser and proclamation-maker, 
 author of a farce, called "The American roused," and of 
 a multitude of newspaper essays. 
 
 t Printers of ministerial gazettes in Boston. 
 
 ••!t 
 
 -.1 I 
 
M'FINGAL. 47 
 
 " Twas then belike," Honorious cried, 
 " When you the public fast defied. 
 Refused to heaven to raise a prayer, 
 Because you'd no connections there ; 
 And since with reverent hearts and faces, 
 To governors you'd paid addresses. 
 In them, who made you tories, seeing 
 You lived and moved and had your being. 
 Your humble vows you would not breathe 
 To powers, you'd no acquaintance with. 
 
 " As for your fasts," replied our 'Squire, 
 "What circumstance could fasts require? 
 We kept them not, but 'twas no crime. 
 We held them merely loss of time. 
 For what advantage firm and lasting, 
 Pray, did you ever get by fasting. 
 Or what the gain, that can arise 
 From vows and offerings to the skies ? 
 Will heaven reward with posts and fees, 
 Or send us tea,* as consignees. 
 Give pensions, salaries, places, bribes. 
 Or choose us judges, clerks, or scribes ? 
 
 * Alluding to the famous cargo of tea, which was 
 destroyed in Boston harbor, the consignees of which were 
 the tools of the British ministry. 
 D 
 
48 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Has it commissions in its gift, 
 
 Or cash to serve us at a lift ? 
 
 Are acts of parliament there made, 
 
 To carry on the placeman's trade. 
 
 Or has it pass'd a single bill 
 
 To let us plunder whom we will ? 
 
 "And look our list of placemen all over; 
 Did heaven appoint our chief Judge Oliver,* 
 Fill that high bench with ignoramus, 
 Or has it councils by mandamus ?t 
 Who made that wit of water-gruel 
 A judge of admiralty. Sewall ? 
 And were they not mere earthly struggles. 
 That raised up Murray, say, and Ruggles ? 
 Did heaven send down, our pains to medicine, 
 That old simplicity of Edson, 
 Or by election pick out from us 
 That Marshfield blunderer, Nat. Ray Thomas ; 
 
 * Peter Oliver Esq., without legal science or profession- 
 al education, was appointed Chief Judge of the Supreme 
 Court in Massachusetts. 
 
 f The Council of that Province had ever, by its char- 
 ter, been elective. The charter was declared void, and 
 the King appointed them by writ of mandamus. The 
 persons, named in this paragraph, were some of the most 
 conspicuous of the new members. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 49 
 
 Or had it any hand in serving 
 
 A Loring, Peppereil, Browne or Irving ? 
 
 " Yet we've some saints, the very thing, 
 To pit against the best you'll bring ; 
 For can the strongest fancy paint, 
 Than Hutchinson, a greater saint ? 
 Was there a parson used to pray. 
 At times more regular, twice a day ; 
 As folks exact have dinners got. 
 Whether they've appetites or not ? 
 Was there a zealot more alarming 
 'Gainst public vice to hold forth sermon, 
 Or fix'd at church, whose inward motion 
 Roll'd up his eyes with more devotion ? 
 What puritan could ever pray 
 In godlier tone, than Treasurer Gray, 
 Or at town-meetings speechifying. 
 Could utter more melodious whine. 
 And shut his eyes, and vent his moan. 
 Like owl afflicted in the sun ; 
 Who once sent home, his canting rival. 
 Lord Dartmouth's self, might outbedrivel. 
 
 " Have you forgot," Honorious cried, 
 " How your prime saint the truth* defied, 
 
 * Hutchinson, wbile Governor of the Province, in his 
 letters to the ministry declared the necessity, in order to 
 
 5 
 
! I 
 
 111 
 
 50 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Affirm'd he never wrote a line 
 Your chartered rights to undermine, 
 When his own letters then were by, 
 Which proved his message all a lie ? 
 How many promises he seal'd 
 To get th' oppressive acts repeal'd. 
 Yet once arrived on England's shore, 
 Set on the Premier to pass more ? 
 But these are no defects, we grant, 
 In a right loyal Tory saint, 
 
 maintain government, of destroying the Charter, abridging 
 what he termed English Liberties, making the Judges 
 dependent only on the crown, and erecting a nobility in 
 America. Doctor Franklin, then provincial Agent at the 
 British Court, obtained a number of the originals, and 
 transmitted them to Boston. In 1773, in a speech to the 
 Legislative Assembly, he affirmed the absolute and 
 nnlimited authority of the parliament over the Colonies. 
 This drew from the House of Eepresentatives a spirited 
 and argumentative reply. He rejoined ; and in the course 
 of the debate, finding himself suspected of advising the 
 ministry to oppressive measures, declared that he had 
 ever been an advocate for the rights of the Province con- 
 tained in the Charter, and the equal liberties of the Colo- 
 nists with the other subjects of the British Dominion. — 
 On this, Huichinson's letters were immediately published 
 in Boston, to the utter confusion of all his pretensions, 
 political and religious. 
 
 I'l \\\ 
 
U'FINa AL. 
 
 61 
 
 Whose godlike virtues must with ease 
 Atone for venial crimes, hke these : 
 Or ye perhaps in scripture spy 
 A new commandment, *Thou shalt lie ;' 
 If this be so (as who can tell ?) 
 There's no one sure ye keep so well.'* 
 
 Quoth he, "For lies and promise-breaking. 
 Ye need not be in such a taking : 
 For lying is, we know and teach, 
 The highest privilege of speech ; 
 The universal Magna Charta, 
 To which all human race is party, 
 Whence children first, as David says. 
 Lay claim to't in their earliest days ; 
 The only stratagem in war. 
 Our generals have occasion for ; 
 The only freedom of the press, 
 Our politicians need in peace. 
 Thank heaven, your shot have missed their aim, 
 For lying is no sin nor shame. 
 
 " As men last wills may change again, 
 Tho' drawn, 'In name of God, Amen ;' 
 Be sure they must have clearly more 
 O'er promises as great a power, 
 Which, made in haste, with small inspection, 
 So much the more will need correction ; 
 
I 
 
 52 
 
 Ml 1 N li AL. 
 
 And when tliey've, cmvless, spoke or penned *em, 
 Have right to look theni o'er and mend 'cin ; 
 Revise their vows, or ciiange the text, 
 By way of codicil annex'd ; 
 Strike out a promise, that was base. 
 And put a better in its place. 
 
 " So Gage of late agreed, you know, 
 To let the Boston people go ; 
 Yet when he saw 'gainst troops that braved him, 
 They were the only guards that saved him, 
 Kept off that satan of a Putnam* 
 From breaking in to maul and mutton him; 
 He'd too much wit, such leagues t' observe, 
 And shut them in again, to starve. 
 
 "So Moses writes, when female Jews 
 Made oaths and vows unfit for use, 
 
 • 
 
 * General I utnam took the command of the provincial 
 troops, and blockaded Boston, immediately after the 
 battle of Lexington. Gage, while his army were in pos- 
 session of that place, promised to permit the inhabitants 
 to retire into the country, on condition of surrendering 
 up their arms ; but after their compliance, he refused to 
 perform his engagement — hoping that the Americans 
 would not attempt to bombard the town, or enter it by 
 storm, while they must endanger the lives of so many 
 thousands of their fellow-citizens. 
 
M'FINO AL. 
 
 Their parents then inl«jht set them free 
 
 From that conscientious tyranny : 
 
 And shall men feel that spiritual bondage 
 
 For ever, when they grow beyond age ^ 
 
 Shall vows but bind the stout and strong, 
 
 And let go women weak and young, 
 
 As nets enclose the larger crew. 
 
 And let the smaller fry creep through ? 
 
 Besides, the Whigs have all been set on. 
 
 The Tories to affright and threaten, 
 
 Till Gage amidst his trembling fits, 
 
 lias hardly kept him in his wits; 
 
 And though he speak with fraud and finesse, 
 
 'Tis said beneath duress per minas. 
 
 For we're in peril of our souls 
 
 From your vile feathers, tar and poles ; 
 
 And vows extorted are not binding 
 
 In law, and so not worth the minding. 
 
 For we have in this hurly-burly 
 
 Sent off our consciences on furlow ; 
 
 Thrown our religion o'er in form, 
 
 Our ship to lighten in the storm. 
 
 Nor need we blush your Whigs before ; 
 
 Had we no virtue, you've no more. 
 
 " Yet black with sins, would spoil a mitre, 
 
 Rail ye at faults by ten tints whiter ? 
 
 5* 
 
 68 
 
64 
 
 M'FINaAL. 
 
 ! I 
 
 And, stuiTd with choler atrabilious. 
 
 Insult us here for peccadilloes ? 
 
 While all your vices run so high 
 
 That mercy scarce could find suppi : 
 
 And should you offer to repent, 
 
 You'd need more fasting days than Lent, 
 
 More groans than haunted church-yard valleys. 
 
 And more confessions than broad-alleys.* 
 
 I'll show you all at fitter time, 
 
 Th' extent and greatness of your crime. 
 
 And here demonstrate to your face. 
 
 Your want of virtue, as of grace, 
 
 Evinced from topics old and recent : 
 
 But thus much must suffice at present. 
 
 To th' after portion of the day 
 
 I leave what more remains to say ; 
 
 When, I've good hope, you'll all appear. 
 
 More fitted and prepared to hear. 
 
 And grieved for all your vile demeanor : 
 
 But now 'tis time t* adjourn for dinner." 
 
 * Alluding to church discipline, where a person is 
 obliged to stand in an isle of the church, called in New- 
 England the hroad-alky, name the offence he has commit- 
 ted, and ask pardon of his brethren. 
 
 END OF CANTO FIRST. 
 
 m 
 
"n 
 
 I'l" IN G AL. 
 
 CAHTO n 
 
 '■ 
 
 THE TOWN-MEETING, P. M. 
 
 HE Sun, who never stops to dine, 
 Two hours had pass'd the mid-way line, 
 And driving at his usual rate, 
 ' Lash'd on his downward car of state. 
 And now expired the short vacation^ 
 And dinner o'er in epic fashion. 
 While all the crew, beneath the trees. 
 Eat pocket-pies, or bread and cheese, 
 (Nor shall we, like old Homer, care 
 To versify their bill of fare) 
 Each active party, feasted well, 
 Throng'd in, like sheep, at sound of bell ; 
 With equal spirit took their places, 
 And meeting oped with three Oh Yesses : 
 When first, the daring Whigs t' oppose, 
 A^ain the great M'Fingal rose. 
 
(W 
 
 I ! 
 
 m 
 
 56 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Stretch'd magisterial arm amain, 
 And thus resumed th' accusing strain. 
 
 "Ye Whigs attend, and hear affrighted 
 The crimes whereof ye stand indicted; 
 The sins and folhes past all compass, 
 That prove you guilty, or non compos. 
 I leave the verdict to your senses, 
 And jury of your consciences ; 
 Which though they're neither good nor true, 
 Must yet convict you and your crew. 
 
 "Ungrateful sons ! a factious hand, 
 That rise against your parent land ! 
 Ye viper race, that burst in strife 
 The genial w^omb that gave you life. 
 Tear with sharp fangs and forked tongue 
 The indulgent bowels whence ye sprung ; 
 And scorn the debt and obligation. 
 You justly owe the British nation. 
 Which, since you cannot pay, your crew 
 Affect to swear was never due. 
 
 "Did not the deeds ol England's* primate 
 First drive your fathers to this climate, 
 
 * The persecutions of the English Church under 
 Archbishop Laud are well known to have been the cause 
 of the peopling of New England. — Lo7id. Edit. 
 
 M 
 
M'FINUAL. 
 
 67 
 
 Whom jails and fines and every ill 
 Forced to their good against their will ? 
 Ye owe to their obliging temper 
 The peopling your new-fangled empire, 
 While every British act and canon 
 Stood forth your causa sine qua non. 
 Who'd seen, except for these restraints. 
 Your witches, quakers, whigs, and saints, 
 Or heard of Mather's* famed Magnaiia, 
 If Charles and Laud had chanced to fail you ? 
 Did they not send your charters o'er. 
 And give you lands you ovvn'd before. 
 Permit you all to spill your blood, 
 And drive out heathens where you could ; 
 On these mild terms, that, conquest won, 
 The rejilm you gain'd should be their own ? 
 And when of late attack'd by those. 
 Whom her connection made your foes,t 
 
 ider 
 luse 
 
 * See in Mather's Magnalia, a history of the miracles, 
 which occurred in the first settlement of New England ; 
 see also his "Wonders of the invisible World," lor a full 
 and true account of the witchcraft at Salem. 
 
 f The war of 1755, between the English and French, 
 was doubtless excited by causes foreign to the interests 
 of those Colonies, which now form the United States. 
 They however paid more than their proportion of the 
 
,^ 
 
 lii 
 
 •I I 
 
 Nil 
 
 ill I 
 
 m 
 
 i! I 
 
 68 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Did they not then, distress'd by war, 
 
 Send generals to your help from far. 
 
 Whose aid you own'd, in terms less haughty. 
 
 And thankfully o'erpaid your quota ? 
 
 Say, at what period did they grudge 
 
 To send you governor or judge. 
 
 With all their missionary* crew. 
 
 To teach you law and gospel too? 
 
 They brought all felons in the nation 
 
 To help you on in population; 
 
 Proposed their bishops to surrender. 
 
 And made their priests a legal tender. 
 
 Who only ask'd in surplice clad. 
 
 The simple tithe of all you had: 
 
 expense, and a balance was repaid them by the British 
 Government after the war. — Lond. Edit. 
 
 The fact is that England involved us in the war, in 
 which the Colonies must have been destroyed in its ear- 
 liest stages, had it not been for their own extraordinary 
 exertions. 
 
 * These Missionaries were Clergymen, ordained by the 
 Bishop of London, and settled in America. Those in 
 the northern colonies were generally attached to the royal 
 cause. — Lond. Edit. 
 
 Great efforts were also made to send us Bishops, to rule 
 the New England churches ; but this was prevented by 
 the revolution. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 59 
 
 :itish 
 
 r, in 
 
 ear- 
 
 narj 
 
 r the 
 e in 
 •oyal 
 
 rule 
 I by 
 
 And now, to keep all knaves in awe, 
 Have sent their troops t' establish law. 
 And with gunpowder, fire and ball. 
 Reform your people, one and all. 
 Yet when their insolence and pride 
 Have anger'd all the world beside ; 
 When fear and want at once invade, 
 Can you refuse to lend them aid. 
 And rather risk your heads in fight. 
 Than gratefully throw in your mite ? 
 Can they for debts make satisfaction, 
 Should they dispose their realm at auction, 
 And sell off Britain's goods and land all 
 To France and Spain, by inch of candle ? 
 Shall good King George, with want oppress'd, 
 Insert his name in bankrupt list. 
 And shut up shop, like failing merchant, 
 That fears the bailiffs should make search in't; 
 With poverty shall princes strive, 
 And nobles lack whereon to live ? 
 Have they not rack'd their whole inventions 
 To feed their brats on posts and pensions ; 
 Made their Scotch friends with taxes groan, 
 And pick'd poor Ireland to the bone : 
 Yet have on hand, as well deserving, 
 Ten thousand bastards,* left for starving ? 
 * A great proportion of the old English peerage con- 
 
 J 
 
i' I 
 
 ill 
 
 II 
 
 I 
 
 Jil 
 
 111 
 
 iilii 
 
 60 
 
 M' 
 
 NG AL. 
 
 And can you now, with conscience clear, 
 Refuse them an asylum here, 
 And not maintain, in manner fitting. 
 These genuine sons of mother Britain? 
 
 "T' evade these crimes of blackest grain 
 You prate of liberty in vain. 
 And strive to hide your vile designs 
 In terms abstruse, like school-divines. 
 
 " Your boasted patriotism is scarce, 
 And country's love is but a farce : 
 For after all the proofs you bring. 
 We tories know there's no such thing. 
 
 Hath not Dalrymple* show'd in print, 
 And Johnson too, there's nothing in't; 
 
 sists of the left-handed progeny of their kings. In this 
 business, Charles the second was the last hero. 
 
 * This writer undertook to demonstrate, that all the 
 celebrated British patriots were pensioners, in the pay of 
 France. His proof is derived from the letters of the 
 French embassadors, who accounting for the monies re- 
 ceived from their court, charge so many thousand guineas 
 paid to Hampden, Sidney, and others, as bribes. We are 
 told also that Admiral Russell defeated the French fleet, 
 at a time when he had engaged most solemnly, and re- 
 ceived a stipulated sum, to be beaten himself 
 
this 
 
 the 
 7 of 
 
 the 
 ! re- 
 neas 
 
 are 
 leet, 
 
 re- 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 CI 
 
 Produced you demonstration ample, 
 From others' and their own example, 
 That self is still, in either faction, 
 The only principle of action ; 
 The loadstone, whose attracting tether 
 Keeps the politic world together: 
 And spi^" of our double dealing, 
 We all aid sure .iS so, from feelin ^ 
 
 " Who heeds your babbling of transmitting 
 Freedom to brats of your begetting, 
 Or will proceed, as tho' there were a tie, 
 And obligation to posterity ? 
 We get them, bear them, breed and nurse. 
 What has posterity done for us, 
 That we, least they their rights should lose, 
 Should trust our necks to gripe of noose? 
 
 " And who believes you will not run ? 
 Ye're cowards, every mother's son ; 
 And if you offer to deny, 
 We've witnesses to prove it by. 
 Attend th' opinion first, as referee. 
 Of your old general, stout Sir Jeffery;* 
 
 * Sir Jeffery Amherst, Grant and other officers, who 
 had served in America, were so ignorant, silly or mali- 
 cious, as to make such assertions in parliament. 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Who swore that with five thousand foot 
 
 He'd rout you all, and in pursuit 
 
 Run thro' the land, as easily 
 
 As camel through a needle's eye ? 
 
 Did not the mighty Colonei virant 
 
 Against your courage pour his rant, 
 
 Affirm your universal failure 
 
 In every principle of valor. 
 
 And swear no scamperers e'er could match you, 
 
 So swift, a bullet scarce could catch you ? 
 
 And will you not confess, in this 
 
 A judge most competent he is ? 
 
 Well skill'd on running to decide. 
 
 As what himself has often tried ? 
 
 'Twould not methinks be labor lost, 
 
 If you'd sit down and >unt the cost, 
 
 And ere you call your ankees out. 
 
 First think what work you've set about. 
 
 Have you not roused, his force to try on, 
 
 That grim old beast, the British Lion ; 
 
 And know you not, that at a sup 
 
 He's large enough to eat you up ? 
 
 Have you survey'd his jaws beneath. 
 
 Drawn inventories of his teeth, 
 
 Or have you weigh'd in even balance, 
 
 His strength and magnitude of talons ? 
 
M'FINGAL. 63 
 
 His roar would change your boasts to fear, 
 As easily, as sour* small beer ; 
 And make your feet from dreadful fray, 
 By native instinct run away. 
 Britain, depend on't, will take on her 
 T' assert her dignity and honor, 
 And ere she'd lose your share of pelf. 
 Destroy your country, and herself. 
 For has not North declared they fight 
 To gain substantial rev'nue by't. 
 Denied he'd ever deign to treat. 
 Till on your knees and at his feet ? 
 And feel you not a trifling ague 
 From Van's " Delcnda est Carthago ?-\ 
 For this now Britain has projected. 
 Think you she has not means t' effect it ? 
 Had she not set at work all engines 
 To spirit up the native Indians, 
 Send on your backs the tawney band. 
 With each an hatchet in his hand, 
 
 * It is asserted that the roar of a lion will turn small 
 beer sour. 
 
 f Carthage must he annihilated. There actually existed 
 a little time before the war, a member of parliament of 
 the name of Van^ who in a speech there applied this fam- 
 ous threat of Cato to America, and particularly to Boston, 
 as the place to begin the work of destruction. 
 E 
 
^'1 
 
 11 ill 
 
 11 
 
 Mr 
 '1 11 1 
 
 w 
 
 ;i I 
 
 JIM! III!'' 
 
 illllll,! 
 
 64 
 
 M'FI NO A L. 
 
 T' amuse tlicinsclvcs willi scalping knives, 
 And butclier cliildrcn and vour wives 
 And paid them for your scalps at sale 
 More than your lieads would fetch by talc ; 
 That she might boast again with vanity, 
 Her English national humanity ? 
 For now in its primeval sense 
 This term, humafiify, comprehends 
 All things of which, on this side hell, 
 The human mind is capable ; 
 And thus 'tis well, by writers sage, 
 Applied to Britain and to Gage. 
 On this brave work to raise allies, 
 She sent her duplicate of Guys, 
 To drive at different parts at once on 
 Her stout Guy Carlton and Guy Johnson;* 
 To each of whom, to send again you. 
 Old Guy of Warwick were a ninny, 
 Though the dun cow he fell'd in w ar. 
 These killcows are his betters fiir. 
 
 " And has she not essay'd her notes 
 To rouse your slaves to cut your throats ; 
 
 * A half-breed son of the famous Sir "William, who in- 
 fluenced and led some of their tribes against us during 
 the war. 
 
M'FING A L. 
 
 65 
 
 Sent o'er ambassadors with guineas, 
 
 To bribe your blacks in Carolinas ? 
 
 And has not Gage, her missionary, 
 
 Turn'd many an Afric to a tory ; 
 
 Made the New England bishop's see grow, 
 
 By many a new-converted negro ? 
 
 As friends to government, when he 
 
 Your slaves at Boston late set free. 
 
 Enlisted them in black parade, 
 
 Emboss'd with regimental red ; 
 
 While flared the epaulette, like flambeau, 
 
 On Captain Cuflf and Ensign Sambo ; 
 
 And were they not accounted then 
 
 Among his very bravest men ; 
 
 And when such means she stoops to take, 
 
 Think you she is not wide awake ? 
 
 As the good man of old in Job 
 
 Own'd wondrous allies through the globe, 
 
 Had brought the stones* along the street 
 
 To ratify a cov'nant meet, 
 
 * The stones and all the elements with thee 
 Shall ratify a skict confederacy, 
 Wild beasts their savage temper shall forget, 
 And for a firm alliance with thee treat, &c. 
 
 JSlackmore's paraphrase of Job. 
 6* 
 
il 
 
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 66 
 
 M'FINO AL. 
 
 And every benst, from lice to lions, 
 To join in leagues of strict alliance : 
 lias she not cringed, in spite of pride, 
 For like assistance, far and wide, 
 Till all this formidable league rose 
 Of Indians, British troops and negroes ? 
 And can you break these triple bands 
 By all your workmanship of hands ? 
 
 " Sir," quoth Honorius, " we presume 
 You guess from past feats what's to come, 
 And from the mighty deeds of Gage 
 Foretell how fierce the war he'll wage. 
 You doubtless recollected here 
 The annals of his first great year: 
 While, wearying out the tories' patience, 
 He spent his breath in proclamations; 
 While all his mighty noise and vapor 
 Was used in wrangling upon paper. 
 And boasted military fits 
 Closed in the straining of his wits; 
 While troops, in Boston commons placed. 
 Laid nought, but quires of paper, waste ; 
 While strokes alternate stunn'd the nation. 
 Protest, address, and proclamation, 
 And speech met speech, fib clash'd with fib.. 
 And Gage still ansvver'd, squib for squib. 
 
M'FINU AL. 
 
 67 
 
 "Though this not all his time was lost on; 
 He fortified the town of Boston, 
 Built breastworks, that might lend assistance 
 To keep the patriots at a distance ; 
 For hovvsoe'r the rogues might scoflf 
 lie liked them best the farthest off; 
 Works of important use to aid 
 His courage, when he felt afraid, 
 And whence right off, in manful s'.ition, 
 He'd boldly pop his proclamation. 
 Our hearts must in our bosoms free^ie, 
 At such heroic deeds as these." 
 
 "Vain," said the 'Squire, "you'll find to sneer 
 At Gage's first triumphant year ; 
 For Providence, disposed to teaze us, 
 Can use what instruments it pleases. 
 To pay a tax, at Peter's wish, 
 His chief cashier was once a fish ; 
 An ass, in Balaam's sad disaster, 
 Turn'd orator and saved his master ; 
 A goose, placed sentry on his station, 
 Preserved old Rome from desnlation ; 
 An English bishop's* cur of iute 
 Disclosed rebellions 'gainst the state ; 
 
 * See Aiierbury's trial. 
 
i\ 
 
 i;ii; 
 
 i ■ 
 
 iillil 
 
 I !! 
 
 68 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 So frogs croak'd Pharaoh to repentance. 
 
 And lice delay'd the fatal sentence : 
 
 And heaven can ruin you at pleasure. 
 
 By Gage, as soon as by a Ca3sar. 
 
 Yet did our hero in these days 
 
 Pick up some laurel wreaths of praise. 
 
 And as the statuary of Seville 
 
 Made his crackt saint an exc'llent devil ; 
 
 So though our war small triumph brings. 
 
 We gain'd great fame in other things. 
 
 "Did not our troops show great discerning, 
 And skill your various arts in learning ? 
 Outwent they not each native noodle 
 By far, in playing Yankee Doodle,* 
 Which as 'twas your New England tune, 
 'Twas marvellous they took so soon ? 
 And ere the year was fully through. 
 Did not they learn to foot it too,t 
 
 * This was a native air of New England, and was 
 often played in derision by the British troops, particular- 
 ly on their march to Lexington. Afterwards the captive 
 army of Burgoyne were obliged to march to this tune, in 
 the ceremony of piling their arms at Saratoga. — Lond. 
 Edit. 
 
 t At the battle of Lexintrton. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 And such a dance, as ne'er was known, 
 For twenty miles on end lead down ? 
 Did they not lay their heads together. 
 And gain your art to tar and feather,* 
 When Colonel Nesbitt, thro' the town. 
 In triumph bore the country clown ? 
 Oh what a glorious work to sing 
 The veteran troops of Britain's king, 
 Adventuring for th' heroic laurel 
 With bag of feathers and tar-barrel ! 
 To paint the cart where culprits ride, 
 And Nesbitt marching at its side, 
 Great executioner and proud. 
 Like hangman high on Holborn-road ; 
 And o'er the slow-drawn rumbling car. 
 The waving ensigns of the war! 
 As when a triumph Rome decreed 
 For great Caligula's valiant deed, 
 Who had subdued the British seas. 
 By gath'ring cockles from their base ; 
 
 69 
 
 * In the beginning of 1775, to bring forward an occa- 
 sion for a more serious quarrel, than had yet taken place 
 between the people and the army, Lieutenant-Colonel 
 Nesbitt laid the following plan. The country people 
 being in the habit of purchasing arms, he directed a sol- 
 
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 vi 
 
 ..'i „! 
 
 pi 
 
 i lUJi 
 
 70 
 
 M'FINGAL 
 
 In pompous car the conq'ror bore 
 His captive scallops from the shore, 
 Ovations gain'd his crabs for fetching. 
 And mighty feats of oyster-catching : 
 'Gainst Yankees thus the war begun. 
 They tarr'd, and triumph'd over, one ; 
 And fought and boasted through the season, 
 With force as great and equal reason. 
 
 "Yet thus though skill'd m vict'ry's toils, 
 They boast, not unexpert, in wiles. 
 
 dier to sell one of them an old rusty musket. The soldier 
 soon found a purchaser, a man who brought vegetables 
 to market, who paid him three dollars for it. Scarcely 
 had the man parted from the soldier when he was seized 
 by Nesbitt and conveyed to the guard-house, where he 
 was confined all night. Early next morning they stripped 
 him entirely naked, covered him with warm tar, and then 
 with feathers, placed him on a cart, conducted him to the 
 north end of the town, then back to the south end, as far 
 as Liberty Tree ; where the people began to collect in 
 vast numbers, and the military, fearing for their own 
 safety, dismissed the man, and made a retreat to the 
 barracks. 
 
 The party consisted of about thirty grenadiers of the 
 47th regiment, with fixed bayonets, twenty drums and 
 fifes playing the Eogue's March, headed by Nesbitt with 
 B drawn sword. Lond. Edit. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 For gain'd they not an equal fame in 
 The arts of secrecy and scheming; 
 In stratagem shovv'd wondrous force. 
 And modernized the Trojan horse, 
 Play'd o'er again the tricks Ulyssean, 
 In their famed Salem expedition ? 
 For as that horse, the poets tell ye. 
 Bore Grecian armies in its belly. 
 Till their full reckoning run, with joy 
 Shrewd Sinon midwived them in Troy: 
 So in one ship was Leslie bold 
 Cramm'd with three hundred men in hold, 
 Equipp'd for enterprise and sail. 
 Like Joiiah stow'd in womb of whale. 
 To Marblehead in depth of night 
 The cautious vessel wing'd her flight. 
 And now the sabbath's silent day 
 Call'd all your Yankees oflf to pray ; 
 Safe from each prying jealous neighbor. 
 The scheme and vessel fell in labor. 
 Forth from its hollow womb poured hast'ly 
 The myrmidons of Colonel Leslie. 
 Not thicker o'er the blacken'd strand. 
 The frogs detachment,* rush'd to land, 
 
 71 
 
 * See Ilomer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice. 
 
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 72 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Furious oy onset and surprise 
 To storm th' entrenchment of the mice. 
 Through Salem straight, without delay, 
 The bold battalion took its way, 
 March'd o'er a bridge,* in open sight 
 Of several Yankees arm'd for fight ; 
 Then without loss of time or men, 
 Veer'd round for Boston back again. 
 And found so well their projects thrive. 
 That every soul got home alive. 
 
 "Thus Gage's arms did fortune bless 
 With triumph, safety and success. 
 
 * The object of this expedition was to seize some pro- 
 vincial artillery and stores, placed at a short distance 
 from Salem. Notwithstanding his stratagem, when he 
 came to a small river which lay between, Leslie found 
 the bridge taken up, the stores removed, and the people 
 alarmed and rapidly collecting in his front, as well as 
 rear. He then opened a parley, and promised that if 
 they would lay down the bridge and suffer him to march 
 over it, he would immediately return from whence he 
 came, without doing harm to any person or thing. The 
 treaty was concluded; Leslie marched with his party 
 over the bridge, wheeled about instantly and returned to 
 Boston ; having performed every article on his part, with 
 the greatest honor and safety. 
 
 'iLi,^, I'.'!' 
 
M'FINQAL. 
 
 73 
 
 But mercy is without dispute 
 
 His first and darling attribute ; 
 
 So great, it far outwent and conquer'd 
 
 His military skill at f^ acord. 
 
 There, when the war he chose to wage, 
 
 Shone the benevolence of Gage ; 
 
 Sent troops to thut ill-omen'd place. 
 
 On errands mere of special grace ; 
 
 And all the work he chose them for. 
 
 Was to prevent a civil war;* 
 
 For which kind purpose he projected 
 
 The only certain way t' effect it. 
 
 To seize your powder, shot and arms. 
 
 And all your means of doing harms ; 
 
 As prudent folks take knives away, 
 
 Lest children cut themselves at play. 
 
 And yet, when this was all his scheme. 
 
 The war you still will charge on him ; 
 
 And tho' he oft has swore and said it, 
 
 Stick close to facts, and give no credit. 
 
 Think you, he wish'd you'd brave and beard him ? 
 
 Why, 'twas the very thing, that scared him. 
 
 * This Gage solemnly declared in a letter to Governor 
 Trumbull of Connecticut, soon after the expedition. The 
 correspondence was immediately published. 
 
 7 
 

 
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 74 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 He'd rather you should all have run, 
 
 Than staid to fire a single gun. 
 
 So for the civil war you lament, 
 
 Faith, you yourselves must take the blame in't ; 
 
 For had you then, as he intended, 
 
 Given up your arms, it must have ended : 
 
 Since that's no war, each mortal knows, 
 
 Where one side only gives the blows,* 
 
 And t' others bears them ; on reflection 
 
 The most we call it is correction. 
 
 Nor could the contest have gone higher. 
 
 If you had ne'er return'd the fire : 
 
 But when you shot, and not before. 
 
 It then commenced a civil war. 
 
 Else Gage, to end this controversy. 
 
 Had but corrected you in mercy ; 
 
 Whom mother Britain, old and wise. 
 
 Sent o'er, the colonies to chastise ; 
 
 Command obedience on their peril 
 
 Of ministerial whip and ferule ; 
 
 * Si rixa est, ubi tu pulsas, ego vapulo tantum. 
 
 tTuvenal. 
 
 It was deemed both by the British and Americans, a 
 matter of the utmost importance to determine which par- 
 ty began the war. Some hundreds of depositions were 
 
MTINGAL. 75 
 
 And since they ne'er must come of age, 
 Govern'd and tutor'd them by Gage. 
 Still more, that mercy was their errand, 
 The army's conduct makes apparent. 
 What though at Lexington you can say, 
 They kill'd a few, they did not fancy ; 
 At Concord then with manful popping, 
 Discharged a round, the ball to open ; 
 Yet when they saw your rebel rout 
 Determined still to brave it out, 
 Did they not show their love of peace. 
 Their wish that discord straight might cease ; 
 Demonstrate, and by proofs uncommon. 
 Their orders were to injure no man ?* 
 
 taken in the dispute, and it was fully proved that hostili- 
 ties were first commenced at Lexington by the British 
 troops, who fired on a company of militia, assembling 
 under arms, kMled eight on the first discharge, and dis- 
 persed the rest without opposition. The popularity of 
 the war, in England as well ua in America, depended 
 greatly at that time on the result of this enquiry — frivo- 
 lous as it may now appear. 
 
 * This was another assertion by Gage, in his letter 
 mentioned in the former note. 
 
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 76 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 For did not every regular* run, 
 
 As soon as e'er you fired a gun ; 
 
 Take the first shot you sent them, greeting, 
 
 As meant their signal for retreating ; 
 
 And feariiil, if they staid for sport, 
 
 You might by accident be hurt. 
 
 Convey themselves with speed away 
 
 Full twenty miles in half a day ; 
 
 Race till their legs were grown so weary. 
 
 They scarce sufficed their weight to tarry ? 
 
 Whence Gage extols, from general hearsay, 
 
 The great activity of Lord Percy ;t 
 
 Whose brave example led them on, 
 
 And spirited the troops to run ; 
 
 Who now may boast, at royal levees, 
 
 A Yankee-chace worth forty Chevys. 
 
 "Yet you, as vile as they were kind. 
 Pursued, like tigers, still behind ; 
 
 * a.n the former wars in America, the term Regulars, 
 was applied to the British troops, to distinguish them 
 from the Provincials, or new levies of the country. 
 
 f "Too much praise cannot be given to Lord Percy 
 for his remarkable activity through the whole day." 
 
 Gage's account of the Lexington battle. . 
 
M'FINQAL. 77 
 
 Fired on them at your will, and shut 
 The town, as though you'd starve them out ; 
 And with parade preposterous* hedged. 
 Affect to hold them there besieged : 
 Though Gage, whom proclamations call 
 Your Gov'rnor and Vice Admiral, 
 Whose power gubernatorial still 
 Extends as far as Bunker's hill. 
 Whose admiralty reaches, clever, 
 Near half a mile up Mistic river. 
 Whose naval force yet keeps the seas. 
 Can run away whene'er he'd please. 
 Nay, stern with rage grim Putnam boiling, 
 Plunder'd both Hogg and Noddle Island ;t 
 Scared troops of Tories into town, 
 Burn'd all their hay and houses down, 
 And menaced Gage, unless he'd flee. 
 To drive him headlong to the sea ; 
 As once, to faithless Jews a sign. 
 The De'el, turn"d hog-reeve, did the swine. 
 
 * " And with a preposterous parade of military arrange- 
 ment, they affect to hold the army besieged." 
 
 Oage's last grand proclamation. 
 
 f Two islands in the harbor of Boston. 
 7* 
 
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 78 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 "But now your triumphs all are o'er ; 
 For see from Britain's angry shore, 
 With deadly hosts of valor join 
 Her Howe, her Clinton, and Burgoyne ! 
 As comets thro' th' affrighted skies 
 Pour baleful ruin as they rise ; 
 As iEtna with infernal roar 
 In conflagration sneers the shore; 
 Or as Abijah White,* when sent 
 Our Marshfield friends to represent, 
 Himself while dread array involves. 
 Commissions, pistols, swords, resolves. 
 In awful pomp descending down 
 Bore terror on the factious town : 
 Not with less glory and affright. 
 Parade these generals forth to fight. 
 No more each British colonel runs 
 From whizzing beetles, as air-guns ; 
 
 * He was representative of Marshfield, and was employ- 
 ed to carry to Boston their famous town-resolves, censur- 
 ing the Whigs and reprobating the destruction of the 
 Tea. He armed himself in as ridiculous military array, 
 as a second Hudibras, pretending he was afraid he should 
 be robbed of them. 
 
 j 
 
M'FINGAL. 70 
 
 Thinks horn-bugs bullets, or thro' fears 
 
 Muskltoes takes for musketeers;* 
 
 Nor scapes, as if you'd gain'd supplies, 
 
 From Beelzebub's whole host ot flies, 
 
 No bug these warUke hearts appalls ; 
 
 They better know the sound of balls. 
 
 I hear the din of battle bray ; 
 
 The trump of horror marks its way. 
 
 I see afar the sack of cities. 
 
 The gallows strung with Whig-committees; 
 
 Your moderators triced, like vermin, 
 
 And gate-posts graced with heads of chairmen; 
 
 * Absurd as this may appear, it was a fact. Some 
 British officers, soon after Gage's arrival in Boston, walk- 
 mg on Beacon-Hill after sunset, were affrighted by noises 
 in the air (supposed to be the flying of bugs and beetles) 
 which they took to be the sound of bullets. They left 
 the hill with great precipitation, spread the alarm in their 
 encampment, and wrote terrible accounts to England of 
 being shot at with air-guns ; as appears by their letters, 
 extracts from which were soon after published in the 
 London papers. Indeed, for some time they seriously be- 
 lieved, that the Americans were possessed of a kind of 
 magic white powder, which explovled and killed without 
 report. 
 
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 80 
 
 M ' F 1 N a A L . 
 
 Your Congress lor uave-ofT'rings hanging, 
 
 And ladders tlirong'd with priests haranguing. 
 
 What pillories glad the Tories' eyes 
 
 With patriot ears for sacrifice ! 
 
 What whipping-posts your chosen race 
 
 Admit successive in embrace, 
 
 While each bears off his sins, alack! 
 
 Like Bunyans's pilgrim, on his back!* 
 
 Where then, when Tories scarce get clear, 
 
 Shall Whigs and Congresses appear ? 
 
 What rocks and mountains will you call 
 
 To wrap you over with their fall. 
 
 And save your heads in these sad weathers, 
 
 From fire and sword, and tar and feathers ? 
 
 For lo ! with British troops tar bright. 
 
 Again our Nesbitt heaves in sight ; 
 
 He comes, he comes, your lines to storm, 
 
 And rig your troops in uniform.f 
 
 * Bunyan represents his pilgrim, as setting fortli bur- 
 dened with a very heavy pack, containing all his sins, 
 original and actual. 
 
 t This want of uniform dresses in the American army 
 was a constant theme of ridicule with the British, at the 
 beginning of the war. 
 
M'FINOAL. ^ 
 
 To meet such heroes will yc hrag, 
 Witli fury iirui'd, uud feather-ba^, 
 Who wield their missile pitch and tar 
 With engines new in British war ? 
 
 "Lo! where our mighty navy brings 
 Destruction on her canvass wings,* 
 While through the deep the British thunder 
 Shall sound th'alarm, to rob and plunder ! 
 As Plutbus first, so Homer speaks, 
 When he march'd out t' attack the Greeks, 
 'Gainst mules sent forth his arrows fatal, 
 And slew th' auxiliaries, their cattle : 
 So where our shipsj shall stretch the keel, 
 What vanquish'd oxen shall they steal ! 
 What heroes, rising from the deep. 
 Invade your marshall'd hosts of sheep; 
 Disperse whole troops of horse, and pressing, 
 Make cows surrender at discretion; 
 Attack your hens, like Alexanders, 
 And regiments rout of geese and ganders; 
 
 * Wliere'er our navy spreads her canvas wings, 
 Ilonor to thee and peace to all she brings. Walkr. 
 
 f The British navy was at first employed in plunder- 
 ing our seacoasts, to obtain fresh provisions. 
 
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 111 
 
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 82 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Or where united arms combine, 
 Lead captive many a herd of swine! 
 Then rush in dreadful fury down 
 To fire on every seaport town ; 
 Display their glory and their wits, 
 Fright helpless children into fits ; 
 And stoutly, from the unequal fray. 
 Make many a woman run away. 
 
 " And can ye doubt, whene'er we please, 
 dar chiefs shall boast such deeds as these ? 
 Have we not chiefs transcending far 
 The- old famed thunderbolts ofwar;* 
 Beyond the brave knight-errant fighters, 
 Styled swords of death, by novel-writers ; 
 Nor in romancing ages e'er rose 
 So terrible a tier of heroes. 
 From Gage what sounds alarr. the waves ! 
 How loud a blunderbuss is Graves !| 
 How Newport dreads the blustering sallies, 
 That thunder from our popgun, Wallace, 
 
 * duo fulmina belli, 
 
 Scipiadas. Virgil. 
 
 f Graves was admiral ; Wallace, Captain of a frigate 
 stationed before Newport. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 83 
 
 While noise in formidable strains, 
 
 Spouts from his thimble-full of brains ! 
 
 I see you sink in awed surprise ! 
 
 I see our Tory brethren rise ! 
 
 And as the sect'ries Sandemanian, 
 
 Our friends, describe their hoped millennium ;* 
 
 Boast how the world in every region 
 
 At once shall own their true religion, 
 
 For heaven shall knock, with vengeance dread. 
 
 All unbelievers on the head ; 
 
 And then their church, the meek in spirit, 
 
 The earth, as promised, shall inherit 
 
 From the dead wicked, as heirs male. 
 
 Or next remainder-men in tail : 
 
 Such ruin shall the Whigs oppress ; 
 
 Such spoils our Tory friends shall bless ; 
 
 While Confiscation at command 
 
 Shall stalk in terror through the land, 
 
 Shall give all whig-estates away, 
 
 And call our brethren into play. 
 
 "And can you pause, or scruple more? 
 These things are near you, at the door. 
 
 * The year 1793 was the period they fixed upon, for 
 this event to take place. 
 
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 84 M'FINOAL. 
 
 Behold ! for though to reasoning blind, 
 Signs of the times you still might mind, 
 And view impending fate, as plain 
 As you'd foretell a shower of rain. 
 
 " Hath not heaven warn'd you what must en- 
 And providence declared against you ? [»ue 
 
 Hung forth the dire port<'nts of war 
 By lires and beacons in tl»e air ;* 
 Alarm'd old women aJl around 
 With fearful noises uncier ground, 
 While earth, for many a hundred leagues, 
 Groan'd with her dismal load of Whius ? 
 Was there a meteor, far and wide, 
 But muster'd on the Tory side ; 
 A star malign, that has not bent 
 Its aspects for the parliament. 
 
 * Stories of prodigies were at that time industriously 
 propagated by the Tories in various parts of New Eng- 
 land, and with some success in alarming and intimidating 
 the superstitious. In fact, about the commencement of 
 the war, a large meteor passed through our atmosphere, 
 and the aurora borealis appeared more frequently, and 
 assumed more singular appearances, than usual. These 
 materials were sufficient for a beginning ; nonsense easily 
 supplied the rest. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Forboding your defeat and misery, 
 As once they fought against old Sisera ? 
 Was there a cloud, that spread the skies, 
 But bore our armies of allies, 
 While dreadful hosts of flame stood forth 
 In baleful streamers from the north ? 
 Which plainly show'd what part they join'd ; 
 For North's the minister, ye mind ; 
 Whence oft your quibblers in gazettes 
 On Northern blasts have strain'd their wits ; 
 And think you not, the clouds know how 
 To make the pun, as well you ? 
 I>kl there arise an apparition, 
 Hhit grinn'd forth ruin to sedition ; 
 A death-watch, but has join'd our leagues. 
 And ^'iick'd destruction to the Whigs ? 
 Heard ye no*, when the wind wag fair. 
 At night our prophets in the air. 
 Who, loud, like admiralty libel, 
 Read awful chapters from 0.,'^ Btj le, 
 And war and plague and deat'i ueuounced. 
 And told you how you'd soo.i be troun -ed ? 
 I see, to join our conq'ring side. 
 Heaven, earth and hell at once allied ; 
 See from your overthrow and end, 
 The Tory paradise ascend, 
 
 8 
 
 85 
 
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 86 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Like tiiat new world, which claims its station, 
 
 Beyond the final conflagration. 
 
 I see the day, that lots your share 
 
 In utter darkness and despair ; 
 
 The day of joy, when North, our lord. 
 
 His faithful fav'rites shall reward. 
 
 No Tory then shall set before him 
 
 Small wish of 'Squire and Justice Quorum ; 
 
 But to his unmistaken eyes 
 
 See lordships, posts and pensions rise. 
 
 " Awake to gladness then, ye Tories ! 
 Th' unbounded prospect lies before us. 
 The power, display'd in Gages banners. 
 Shall cut their fertile lands to manors ; 
 And o'er our happy conquer'd ground. 
 Dispense estates and titles round. 
 Behold ! the world shall stare at new setts 
 Of home-made Earls* in Massachusetts ; 
 Admire, array'd in ducal tassels, 
 Your Ol'vers, Hutchinsons, and Vassals ; 
 See join'd in ministerial work 
 His Grace of Albany and York. 
 "What lordships from each carved estate, 
 On our New York Assembly wait ! 
 
 * See Hutchinson's and Oliver's letters. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 87 
 
 What titl ancys, Gales, and Billops;* 
 
 Lord Brus.., Lord Wilkins, and Lord Philips ! 
 
 In wide-sleeved pomp of godly guise, 
 
 What solemn rows of Bishops rise ! 
 
 Aloft a cardinal's hat is spread 
 
 O'er punster Cooper's reverend head. 
 
 In Vardell, that poetic zealot,t 
 
 I view a lawn-bedizen'd Prelate ; 
 
 While mitres fall, as 'tis their duty, 
 
 On heads of Chandler and Auchnmty ! 
 
 Knights, viscounts, barons, shall ye meet. 
 
 As thick as pebbles in the street ; 
 
 E'en I perhaps (heaven speed my claim !) 
 
 Shall fix a sir before my name. 
 
 For titles all our foreheads ache. 
 
 For what blest changes can they make ! 
 
 Place Reverence, Grace, and Excellence, 
 
 Where neither claim'd the least pretence ; 
 
 * Members of the miulsterial miijority in tlie Legisla- 
 ture of New York. 
 
 •f Cooper, President of King's College in New York, 
 was a notorious punster ; Vardell, author of some poetical 
 satires on the sons of liberty in New York ; Chandler and 
 Auchmuty, high-church and tory writers of the clerii'nl 
 order. 
 
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 M'FINGAL.. 
 
 Transform by pau kit's magic words 
 Men, likest devils, into Lords 
 Whence commoners, to Peers translated, 
 Are justly said to be created.* 
 Now were commissioners you saw, 
 Shall boards of nobles deal you law ; 
 Long-robed comptrollers judge your rights, 
 And tide-waiters start up in knights. 
 While Whigs subdued, in slavish awe, 
 Our wood shall hew, our water draw, 
 And bless the mildness, when past hope, 
 That saved their necks from noose of rope. 
 For since our leaders lave decreed, 
 Their blacks to join us, shall be freed, 
 To hang the conquer'd whigs, we all see, 
 Would prove but weak, and thriftless policy. 
 Except their Chiefs : the vulgar knaves 
 Will do more good, preserved for slaves." 
 
 " 'Tis well," Honorius cried ; " your scheme 
 Has painted out a pretty dream. 
 We can't confute your second-sight ; 
 We shall be slaves and you a knight. 
 
 * " To creah a Pner" is the English technical phrase. 
 — Considering i-he materials frequently made use of, it is 
 easy to perc'?iv>; the propriety of the expression. Thus 
 Adam was fanned of the duat of the ground. Gen, ii. 7. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 These things must come, but I divine, 
 They'll come not in your day, nor mine. 
 
 "But, oh my friends, my brethren, hear; 
 And turn for once th' attentive ear. 
 Ye see how prompt to aid our woes 
 The tender mercies of our foes j 
 Ye see with what unvaried rancour 
 Still for our blood their minions hanker; 
 Nor aught can sate their mad ambition. 
 From us, but death, or worse, submission^ 
 Shall these then riot in our spoil. 
 Reap the glad harvest of our toil. 
 Rise from their country's ruins proud, 
 And roll their chariot-wheels in blood ? 
 See Gage, with inauspicious star, 
 Has oped the gates of civil war. 
 When streams of gore, from freedom slain, 
 Encrimson'd Concord's fatal plain ; 
 Whose warning voice, with awful sound. 
 Still cries, like Abel's from the ground ; 
 And heaven, attentive to its call, 
 Shall doom the proud oppressor's fall. 
 
 " Rise then, ere ruin swift surprize. 
 To victory, to vengeance rise. 
 Hark, iiow tlio distmil liii alarms; 
 The echoiiiy Iniiinicl hmillies, to arms. 
 
 8* 
 
 89 
 
 ^i^^ 
 
 ^ 
 
90 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 i! I 
 
 '•V.< 
 
 From provinces remote afar, 
 
 The sons of glory rouse to war. 
 
 'Tis Freedom calls ! the raptured sound 
 
 The Apalachian hills rebound. 
 
 The Georgian* coasts her voice shall hear, 
 
 And start from lethargies of fear. 
 
 From the parch'd zone, with glowing ray 
 
 Where pours the sun intenser day, 
 
 To shores where icy waters roll, 
 
 And tremble to the glimm'ring pole. 
 
 Inspired by freedom's heavenly charms, 
 
 United nations wake to arms. 
 
 The star of conquest lights their way. 
 
 And guides their vengeance on their prey. 
 
 Yes, though tyrannic force oppose. 
 
 Still shall they triumph o'er their foes ; 
 
 Till heaven the happy land shall bless 
 
 With safety, liberty, and peace. 
 
 "And ye, whose souls of dastard mould 
 Start at the bravery of the bold ; ^ 
 
 To love your country who pretend, 
 Yet want all spirit to defend ; 
 Who feel your fancies so prolific, 
 Engend'ring visions whims terrific, 
 
 * The province of Georgia bad not then joined the 
 union. 
 
 1 
 
 m 
 
 ;,::f'-i; 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 01 
 
 O'errun with horrors of coercion, 
 
 Fire, blood, and thunder in reversion ; 
 
 King's standards, pill'ries, confiscations, 
 
 And Gage's scare-crow proclamations ; 
 
 Who scarce could rouse, if caught in fray, 
 
 Presence of mind to run awfiv : * 
 
 See nought but halters rise to view, 
 
 In all your dreams, and deem them true ; 
 
 And while these phantoms haunt your brains, 
 
 Bow down your willing necks to chains. 
 
 Heavens ! are ye sons of sires so great, 
 
 Immortal in the fields of fate. 
 
 Who braved all deaths, by land or sea. 
 
 Who bled, who conquer'd, to be free ? 
 
 Hence coward souls, the worst disgrace 
 
 Of our forefathers' valiant race ; 
 
 Hie homeward from the glorious field, 
 
 There turn the wheel, the distaflf wield ; 
 
 Act wiiat ye are, nor dare to stain 
 
 The warrior's arms with touch profane ; 
 
 There beg your more heroic wives 
 
 To guard your own, your children's lives ; 
 
 Beneath their aprons seek a screen, 
 
 Nor dare to mingle more with men." 
 
 As thus he spake, the Tories' anger 
 Could now restrain itself no longer ; 
 
92 
 
 M'l'l N Ci A L. 
 
 Who tried before by many a freak, or 
 Insulting noise, to stop the speaker ; 
 Swung th' un-oii'd liinge of each pew-door, 
 Tiii'ir feet kept shuffling on the floor ; 
 Made their disapprobation known 
 By many a murmur, hum and groan. 
 That to his speech supplied the place 
 Of counterpart in thorough bass. 
 Thus bagpipes, while the tune they breathe, 
 Still drone and grumble underneath ; 
 And the famed Demosthenes* 
 Harangued the rumbling of the seas, 
 Held forth with elocution grave. 
 To audience loud of wind and wave ; 
 And had a stiller congregation, 
 Than Tories are, to hear th' oration. 
 The uproar now grew high and louder. 
 As nearer thund'rings of a cloud are. 
 And every soul with heart and voice 
 Supplied his quota of the noise. 
 Each listening ear was set on torture. 
 Each Tory bellowing, " Order, Order ;" 
 
 ':. 
 
 * Demosthenes, the Grecian orator, is said to have 
 exercised his voice, by declaiming to the waves in a gale ; 
 Avliich party made the most noise, history does not inform 
 
 us. 
 
have 
 gale; 
 iform 
 
 M'FINO AL. 
 
 And some, with tongue not low or weak, 
 
 Were clam'ring fust, for leave to speak ; 
 
 The Moderator, with great v'lence. 
 
 The cushion thuinp'd with, " Silence, Silence 
 
 The constable to every prater 
 
 Bavvl'd out, " Tray hear the moderator ;'' 
 
 Some call'd the vote, and some in turn 
 
 "Were screaming high, " Ad'mrn, Adjourn.'* 
 
 Not Chaos heard such jars lashes, 
 
 When all the el'ments fougiit for places. 
 
 The storm each moment fiercer grew ; 
 
 His sword the great M'Fijmgal drew, 
 
 Prepared in either chance to share, 
 
 To keep the peace, or aid the war. 
 
 Nor lack'd they each poetic being, 
 
 Whom bards alone are skill'd in seeing ; 
 
 Plumed Victory stood perch'd on high. 
 
 Upon the pulpit-canopy. 
 
 To join, as is her custom tried. 
 
 Like Indians, on the strongest side ; 
 
 The Destinies, with shears and distaff. 
 
 Drew near their threads of life to twist off; 
 
 The Furies 'gan to feast on blows. 
 
 And broken head, and bloody nose : 
 
 When on a sudden from without 
 
 Arose a loud terrific shout ; 
 
 98 
 
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 (716)I72-4S03 
 

 
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 I 
 
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 94 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 And straight the people all at once heard 
 Of tongues an universal concert; 
 Like ^sop's times, as fable runs, 
 When every creature talk'd at once. 
 Or like the variegated gabble, 
 That crazed the carpenters of Babel. 
 Each party soon forsook the quarrel, 
 And let the other go on parol, 
 Eager to know what fearful matter 
 Had conjured up such general clatter ; 
 And left the church in thin array, 
 As though it had been lecture-day.* 
 Our 'Squire M'Fingal straitway beckon'd 
 The Constable to stand his second ; 
 And sallied forth with aspect fierce 
 The crowd assembled to disperse. 
 
 * In the New England churches, previous to the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament, religious service was per- 
 formed, and a sermon preached, on some day in the week 
 preceding. These sermons were styled Lectures, and the 
 day called Lecture-day. But usually these meetings were 
 very thinly attended, like the Wall-lectures in the English 
 Universities, in which to supply an audience, they depend 
 on the proverb, that Walls have ears. See V. Knox's 
 Essays, No. 77. 
 
 .1 ' i 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 95 
 
 The Moderator, out of view, 
 Beneath the desk had lain perdue ; 
 Peep'd up his head to view the fray, 
 Beheld the wranglers run away, 
 And left alone, with solemn face 
 Adjourn'd them without time or place. 
 
 nists with the other subjects of the British Dominion. — 
 On this, Hutchinson's letters were immediately published 
 in Boston, to the utter confusion of all his pretensions, 
 political and religious. 
 
 * Alluding to the famous cargo of tea, which was 
 destroyed in Boston harbor, the consignees of which were 
 the tools of the British ministry. 
 
 * Peter Oliver Esq., without legal science or profession- 
 al education, was appointed Chief Judge of the Supreme 
 Court in Massachusetts. 
 
 the greatest honor and safety. 
 
 END OF CANTO SECOND. 
 
 * The object of this expedition was to seize some pro- 
 vincial artillery and stores, placed at a short distance 
 from Salem. Notwithstanding his stratagem, when he 
 came to a small river which lay between, Leslie found 
 the bridge taken up, the stores removed, and the people 
 alarmed and rapidly collecting in his front, as well as 
 rear. He then opened a parley, and promised that if 
 they would lay down the bridge and suffer him to march 
 over it, he would immediately return from whence he 
 came, without doing harm to any person or thing. The 
 treaty Was concluded; Leslie marched with his party 
 over the bridge, wheeled about instantly and returned to 
 Boston ; having performed every article on his part, with 
 
M'F ING AL. 
 
 CANTO IIL 
 
 THE LIBERTY POLE. 
 
 la 
 
 rOW warm with ministerial ire, 
 Fierce sallied forth our loyal 'Squire, 
 And on his striding steps attends 
 His desperate clan of Tory friends. 
 
 When sudden met his wrathful eye 
 
 A pole ascending through the sky, 
 
 Which numerous throngs of whiggish race 
 
 Were raising in the market-place. 
 
 Not higher school-boys's kites aspire. 
 
 Or royal mast, or country spire ; 
 
 Like spears at Brobdignagian tilting, 
 
 Or Satan's walking-staff in Milton. 
 
 And on its top, the flag unfurl'd 
 
 Waved triumph o'er the gazing world. 
 
M'FINGAL. 97 
 
 Inscribed with inconsistent types 
 Of Liberty and thirteen stripes J^ 
 Beneath, the crowd without delay 
 The dedication-rites essay, 
 And gladly pay, in ancient fashion. 
 The ceremonies of libation ; 
 While briskly to each patriot lip 
 Walks eager round the inspiring flip :* 
 Delicious draught ! whose powers inherit 
 The quintessence of public spirit ; 
 Which whoso tastes, perceives his mind 
 To nobler politics refined ; 
 Or roused to martial controversy. 
 As. from transforming cups of Circe ; 
 Or warm'd with Homer's nectar'd liquor. 
 That fiU'd the veins of gods with ichor. 
 At hand for xvq^' supplies in store. 
 The tavern opes its friendly door, 
 Whence to and fro the waiters run. 
 Like bucket-men at fires in town. 
 
 * The American flag. It would doubtless be wrong 
 to imagine that the stripes bear any allusion to the slave 
 trade. 
 
 f Flip, a liquor composed of beer, rum, and sugar ; the 
 common treat at that time in the country towns of New 
 
 England. 
 
 9 
 
C8 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 i V 
 
 
 '■i ■ fr*l .1 
 
 Then with three shouts that tore the sky, 
 'Tis consecrate to Liberty 
 To guard it from th' attacks of Tories, 
 A grand committee call'd of four is ; 
 Who foremost on the patriot spot, 
 Had brought the flip and paid the shot. 
 
 By this, M'FiNGAL with his train 
 Advanced upon th' adjacent plain, 
 And full with loyalty possesst, 
 Pour'd forth the zeal, that fired his breast. 
 
 " What mad-brain'd rebel gave commission, 
 To raise this May-pole of sedition ? 
 Like Babel, rear'd by bawling throngs, 
 With like confusion too of tongues, 
 To point at heaven and summon down 
 The thunders of the British crown? 
 Say, will this paltry pole secure 
 Your forfeit heads from Gage's power ? 
 Attack'd by heroes brave and crafty, 
 Is this to stand your ark of safety ; 
 Or driven by Scottish laird and laddie, 
 Think ye to rest beneath its shadow ? 
 When bombs, like fiery serpents, fly. 
 And balls rush hissing through the sky. 
 Will this vile pole, devote to freedom. 
 Save like the Jewish pole in Edom ; 
 
 i:' 
 
M'FINGAL. 99 
 
 Or like the brazen snake of Moses, 
 
 Cure your crackt skulls and batter'd noses ? 
 
 " Ye dupes to every factious rogue 
 And tavern-prating demagogue, 
 Whose tongue but rings, with sound more full, 
 On th' empty drumhead of his scull ; 
 Behold you not what noisy fools 
 Use you, worse simpletons, for tools ? 
 For Liberty, in your own by-sense, 
 Is but for crimes a patent license, 
 To break of law th' Egyptian yoke, 
 And throw the world in common stock ; 
 Reduce all grievances and ills 
 To Magna Charta of your wills ; 
 Establish cheats and frauds and nonsense, 
 Framed to the model of your conscience ; 
 Cry justice down, as out of fashion. 
 And fix its scale of depreciation ;* 
 Defy all creditors to trouble ye. 
 And keep new years of Jewish jubilee; 
 
 * Alluding to the depreciation of the Continental paper 
 money. Congress finally ascertained the course of its 
 declension at different periods, by what was called, A 
 Scale of Depreciation. 
 
100 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Drive judges out,* like Aaron's calves, 
 By jurisdiction of white staves, 
 And make the bar and bench and steeple 
 Submit t' our sovereign lord, the People ; 
 By plunder rise to power and glory, 
 And brand all property, as Tory ; 
 Expose all wares to lawful seizures 
 By mobbers or monopolizers ; 
 Break heads and windows and the peace. 
 For your own interest and increase ; 
 Dispute and pray and fight and groan 
 For public good, and mean your own ; 
 Prevent the law by fierce attacks 
 From quitting scores upon your backs ; 
 Lay your old dread, the gallows, low. 
 And seize the stocks, your ancient foe. 
 And turn them to convenient engines 
 To wreak your patriotic vengeance ; 
 While all, your rights who understand. 
 Confess them in their owner's hand ; 
 
 * On the commencement of the war, the courts of 
 justice where every where shut up. In some instances, 
 the judges were forced to retire, by the people, who as- 
 sembled in multitudes, armed with white staves. 
 
M'FINO AL. 
 
 And when by clamors and confusions, 
 Your freedom's grown a public nuisance, 
 Cry " Liberty," with powerful yearning, 
 As he does " Fire !" whose house is burning ; 
 Though he already has much more 
 Than he can find occasion for. 
 While every clown that tills the plains. 
 Though bankrupt in estate and brains. 
 By this new light transform 'd to traitor, 
 Forsakes his plough to turn dictator, 
 Starts an haranguing chief of Whigs, 
 And drags you by the ears, like pigs. 
 All bluster, arm'd with factious license. 
 New-born at once to politicians. 
 Each leather-apron'd dunce, grown wise. 
 Presents his forward face t' advise. 
 And tatter'd legislators meet. 
 From every workshop through the street. 
 His goose the tailor finds no use in, 
 To patch and turn the Constitution ; 
 The blacksmith comes with sledge and gra o 
 To iron-bind the wheels of state ; 
 The quack forbears his patients' souse, 
 To purge the Council and the House ; 
 The tinker quits his moulds and doxies. 
 To cast assembly-men and proxies. 
 
 9* 
 
 101 
 
102 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 '■■I 
 
 } V ,V! 
 
 
 From dunghills deep of blackest hue, 
 Your dirt-bred patriots spring to view, 
 To wealth and power and honors rise, 
 Like new-wing'd maggots changed to flies. 
 And fluttering round in high parade, 
 Strut in the robe, or gay cockade. 
 See Arnold quits, for ways more certain, 
 His bankrupt-perj'ries for his fortune. 
 Brews rum no longer in his store, 
 Jockpy and skipper now no more. 
 Forsakes his warehouses and docks. 
 And writs of slander for the pox;* 
 And cleansed by patriotism from shame. 
 Grows general of the foremost name. 
 For in this ferment of the stream 
 The dregs have work'd up to the brim. 
 And by the rule of topsy-turvies. 
 The scum stands foaming on the surface. 
 
 1 i> 
 
 * Arnold's perjuries at the time of his pretended 
 bankruptcy, which was the first rise of his fortune ; and 
 his curious lawsuit against a brother skipper, who had 
 charged him with having caught the above-mentioned 
 disease, by his connection with a certain African princess 
 in the West Indies, were among the early promises of his 
 future greatness, and honors. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 103 
 
 You've caused your pyramid t' ascend, 
 
 And set it on the little end. 
 
 Like Hudibras, your empire's made, 
 
 Whose crupper had o*ertopp'd his head. 
 
 You've push'd and turn'd the whole world up. 
 
 Side down, and got yourselves at top, 
 
 While all the great ones of your state 
 
 Are crush'd beneath the popular weight ; 
 
 Nor can you boast, this present hour. 
 
 The shadow of the form of power. 
 
 For what's your Congress* or its end ? 
 
 A power t' advise and recommend ; 
 
 To call forth troops, adjust your quotas — 
 
 And yet no soul is bound to notice ; 
 
 To pawn your faith to th' utmost limit ; 
 
 But cannot bind you to redeem it ; 
 
 And when in want no more in them lies. 
 
 Than begging from your state-assemblies ; 
 
 * The author here, in a true strain of patriotic censure, 
 pointed out the principal defects in the first federal con- 
 stitution of the United States : all which have been since 
 removed in the new Constitution, established in the year 
 1789. So that the prophecy below, Yov!ll ne^er have sense 
 enough to mend it, must be ranked among the other sage 
 blunders of his second-sighted hero. — Lond. Edit. 
 
I ' 
 
 n 
 
 <li\ i .joi 
 
 104 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 Can utter oracles of dread, 
 Like friar Bacon's brazen head, 
 But when a faction dares dispute 'em, 
 Has ne'er an arm to execute 'em : 
 As tho' you chose supreme dictators, 
 And put them under conservators. 
 You've but pursued the self-same way 
 With Shakespeare's Trinc'lo* in the play ; 
 " You shall be viceroys here, 'tis true, 
 *' But we'll be viceroy's over you." 
 What wild confusion hence must ensue ? 
 Tho' common danger yet cements you ; 
 So some wreck'd vessel all in shatters, 
 Is held up by surrounding waters. 
 But stranded, when the pressure ceases, 
 Falls by its rottenness to pieces. 
 And fall it must I if wars were ended, 
 You'll ne'er have sense enough to mend it : 
 But creeping on, by low intrigues, 
 Like vermin of a thousand legs,t 
 
 * This political plan of Trinculo in the Tempest, may 
 be found in the old folio edition of Shakespeare. It has 
 since been expunged by some of his wise commentators 
 
 f Millepedes. 
 
 HW 
 
M'FINOAL. 
 
 105 
 
 'Twill find as short a life assign'd, 
 As all things else of reptile kind, 
 Your commonwealth's a common harlot, 
 The property of every varlet ; 
 Which now in taste, and full employ. 
 All sorts admire, as all enjoy : 
 But soon a batter'd strumpet grown. 
 You'll curse aud drum her out of town. 
 Such is the government you chose ; 
 For this you bade the world be foes ; 
 For this, so mark'd for dissolution, 
 You scorn the British constitution, 
 That constitution form'd by sages, 
 The wonder of all modern ages; 
 MHiich owns no failure in reality, 
 Except corruption and venality ; 
 And merely proves the adage just. 
 That best things spoil'd corrupt to worst : 
 So man supreme in earthly station, 
 And mighty lord of this creation, 
 When once his corse is dead as herring, 
 Becomes the most offensive carrion. 
 And sooner breeds the plague, 'tis found, 
 Than all beasts rotting on the ground. 
 Yet with republics to dismay us, 
 You've call'd up Anarchy from chaos, 
 
'-it 
 
 : (!■ »: I 
 
 i,l 
 
 106 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 With all the followers of her school, 
 
 Uproar and Rage and wild Misrule : 
 
 For whom this rout of Whigs distracted, 
 
 And ravings dire of every crack'd head; 
 
 These new-cast legislative engines 
 
 Of country-meetings and conventions : 
 
 Committees vile of correspondence, 
 
 And mobs, whose tricks have almost undone 's: 
 
 While reason fails to check your course. 
 
 And Loyalty's kick'd out of doors. 
 
 And Folly, like inviting landlord. 
 
 Hoists on your poles her royal standard ; 
 
 While the king's friends, in doleful dumps. 
 
 Have worn their courage to the stumps. 
 
 And leaving George in sad disaster, 
 
 Most sinfully deny their master. 
 
 What furies raged when you, in se'i, 
 
 In shape of Indians, drovvn'd the tea;* 
 
 * The cargo of tea sent to Boston, after been guarded 
 for twenty nights, by voluntary parties of the Whigs, to 
 prevent its being clandestinely brought ashore, was 
 thrown into the sea, by a party of about two hundred 
 young men, dressed, armed, and painted like Indians; 
 but many a ruffled shirt and laced vest appeared under 
 their blankets. 
 
M ' F I N G A L . 
 
 107 
 
 When your gay sparks, fatigued to watch it, 
 Assumed the moggison and hatchet. 
 With wampum'd blankets hid their laces, 
 And like their svveathearts, primed* their faces : 
 While not a red-coat dared oppose. 
 And scarce a Tory shovv'd his nose ; 
 While Hutchinson,! for sure retreat, 
 Manoeuvred to his country seat, • 
 
 * Primed, i. e. painted. 
 
 f When the leading Whigs in Boston found impossible 
 to procure the Tea to be sent back, they secretly resolved 
 on its destruction, and prepared all the necessary means. 
 To cover the design, a meeting of the people of the whole 
 county was convened on the day appointed, and spent 
 their time in grave consultation on the question, what 
 should be done to prevent its being landed and sold. 
 The arrival of the Indians put an end to the debate, at 
 the moment, when one of the Whig orators was declaiming 
 against all violent measures. Hutchinson was alarmed at 
 the meeting, and retired privately in the morning, to his 
 country seat at Milton. Whether from jnistake or design 
 information was sent to him, that the mob was coming to 
 pull down his house. He escaped in the utmost haste 
 across the fields. The story of the day was, that the 
 alarm was given, at the time, when he sate half shaved 
 under the hands of his barber. 
 
108 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 ir 
 
 •\- 
 
 i\ L 
 
 !<1 111 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 And thence affrighted, in the suds, 
 Stole off bareheaded through the woods. 
 
 " Have you not roused your mobs to join, 
 And make mandamus-men resign, 
 Call'd forth each duffil-drest curmudgeon 
 And dirty trowsers and white bludgeon, 
 Forced all our councils through the land, 
 To yield their necks at your command ; 
 While paleness marks their late disgraces. 
 Through all their rueful length of faces ? 
 
 " Have you not caused as woeful work 
 In our good city of New York, 
 When all the rabble, well cockaded, 
 In triumph through tlie streets paraded. 
 And mob'd tiie Tories, scared their spouses, 
 And ransack'd all the custom-houses :* 
 Made such a tumult, bluster, jarring. 
 That mid the clash of tempests warring, 
 Smith'sf weather-cock, in veers forlorn, 
 Could hardly tell which way to turn ? 
 
 * The custom house was broken open at New York, 
 and all public monies seized. 
 
 f William Smith, an eminent lawyer in New York. 
 He at first opposed the claims of Britain, but after waver- 
 ing some time, at last joined our enemy. He was after- 
 wards made Chief Justice in Canada. 
 
 fill 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 109 
 
 Burn'd effigies of higher powers, 
 
 Contrived in planetary hours ; 
 
 As witches with clay-images 
 
 Destroy or torture whom they please : 
 
 Till fired with rage, th' ungrateful club 
 
 Spared not your best friend, Beelzebub, 
 
 O'erlook'd his favors, and forgot 
 
 The reverence due his cloven foot, 
 
 And in the selfsame furnace frying, 
 
 Stew'd him, and North, and Bute, and Tryon ?* 
 
 Did you not, in as vile and shallow way, 
 
 Fright our poor Philadelphian, Galloway, 
 
 Your Congress, when the loyal ribald 
 
 BeUed, berated, and bescribbled ? 
 
 * Tryon was Governor of New York and a British 
 General during the war. He had the glory of destroying 
 the towns of Fairfield and Norwalk. Burnings in effigy 
 were frequently the amusements of the mob at that period, 
 and in imitation of the former custom of the English in 
 burning annually the Pope, the Devil and the Pretender, 
 Beelzebub, with his usual figure and accoutrements, was 
 always joined in the conflagration with the other obnox- 
 ious characters. 
 
 10 
 
I-„'I 
 
 f» ill ., ii»iii:-' 1 
 
 f| '1 1 
 
 H 
 
 ii: 
 
 
 If 
 
 i. 
 
 ill 
 
 JLLl: 
 
 110 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 What ropes* and lialters did you send, 
 
 Terrific emblems of his end, 
 
 Till, least he'd hang in more than effigy, 
 
 Fled in a fog the trembling refugee ? 
 
 Now rising in progression fatal, 
 
 Have you not ventured to give battle ? 
 
 When Treason chaced our heroes troubled. 
 
 With rusty gun,t and leathern doublet ; 
 
 Turn'd all stone-walls and groves and bushes. 
 
 To batteries arm'd with blunderbusses; 
 
 And with deep wounds, that fate portend, 
 
 Gaul'd many a Briton's latter end ; 
 
 Drove them to Boston, as in jail. 
 
 Confined without mainprize or bail. 
 
 * Galloway began by being a flaming patriot; but 
 being disgusted at his own want of influence, and the 
 greater popularity of others, he turned Tory, wrote 
 against the measures of the Congress, and absconded. 
 Just before his escape, a trunk was put on board a vessel 
 in the Delaware, to be delivered to Joseph Galloway, 
 Esquire. On opening it, he found it contained only, as 
 Shakespeare says, 
 
 *' A halter gratis, and leave to hang himself" 
 
 f At the battle of Lexington. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Were not these deeds enough betimes. 
 To heap the measure of your crimes : 
 But in this loyal town and dwelling, 
 You raise these ensigns of rebellion? 
 'Tis done! fair Mercy shuts her door; 
 And Vengeance now shall sleep no more. 
 Rise then, my frtends, in terror rise. 
 And sweep this scandal from the skies. 
 You'll see their Dragon, though well jointed. 
 Will shrink before the Lord's anointed ;* 
 And like old Jericho's proud wall, 
 Before our ram's horns prostrate fall," 
 
 This said, our Squire, yet undismay'd, 
 Call'd forth the Constable to aid, 
 And bade him read, in nearer station, 
 The Riot-act and Proclamation. 
 He swift, advancing to the ring, 
 Began, "Our Sovereign Lord, the King" — 
 When thousand clam'rous tongues he hears. 
 And clubs and stones assail his ears. 
 To fly was vain ; to fight was idle ; 
 By foes encompass'd in the middle, 
 
 111 
 
 .Ml 
 
 * The Tory clergy always styled the King, the Lord's 
 Anointed. The language of Cromwell's and Charles' 
 days was yet frequent in New England. 
 H 
 
112 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 'ii "ii 
 
 ■'i tS: 
 
 J :l. 
 
 ::>M:' 
 
 li'i 
 
 His hope, in stratagems, he found, 
 And fell right craftily to ground ; 
 Then crept to seek an hiding place, 
 'Twas all he could, beneath a brace ; 
 Where soon the conq'ring crew espied him. 
 And where he lurk'd, they caught and tied him. 
 
 At once with resolution fatal, • 
 Both Whigs and Tories rush'd to battle. 
 Instead of weapons, either band 
 Seized on such arms as came to hand. 
 And as famed Ovid* paints th' adventures 
 Of wrangling Lapithee and Centaurs, 
 Who at their feast, by Bacchus led. 
 Threw bottles at each other's head; 
 And these arms failing in their scuffles, 
 Attack'd with andirons, tongs, and shovels : 
 So clubs and billets, staves, and stones 
 Met fierce, encountering every sconce. 
 And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains 
 Each void receptacle for brains j 
 Their clamors rend the skies around. 
 The hills rebellow to the sound ; 
 And many a groan increas'd the din 
 From batter'd nose and broken shin. 
 
 I \\ 
 
 * See Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 12th. 
 
(1. 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 113 
 
 M'FiNGAL, rising at the word, 
 
 Drew forth his old mihtia-sword ; 
 
 Thrice cried " King George," as erst in distress 
 
 Knights of romance invoked a mistress; 
 
 And brandishing the blade in air, 
 
 Struck terror through th' opposing war. 
 
 The Whigs, unsafe within the wind 
 
 Of such commotion, shrunk behind. 
 
 With whirling steel around address'd. 
 
 Fierce through their thickest throng he press'd, 
 
 (Who roll'd on either side in arch. 
 
 Like Red Sea waves in Israel's march) 
 
 And like a meteor rushing through, 
 
 Struck on their pole a vengeful blow. 
 
 Around, the Whigs, of clubs and stones 
 
 Discharged whole vollies, in platoons, 
 
 Tiiat o'er in whistling fury fly ; 
 
 But not a foe dares venture nigh. 
 
 And now perhaps with glory crown'd 
 
 Our 'Squire had fell'd the pole to ground, 
 
 Had not some pow'r, a whig at heart, 
 
 Descended down and took their part ;* 
 
 * The learned reader will readily observe the allusions 
 
 in this scene, to the single combats of Paris and Menelaua 
 
 in Homer, -^neas and the Turnus in Virgil, and Michael 
 
 and Satan in Milton. 
 
 10* 
 
114 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 (Whether 'twere Pallas, Mars, or Iris, 
 'Tis scarce worth while to make inquiries) 
 Who at the nick of time alarming, 
 Assumed the solemn form of Chairman, 
 Address'd a Whig, in every scene 
 The stoutest wrestler on the green. 
 And pointed where the spade was found. 
 Late used to set their pole in ground. 
 And urged, with equal arms and might, 
 To dare our 'Squire to single fight. 
 The Whig thus arm'd, untaught to yield, 
 Advanced tremendous to the field : 
 Nor did M'Fingal shun the foe. 
 But stood to brave the desp'rate blow ; 
 While all the party gazed, suspended 
 To see the deadly combat ended ; 
 And Jove* in equal balance weigh'd 
 The sword against the brand ish'd spade. 
 He weigh'd ; but lighter than a dream, 
 The sword flew up, and kick'd the beam. 
 Our 'Squire on tiptoe rising fair 
 Lifts high a noble stroke in air, 
 
 * Jupiter ipse duas aequato examine lances 
 Sustinet & fata imponit diversa duorura, 
 Quem daranet labor, &c. ^neid, 12. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Which hung not, but like dreadful engines, 
 Descended on his foe in vengeance, 
 But ah ! in danger, with dishonor 
 The sword perfidious fails its owner ; 
 That sword, which oft had stood its ground, 
 By huge trainbands encircled round ; 
 And on the bench, with blade right royal, 
 Had won the day at many a trial,* 
 Of stones and clubs had braved th' alarms, 
 Shrunk from these new Vulcanian arms.t 
 The spade so temper'd from the sledge. 
 Nor keen nor solid harm'd its edge. 
 Now met it, from his arm of might, 
 Descending with steep force to smite ; 
 
 115 
 
 * It was the fashion in New England at that time, for 
 judges to wear swords on the bench. 
 
 ^f Postquam arma Dei ad Vulcania ventum est, 
 
 Mortalis mucro, glacies ceu futilis. ictu 
 
 Dissiluit ; folva resplendent fragmina arena. Virgil. 
 
 The sword 
 
 Was given him temper'd so, that neither keen 
 Nor solid might resist that edge ; it met 
 The sword of Satan with steep force to smite 
 Descending and in half cut sheer. Milton. 
 
116 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 \. I ; 
 
 li!: i 
 
 The blade snapp'd short — and from his hand, 
 
 With rust embrown'd the glittering sand. 
 
 Swift turn'd M'Fingal at the view, 
 
 And call'd to aid th' attendant crew. 
 
 In vain ; the Tories all had run, 
 
 When scarce the fight was well begun ; 
 
 Their setting wigs he saw decreas'd 
 
 Far in th' horizon tow'rd the west. 
 
 Amazed he view'd the shameful sight, 
 
 And saw no refuge, but in flight : 
 
 But age unwieldy check'd his pace. 
 
 Though fear had wing'd his flying race ; 
 
 For not a trifling prize at stake ; 
 
 No less than great M'Fingal's back.* 
 
 With legs and arms he work'd his course. 
 
 Like rider that outgoes his horse, 
 
 And labor'd hard to get away, as 
 
 Old Satanj struggling on through chaos ; 
 
 'Till looking back, he spied in rear 
 
 The spade-arm'd chief advanced too near : 
 
 Then stopp'd and seized a stone, that lay 
 
 An ancient landmark near the way ; 
 
 -* nee enim levia aut ludiera petuntur 
 
 Prsemia, sed Tumi de vita et sanguine certant. Virgil. 
 t In Milton. 
 
M'FINQAL. 
 
 Nor shall we as old bards have done, 
 
 Affirm it weigh'd an hundred ton ;* 
 
 But such a stone, as at a shift 
 
 A modern might suffice to lift, 
 
 Since men' to credit their enigmas, 
 
 Are dwindled down to dwarfs and pigmies, 
 
 And giants exiled with their cronies 
 
 To Brobdignags and Patagonias, 
 
 But while our Hero turn'd him round. 
 
 And tugg'd to raise it from the ground. 
 
 The fatal spade discharged a blow 
 
 Tremendous on his rear below : 
 
 His bent knee fail'djf and void of strength 
 
 Stretch'd on the ground his manly length. 
 
 Like ancient oak o'erturn'd, he lay, 
 
 Or tower to tempests fall'n a prey. 
 
 Or mountain sunk with all his pines, 
 
 Or flow'r the plow to dust consigns. 
 
 And more things else — but all men know 'em. 
 
 If slightly versed in epic poem. 
 
 m 
 
 * This thought is taken from Juvenal, Satire 15. 
 
 f Genua labant- 
 
 incidit ictus, 
 
 Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus. Virgil. 
 
11! 
 
 118 
 
 M'FI NO AL. 
 
 At once the crew, at this dread crisis, 
 
 Fall on, and bind him, ere he rises ; 
 
 And with loud shouts and joyful soul. 
 
 Conduct him prisoner to the pole. 
 
 When now the mob in lucky hour 
 
 Had got their en'mies in their power. 
 
 They first proceed by grave command, 
 
 To take the Constable in hand. 
 
 Then from the pole's sublimest top 
 
 The active crew let down the rope. 
 
 At once its other end in haste bind, 
 
 And make it fast upon his waistband ; 
 
 Till like the earth, as stretch'd on tenter, 
 
 He hung self-balanced on his center.* 
 
 Then upwards, all hands hoisting sail, 
 
 They swung him like a keg of ale. 
 
 Till to the pinnacle in height 
 
 He vaulted like balloon or kite. 
 
 As Socratesf of old at first did 
 
 To aid philosophy get hoisted. 
 
 And found his thoughts flow strangely clear. 
 
 Swung in a basket in mid air : 
 
 * And earth self-balanced on her center hung. Milton. 
 
 f In Aristophanes' Comedy of the Clouds, Socrates is 
 represented as hoisted in a basket to aid contemplation. 
 
 :' M; :M 
 
M'FINQ AL. 
 
 119 
 
 Our culprit thus, in purer sky, 
 With like advanta<(o raised Iiis eye, 
 And looking forth in prospect wide, 
 His Tory errors clearly spied, 
 And from his elevated station. 
 With bawling voice began addressing. 
 
 " Good gentlemen and friends and kin, 
 For heaven's sake hear, if not for mine ! 
 I here renounce the Pope, the Turks, 
 The King, the Devil and all their works ; 
 And will, set me but once at ease, 
 Turn Whig or Christain, what you please ; 
 And always mind your rules so justly. 
 Should I live long as old Methus'lah, 
 I'll never join in British rage, 
 Nor help Lord North nor Gen'ral Gage ; 
 Nor lift my gun in future fights, 
 Nor take away your Charter-rights ; 
 Nor overcome your new-raised levies, 
 Destroy your towns, nor burn your navies; 
 Nor cut your poles down while I've breath. 
 Though raised more thick than hatchel-teeth : 
 But leave King George and all his elves 
 To do their conq'ring work themselves." 
 
 This said, they lower'd him down in state. 
 Spread at all points, like falling cat ; 
 
120 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 'I' 
 
 i? :.i: -II 
 
 fhm 
 
 But took a vote first on the question, 
 That they'd accept this full confession, 
 And to their fellowship and favor, 
 Restore him on his good behaviour. 
 
 Not so our 'Squire submits to rule. 
 But stood, heroic as a mule. 
 " You'll find it all in vain," quoth he, 
 To play your rebel tricks on me. 
 All punishments the world can render, 
 Save only to provoke th' offender; 
 The will gains strength from treatment horrid. 
 As hides grow harder when they're curried. 
 No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
 With good opinion of the law ; 
 Or held in method orthodox 
 His love of justice in the stocks: 
 Or fail'd to lose by sheriff's shears 
 At once his loyalty and ears. 
 Have you made Murray* look less big, 
 Or smok'd old Williams* to a Whis ? 
 
 * Members of the Mandamus Council in Massachusetts. 
 The operation of smoking Tories was thus performed. 
 The victim was confined in a close room before a large 
 fire of green wood, and a cover applied to the top of the 
 chimney. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Did our niobb'd Ol'ver* quit his station, 
 
 Or heed his vows of resignation ? 
 
 Has Rivingtonf in dread of stripes, 
 
 Ceased lying since you stole his types ? 
 
 And can you think my faith will alter. 
 
 By tarring, whipping or the halter ? 
 
 I'll stand the worst ; for recompense 
 
 I trust King George and Providence. 
 
 And when with conquest gain'd I come, 
 
 Array'd in law and terror home, 
 
 Ye'll rue this inauspicious morn, 
 
 And curse the day, when ye were born. 
 
 In Job's high style of imprecations. 
 
 With all his plagues, without his patience." 
 
 121 
 
 * Thomas Oliver, Esq. Lieut.-Governor of Massa- 
 chusetts. He was surrounded at his seat in the country 
 and intimidated by the mob into the signing of his resig- 
 nation. 
 
 t Eivington was a Tory Printer in New York. Just 
 before the commencement of the war, a party from New 
 Haven attacked his press, and carried off, or destroyed 
 the types. 
 
 u 
 
122 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 ' i ! 
 
 ' i'\ .1 
 
 Meanwhile beside the pole, the guard 
 A bench of justice* had prepared, 
 Where sitting round in awful sort 
 The grand committee hold their court ; 
 While all the crew, in silent awe. 
 Wait from their lips the lore of law. 
 Few moments with deliberation 
 They hold the solemn consultation; 
 When soon in judgment all agree, 
 And clerk proclaims the dread decree ; 
 " That 'Squire M'Fingal having grown 
 The vilest Tory in the town. 
 And now in full examination 
 Convicted bv his own confession. 
 Finding no tokens of repentance. 
 This court proceeds to render sentence : 
 That first the Mob slip-knot single 
 Tie round the neck of said M'Fingal, 
 And in due form do tar him next, 
 And feather, as the law directs ; 
 
 ii ! 
 
 I 1 
 
 * An imitation of legal forms was universally prac- 
 tised by the mobs in New England, in the trial and con- 
 demnation of Tories. This marks a curious trait of 
 national character. 
 
 i< 
 
 fl 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Then through the town attendant ride him 
 In cart with Constable beside him, 
 And having held him up to shame, 
 Bring to the pole, from whence he came." 
 
 Forthwith the crowd proceed to deck 
 With halter'd noose MTingal's neck, 
 While he in peril of his soul 
 Stood tied half-hanging to the pole ; 
 Then lifting high the ponderous jar, 
 Pour'd o'er his head the smoking tar. 
 With less profusion once was spread 
 Oil on the Jewish monarch's head. 
 That down his beard and vestments ran, 
 And cover'd all his outward man. 
 As when (so Claudian* sings) the Gods 
 And earth-born giants fell at odds. 
 The stout Enceladus in malice 
 Tore mountains up to throw at Pallas ; 
 And while he held them o'er his head, 
 The river, from their mountains fed, 
 Pour'd down his back its copious tide, 
 And wore its channels in his hide : 
 So from the high-raised urn the torrents 
 Spread down his side their various currents; 
 
 123 
 
 * Claudian's Gigantomachia. 
 
 ^"3 
 
124 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 His flowing wig, as next the brim, 
 First met and drank the sable stream; 
 Adown his visage stern and grave 
 Roli'd and adhered the viscid wave ; 
 With arms depending as he stood, 
 Each cuff capacious holds the flood ; 
 From nose and chin's remotest end, 
 The tarry icicles descend ; 
 Till all o'erspread, with colors gay, 
 He glitter'd to the western ray, 
 Like sleet-bound trees in wintry skies, 
 Or Lapland idol carved in ice. 
 And now the feather-bag display'd 
 Is waved in triumph o'er his head. 
 And clouds him o'er with feathers missive, 
 And down, upon the tar, adhesive : 
 Not Maia's* son, with wings for ears, 
 Such plumage round his visage wears ; 
 Nor Milton's six-wing'df angel gathers 
 Such superfluity of feathers. 
 
 
 * Mercury, described by the Poets with wings on his 
 head and feet. 
 
 f And angel wing'd— six wings he wore — 
 
 Milton. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Now all complete appears our 'Squire, 
 Like Gorgon or Chimcera dire; 
 Nor more could boast on Plato's* plan 
 To rank among the race of man. 
 Or prove his claim to human nature. 
 As a two-legg'd, unfeather'd creature. 
 
 Then on the fatal cart, in state 
 They raised our grand Duumvirate. 
 And as at Romef a like committee. 
 Who found an owl within their city. 
 With solemn rites and grave processions 
 At every shrine perform'd lustrations ; 
 And least infection might take place 
 From such grim fowl with feather'd face, 
 All Rome attends him through the street 
 In triumph to his country seat : 
 With like devotion all the choir 
 Paraded round our awful 'Squire ; 
 In front the martial music comes 
 Of horns and fiddles, fifes and drums, 
 With jingling sound of carriage bells. 
 And treble creak of rusted wheels. 
 
 125 
 
 i 
 
 * Alluding to Plato's famous definition of Man, Animal 
 lipes implume — a two-legged animal without feathers. 
 
 f Livy's History. 
 11* 
 
126 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 > ti!! 
 
 . I 
 
 Behind, the crowd, in lengthen'd row 
 With proud procession, closed the show. 
 And at fit periods every throat 
 Combined in universal shout ; 
 And hail'd great Liberty in chorus. 
 Or bawl'd ' confusion to the Tories.' 
 Not louder storm the welkin braves 
 From clamors of conflicting waves ; 
 Less dire in Lybian wilds the noise 
 When rav'ning lions lift their voice ; 
 Or triumphs at town meetings made, 
 On passing votes to regulate trade.* 
 
 Thus having borne them round the town, 
 Last at the pole they set them down ; 
 And to the tavern take their way 
 To end in mirth the festal day. 
 
 And now the mob, dispersed and gone. 
 Left 'Squire and Constable alone. 
 The constable with rueful face 
 Lean'd sad and solemn o'er a brace ; 
 And fast beside him, cheek by jowl. 
 Stuck 'Squire M'Fingal 'gainst the pole, 
 
 * Sucli votes were frequently passed at town-meetings, 
 witli the view to prevent the augmentation of prices, and 
 stop the depreciation of the paper money. 
 
ings, 
 and 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Glued by the tar t' his rear applied, 
 
 Like barnacle on vessel's side. 
 
 But though his body lack'd physician, 
 
 His spirit was in worse condition. 
 
 He found his fears of whips and ropes 
 
 By many a drachm outweigh'd his hopes. 
 
 As men in jail without mainprize 
 
 View every thing with other eyes, 
 
 And all goes wrong in church and state, 
 
 Seen through perspective of the grate : 
 
 So now M'Fingal's Second-sight 
 
 Beheld all things in gloomier light ; 
 
 His visual nerve, well purged with tar. 
 
 Saw all the coming scenes of war. 
 
 As his prophetic soul grew stronger. 
 
 He found he could hold in no longer. 
 
 First from the pole as fierce he shook. 
 
 His wig from pitchy durance broke. 
 
 His mouth unglued, his feathers flutter'd 
 
 His tarr'd skirts crack'd, and thus he utter'd. 
 
 " Ah, Mr. Constable, in vain 
 We strive 'gainst wind and tide and rain ! 
 Behold my doom ! this feathery omen 
 Portends what dismal times are coming. 
 Now future scenes, before my eyes, 
 And second-sighted forms arise, 
 I 
 
 127 
 
 U:< 
 
 (!' 
 

 1 ■ ' t I 
 
 = i. ' ■] t 
 
 h 1 
 
 Fii 
 
 \:\ ■ i 
 
 1 "I 
 - 'J 
 
 1,1' 
 1 Jl 
 
 j£. 
 
 128 
 
 M'FINQAL. 
 
 I hear a voice,* that calls away, 
 And cries * The Whigs will win the day.' 
 My beck'ning genius gives command, 
 And bids me fly the fatal land ; 
 Where changing name and constitution, 
 Rebellion turns to Revolution, 
 While loyalty, oppress'd in tears. 
 Stands trembling for its neck and ears. 
 
 " Go, summon all our brethren, greeting, 
 To muster at our usual meeting; 
 There my prophetic voice shall warn 'em 
 Of all things future that concern 'em, 
 And scenes disclose on which, my friend. 
 Their conduct and their lives depend. 
 There If — but first 'tis more of use. 
 From this vile pole to set me loose ; 
 Then go with cautious steps and steady. 
 While I steer home and make all ready. 
 
 * I hear a voice, you cannot hear, 
 That says, I must not stay — TiclceWs Ballad. 
 
 •j- Quos Ego — sed motos prcestat componere fluctus. 
 
 Virgil, 
 
 END or CANTO THIRD. 
 
M'F ING AL. 
 
 CAHTO I?. 
 
 THE VISION. 
 
 rOW Night came down, and rose full soon 
 That patroness of rogues, the Moon; 
 Beneath whose kind protecting ray. 
 Wolves, brute and human, prowl for 
 The honest world all snored in chorus, [prcy. 
 While owls and ghosts and thieves and Tories, 
 Whom erst the mid-day sun had awed, 
 Crept from their lurking holes abroad. 
 On cautious hinges, slow and stiller, 
 Wide oped the great M'Fingal's cellar,* 
 
 * Secret meetings of the Tories, in cellars and other 
 lurking places, were frequent during the revolutionary 
 war. 
 
 
 
180 
 
 M'FINOAL. 
 
 I ^ 
 
 ' hi 
 
 \ i I 
 
 Where safe from prying eyes, in cluster, 
 The Tory Pandemonium muster. 
 Their chiefs all sitting round descried are, 
 On kegs of ale and seats of cider;* 
 When first M'Fingal, dimly seen. 
 Rose solemn from the turnip-bin.f 
 Nor yet his form had nholly lost 
 Ah' original bright it could boast,J 
 Nor less appear'd than Justice Quorum, 
 In feather'd majesty before 'em. 
 Adown his tar-streak'd visage, clear 
 Fell glistening fast th' indignant tear, 
 And thus his voice, in mournful wise. 
 Pursued the prologue of his sighs. 
 
 * Panditur ititerea dornus-omnip^tis Olympi, 
 Conciliumque vocat Divum pater atq ; hominum Rex 
 Sideream in sedem. Virgil. 
 
 f In most of the country cellars in New England, a lin 
 is raised at one corner, about four feet high, to hold tur- 
 nips and other vegetables. M'Fingal uses it here as a desk 
 for a speaker. 
 
 X His form had not yet lost 
 
 All its original brightness, nor appear'd 
 Less than archangel ruin'd. Milton. 
 
M' FINO AL. 
 
 " Brethren and friends, the glorious band 
 Of loyalty in rebel land ! 
 It was not thus you've seen me sitting, 
 Return'd in triumph from town-meeting : 
 When blust'ring Whigs where put to stand. 
 And votes obey'd my guiding hand, 
 And new commissions pleased my eyes ; 
 Blest days, but ah, no more to rise ! 
 Alas, against my better light. 
 And optics sure of second-sight,* 
 My stubborn soul, in error strong, 
 Had faith in Hutchinson too long, 
 See what brave trophies still we bring 
 From all our battles for the king ; 
 And yet these plagues, iiow past before us, 
 Are but our entering wedge of sorrows ! 
 
 " I see, in glooms tempestuous, stand 
 The cloud impending o'er the land ; 
 That cloud, which still beyond the hopes 
 Serves all our orators with tropes ; 
 
 181 
 
 * The second-sight of the Highlanders furnishes poetry 
 with a new kind of machinery. Walter Scott has since 
 made use of it with great advantage, in several of his 
 poems. 
 
Si 
 
 ! fill' 5j! 
 
 182 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Wliicli, though from our own vupors fed, 
 
 Shall point its thunders on our head ! 
 
 I see the Mob, beflipp'd at taverns, 
 
 ILunt us, like wolves, through wilds and caverns ! 
 
 What dungeons open on our fears ' 
 
 What horsewhips whistle round our cars ! 
 
 Tar, yet in embryo in the pine. 
 
 Shall run on Tories' back to shine ; 
 
 Trees, rooted fair in groves of sallows. 
 
 Are growing for our future gallows; 
 
 And geese unhatch'd, when pluck'd in fray, 
 
 Shall rue the feathering of that day.* 
 
 " For me, before that fatal time, 
 I mean to fly th' aecursed clime, 
 And follow omens, which of late 
 Have warn'd me of impending fate. 
 
 " For late in visions of my sight j 
 The gallows stood before my sight ; 
 I saw its ladder heaved on end ; 
 I saw the deadly rope descend. 
 And in its noose, that wavering swang, 
 Friend Malcolmf hung, or seem'd to hang, 
 
 * The child shall rue, that is unborn, 
 The hunting of that day. Chevy Chase. 
 
 f Malcolm was a Scotchman, Aid to Governor Tryon 
 
M'FINU A L. 
 
 133 
 
 IIovv clmiii^^ed* from Ijiin, who bold ns lion, 
 Stood A il-de-ciimp to Cien'rnl Tryoii, 
 Made rebels vanish once, like witches' 
 And saved his life, but dropp'dj his breeches. 
 
 in his expedition against the Regulators, as they culled 
 themselves, in North Carolina. He was afterwards an 
 under-ollicer of the Customs in Boston, where becoming 
 obnoxious, he was tarred, feathered and half-hanged by 
 the mob, about the year 1774. 
 
 quantum mutatus ab illo 
 
 Ilectore, qui rediit spoliis indutus. Virg. 
 
 f This adventure was thus reported among the anec- 
 dotes of the day. When Governor Tryon marched with 
 his militia, to suppress the insurgents in the western coun- 
 ties of North Carolina, and found them, drawn up in 
 array to oppose him, Malcolm was sent with a flag to pro- 
 pose terms, and demand the surrender of their arras. 
 Before the conclusion of the parley, Tr; on's militia began 
 to fire on the Regulators. The fire was immediately re- 
 turned. Malcolm started to escape to his party ; and by 
 the violence of his pedestrian exertion (as Shakespeare 
 says) 
 
 'i nis points being broken, down fell his hose ;" 
 and he displayed the novel spectacle of a man running 
 the guantlot sans culottes, betwixt two armies engaged in 
 action, and presenting an ucusual mark to his enemy. 
 
 12 
 
WiiF 
 
 134 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 I scarce had made a fearful bow, 
 
 And trembling ask'd him, " How d'ye do ;" 
 
 When lifting up his eyes so wide, 
 
 His eyes alone, his hands were tied ; 
 
 With feeble voice, as spirits use. 
 
 Now almost choak'd by gripe of noose ; 
 
 " Ah, fly my friend, he cried, escape. 
 And keep yourself from this sad scrape; 
 Enough you've talk'd jnd writ and plann'd ; 
 The Whigs have got the upper hand. 
 Could mortal* arm our fears have ended, 
 This arm (and'shook it) had defended. 
 Wait not till things grow desperater 
 For hanging is no laughing matter. 
 Adventure then no longer stay ; 
 But call your fric ids and haste away. 
 
 " For lo, through deepest glooms of night. 
 I come to aid thy second-sight. 
 Disclose the plagues that round us wait, 
 And scan the dark decrees of fate. 
 
 " Ascend this ladder, whence unfurl'd 
 The curtain opes of t'other world ; 
 
 * Si Pergama dextra 
 
 Defend! possent, etiam hec defensa fuissent. 
 
 Virg. 
 
M'FINQAL. 135 
 
 For here new worlds their scenes unfold, 
 Seen from this backdoor* of the old. 
 As when iEneas risk'd his life, 
 Like Orpheus vent'ring for his wife, 
 And bore in show his mortal carcase 
 Through realms of Erebus and Orcus, 
 Then in the happy fields Elysian, 
 Saw all his embryon sons in vision ; 
 As shown by great Archangel Michael, 
 Old Adamf saw the world's whole sequel, 
 And from the mount's extended space, 
 The rising fortunes of his race ; 
 So from this stage shalt thou behold 
 The war its coming scenes unfold 
 Raised by my arm to meet thine eye : 
 My Adam, thou ; thine Angel, I. 
 
 But first my pow'r, for visions bright. 
 Must cleanse from clouds thy mental sight. 
 Remove the dim suffusions spread, 
 Which bribes and salaries there have bred ; 
 And from the well of Bute infuse 
 Three genuine drops of Highland dews, 
 
 * Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, 
 Who stand upon the threshold of the new. Waller. 
 
 f Milton — Paradise Lost, Book II. 
 
136 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 n .p 
 
 To purge, like euphrasy* and rue, 
 Thine eyes, for much thou hast to view. 
 Now freed from Tory darkness, raise 
 Thy head and spy the coming days. 
 For lo, before our second-sight, 
 The Continent ascends in light. 
 From north to south, what gath'ring swurms 
 Increase the pride of rebel arms ! 
 Through every State our legions brave 
 Speed gallant marches to the grave, 
 Of battling Whigs the frequent prize. 
 While rebel trophies stain the skies. 
 Behold o'er northern realms afar 
 Extend the kindling flames of war ! 
 See famed St. John's and Montrealf 
 Doom'd by Montgomery's arm to fall ! 
 Where Hudson with majestic sway 
 Through hills disparted plows his way. 
 
 * Milton. 
 
 t As the allusions in this speech refer to the principal 
 events of tlie American war, they will be familiar to those 
 acquainted with its history. They are too numerous to 
 be explained in notes. 
 
 .' 
 
 ]■■ ^;i'r::l!i 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 Fate spreads on Beiiius' heights alarms, 
 And pours destruction on our arms ; 
 There Bennington's ensanguined plain, 
 And Stony Point, the prize of Wayne. 
 Behold near Del'vvare's icy roar. 
 Where morning dawns on Trenton's shore. 
 While Hessians spread their Christmas feasts 
 Rush rude these uninvited guests ; 
 Nor aught avails the captured crew 
 Their marshal whiskers' grisly hue ! 
 On Princeton plains our heroes yield, 
 And spread in flight the vanquish'd field ; 
 While fear to Mawhood's* heels put on 
 Wings, wide as worn by Maia's son. 
 Behold the Pennsylvanian shore 
 Enrich'd with streams of British gore ; 
 Where many a veteran chief in bed 
 Of honor rests his slumb'ring head,t 
 
 137 
 
 * Col, Mawhood gained great reputation among the 
 British, by escaping with about two hundred men from 
 the battle of Princeton. 
 
 1 Have ye chos'n this place, 
 
 After the toils of battle, to repose 
 
 Your wearied virtue ; for the ease ye find 
 
 To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven? 
 
 12* 
 
 Milton. 
 
138 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 u! t 
 
 And in soft vales, in land of foes, 
 Their wearied virtue finds repose ! 
 See plund'ring Dunmore's* negro band 
 Fly headlong from Virginia's strand ; 
 And far on southern hills our cousins, 
 The Scotch M'Donalds, fall by dozens ; 
 Or where King's Mountain lifts its head. 
 Our ruin'd bands in triumph led ! 
 Behold, o'er Tarlton's blustring train 
 Defeat extends the captive chain ! 
 Afar near Eutaw's fatal springs, 
 Lo, rebel Vict'ry spreads her wings ! 
 Through all the land, in varied chace, 
 We hunt the rainbow of success, 
 In vain ! their chief, superior still, 
 Eludes our force with Fabian skill; 
 Or swift descending by surprize, 
 Like Prussia's eagle, sweeps the prize, 
 
 " I look'd ; nor yet, oppress'd with fears, 
 Gave L redit to my eyes or ears ; 
 
 * Lord Dunmore was Governor of Virginia at the 
 commencement of the war. He flod with all the slaves 
 and plunder he could collect. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 139 
 
 But held the sights an empty dream, 
 On Berkley's* immaterial scheme ; 
 And pond'ring sad with troubled breast, 
 At length my rising doubts express'd. 
 * Ah, whither thus, by rebels smitten. 
 Is fled th' omnipotence of Britain ; 
 Or fail'd its usual guard to keep, 
 Absent from home or fast asleep ? 
 Did not, retired to bovvers Elysian, 
 Great Mars leave with her his commission. 
 And Neptune erst, in treaty free. 
 Give up dominion o'er the sea ? 
 Else where's the faith of famed orations.-f 
 Address, debate and proclamations, 
 Or courtly sermon, laureat ode, 
 And ballads on the vvat'ry God ;J 
 
 * Berkley, an English philosopher, who refining on 
 Locke's ideal system, denied the existence of matter. 
 
 f In this style the British orators and poeta talk and 
 write of themselves. 
 
 X Alluding to an English ballad, much sung and 
 famous at that time, in which Neptune (called the WatrT/ 
 God) with great deference surrenders his trident to King 
 George, and acknowledges him, as monarch and ruler of 
 the ocean. 
 
140 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 With whose high strains great George enriches 
 
 His eloquence of gracious speeches ? 
 
 Not faithful to our Highland eyes, 
 
 These deadly forms of visions rise. 
 
 Some whig-inspiring rebel sprite 
 
 Now palms delusion on our sight. 
 
 I'd scarcely trust a tale so vain, 
 
 Should revelation prompt the strain 
 
 Or Ossian's ghost the scenes rehearse 
 
 In all the melody of Erse."* 
 
 " Too long," quoth Malcolm, " from confusion, 
 You've dwelt already in delusion ; 
 ' As sceptics, of all fools the chief. 
 Hold faith in creeds of unbelief 
 I come to draw thy veil aside 
 Of error, prejudice, and pride. 
 Fools love deception, but the wise 
 Prefer sad truths to pleasing lies. 
 For know, those hopes can ne'er succeed. 
 That trust on Britain's breaking reed. 
 For weak'ning long from bad to worse, 
 By cureless atrophy of purse. 
 She feels at length with trembling heart. 
 Her foes have found her mortal part. 
 
 • 
 
 * Erse, the ancient Scottish language, in which Ossian 
 composed his poems. 
 
 
M'FINGAL. 141 
 
 As famed Achilles, dipp'd by Thetis 
 
 In Styx, as sung in ancient ditties, 
 
 Grew all case-harden'd o'er, like steel, 
 
 Invulnerable, save his heel ; 
 
 And laugh'd at swords and spears and squibs, 
 
 And all diseases, but the kibes ; 
 
 Yet met at last his deadly wound, 
 
 By Paris' arrow nail'd to ground : 
 
 So Britain's boasted strength deserts 
 
 In these her empire's utmost skirts, 
 
 Removed beyond her fierce impressions. 
 
 And atmosphere of omnipresence; 
 
 Nor to this shore's remoter ends 
 
 Her dwarf-omnipotence extends. 
 
 Hence in this turn of things so strange, 
 
 Tis time our principles to change : 
 
 For vain that boasted faith, that gathers 
 
 No perquisite, but tar and feathers ; 
 
 No pay, but stripes from whiggish malice. 
 
 And no promotion, but the gallows. 
 
 I've long enough stood firm and steady, 
 
 Half-hang'd for loyalty already. 
 
 And could I save my neck and pelf, 
 
 I'd turn a flaming whig mvself. 
 
 But since, obnoxious here to fate. 
 
 This saving wisdom comes too late. 
 
 5: 
 

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 flgfl llj 
 
 
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 P 
 
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 142 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Our noblest hopes already crost, 
 Our sal'ries gone, our titles lost, 
 Doom'd to worse suff 'rings from the mob, 
 Than Satan's surg'ries used on Job ; 
 What hope remains, but now with sleif^'ht 
 What's left of us to save by flight ? 
 
 " Now raise thine eyes, for visions true 
 Again ascending wait thy view/' 
 
 " I look'd ; and clad in early light. 
 The spires of Boston met my sight ; 
 The morn o'er eastern hills afar 
 Illumed the varied scenes of war ; 
 Great Howe* had sweetly in the lap 
 or Loring taken out his nap ; 
 When all th' encircling hills around 
 With instantaneous breastworks crown'd,t 
 
 * The sun had long since, in the lap 
 Of Thetis, taken out his nap. Butler. 
 
 f The heights of Dorchester overlook the south part 
 of Boston, and command the passage of the harbor. By 
 an unexpected movement, Washington took possession 
 and erected works on them in a single night. Putnam 
 placed a number of barrels in front, filled with sand, to 
 be rolled down on the British columns, in case they 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 With pointed thunders met his sight, 
 Like magic, rear'd the former night. 
 Each summit, far as eye commands, 
 Shone, peopled with rebellious bands. 
 Aloft their tow'ring heroes rise, 
 As Titans erst assail'd the skies ;* 
 Leagued in superior force to prove 
 The sceptred hand of British Jove. 
 Mounds piled on hills ascended fair 
 With batt'ries placed in middle air, 
 That hurl'd their fiery bolts amain. 
 In thunder on the trembling plain, 
 I saw, along the prostrate strand 
 Our baffled generals quit the land. 
 
 148 
 
 should attempt to scale the eminence. Howe after sundry 
 manoeuvres was discouraged from the attempt, and as 
 Boston was no longer tenable, made a truce with Wash- 
 ington, evacuated the place, and sailed with his troops to 
 Halifax. 
 
 * The Titans are described by the old poets, as giants, 
 sons of the earth,- who made an insurrection against 
 Jupiter. They heaped mountains upon mountains, in 
 order to scale the Gibraltar of the pagan Olympus ; but 
 were foiled by the thunders of Jove and the arrows of 
 Apollo. See Ilasiod, &c. 
 
144 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 £1 .■ 
 
 Eager, as frighted mermaids, flee 
 
 T' our boasted element, the sea, 
 
 And tow'rd their town of refuge fly, 
 
 Like convict Jews condemn'd to die. 
 
 Then to the north I turn'd my eyes, 
 
 Where Saratoga's heights arise. 
 
 And saw our chosen vet'ran band 
 
 Descend in terror o'er the land ; 
 
 T' oppose this fury of alarms, 
 
 Saw all New England wake to arms. 
 
 And every Yankee, full of mettle. 
 
 Swarm forth, like bees at sound of kettle. 
 
 Not Rome, when Tarquin raped Lucretia, 
 
 Saw wilder must'ring of militia. 
 
 Through all the woods and plains of fight. 
 
 What mortal battles pain'd my sight. 
 
 While British corses strew'd the shore. 
 
 And Hudson tinged his streams with gore. 
 
 What tongue can tell the dismal day, 
 
 Or paint the parti-color'd fray. 
 
 When yeomen left their fields afar 
 
 To plow the crimson plains of war; 
 
 When zeal to swords transform'd their shares. 
 
 And turn'd their pruning hooks to spears. 
 
 Changed tailor's geese to guns and ball, 
 
 And stretch'd to pikes the cobbler's awl ; 
 
M'FINGAL. 145 
 
 While hunters, fierce like mighty Nimrod, 
 Made on our troops a furious inroad, 
 And levelling squint on barrel round, 
 Brought our beau-officers to ground ; 
 While sunburnt wigs, in high command, 
 Rush daring on our frighted band. 
 And ancient beards* and hoary hair. 
 Like meteors, stream in troubled air ; 
 While rifle-frocks drove Gen'rals cap'ring. 
 And Red-coatsf shrunk from leathern apron, 
 And epaulette and gorget run 
 From whinyard brown and rusty gun. 
 WHh locks unshorn not Samson more 
 Made useless all the show of war, 
 Nor fought with ass's jaw for rarity 
 With more success, or singularity. 
 I saw our vet'ran thousands yield. 
 And pile their muskets on the field. 
 And peasant guards, in rueful plight, 
 March off our captured bands from fight; 
 
 * Loose his beard and hoary hair 
 Stream'd like a meteor to the troubled air. Gray. 
 
 f An American cant name for the British troops, taken 
 
 from the color of their uniform. 
 
 13 
 
146 
 
 M'FINO AL. 
 
 I t 
 
 While every rebel fife in play 
 To Yankee-doodle tuned its lay, 
 And like the music of the spheres, 
 Mellifluous sooth'd their vanquish'd ears." 
 
 " Alas, I cried, what baleful star 
 Sheds fatal influence on the war ? 
 And who that chosen chief of fame. 
 That heads this grand parade of shame V 
 
 " There see how fate, great Malcolm cried, 
 Strikes with its bolts the tow'rs of pride '^ 
 Behold that martial Macaroni, 
 Compound of Phcebus and Bellona, 
 Equipp'd alike for feast or fray, 
 With warlike sword and singsong lay, 
 Where equal wit and valor join I 
 This, this is he — the famed Burgoyne ! 
 Who pawn'd his honor and commission. 
 To coax the patriots to submission. 
 By songs and balls secure allegiance, 
 And dance the ladies to obedience.* 
 
 * Such were Burgoyne's declarations, when he was 
 setting out to command in America. This pleasant mode 
 of warfare not meeting with the expected success at 
 Boston, he appears to have changed his plan in his north- 
 ern erpedition ; in which the Indians received compen- 
 
M ' F I N a A L . 147 
 
 Oft his Camp-Muses he'll parade 
 
 At Boston in the grand blockade ; 
 
 And well inspired with punch of arrack, 
 
 Hold converse sweet in tent or barrack, 
 
 Aroused to more poetic passion, 
 
 Both by his theme and situation, 
 
 For genius works more strong and clear 
 
 When close confined, like bottled beer. 
 
 So Prior's* wit gain'd matchless power 
 
 By inspiration of the Tower ; 
 
 And Raleigh, once to prison hurl'd, 
 
 Wrote the whole hist'ry of the world ; 
 
 So Wilkes grew, while in jail he lay, 
 
 More patriotic every day. 
 
 But found his zeal, when not confined. 
 
 Soon sink below the freezing point. 
 
 And public spirit, once so fair. 
 
 Evaporate in open air. 
 
 sation for American scalps, without distinction of gender. 
 He denied however his personal agency in these transac- 
 tions. Se3 the correspondence between him and General 
 Gates, oijcasioned by the murder and scalping of Miss 
 McCrea. 
 
 * Prior wrote his Alma, the best of his works, while in 
 confinement in the Tower of London. 
 
J 
 
 Wm I 
 
 111 ) ' 
 
 148 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 But thou, great favorite of Venus, 
 
 By no such luck shalt cramp thy genius ; 
 
 Thy friendly stars, till wars shall cease. 
 
 Shall ward th' ill fortune of release, 
 
 And hold thee fast in bonds not feeble. 
 
 In good condition still to scribble. 
 
 Such merit fate shall shield from firinff. 
 
 Bomb, carcase, langridge and cold iron. 
 
 Nor trust thy doubly-laurell'd head, 
 
 To rude assaults of flying lead. 
 
 Hence thou, from Yankee troops retreating, 
 
 For pure good fortune shall be beaten. 
 
 Not taken oft, released or rescued. 
 
 Pass for small change, like simple Prescott;* 
 
 But captured then, as fates befall. 
 
 Shall stand thy fortune, once for all. 
 
 Then raise my daring thoughts sublime. 
 
 And dip thy conq'ring pen in rhyme, 
 
 And changing war for puns and jokes. 
 
 Write new Blockades and Maids of Oaks."t 
 
 * General Prescott was taken and exchanged several 
 times during the war. 
 
 f The Maid of the Oaks is a farce by Burgoyne, 
 often acted on the English theatre. During the winter in 
 which the British troops were shut up in Boston, they 
 
M'FINGAL. 149 
 
 This said, he turn'd and saw the tale 
 Had dyed my trembling cheeks with palej* 
 Then pitying in a milder vein, 
 Pursued the visionary strain ; 
 
 " Too much perhaps hath pain'd your view, 
 From vict'ries of the Rebel crew. 
 Now see the deeds, not small or scanty, 
 Of British valor and humanity; 
 And learn from this heroic sight. 
 How England's sons and friends can fight, 
 
 amused themselves with the acting of a new farce, called 
 The Blockade of Boston; the humor of which 'consisted in 
 burlesquing the Yankee phrases, unmilitary dress, and 
 awkward appearance of the new American levies, by 
 whom they were besieged : like the fancy of Cardinal De 
 Eetz, who while condemned to a severe imprisonment, 
 took his revenge by writing the life of his jailor. This 
 play was generally ascribed to the pen of Burgoyne. As 
 he was, on his final capture, returned to England, in good 
 condition still to scribble, he took the advice of Malcolm, 
 and wrote the comedy of The Heiress, which is indeed 
 one of the best modern productions of the British 
 stage. 
 
 -* dyed her cheeks with pale. 
 13* 
 
 Milton. 
 
150 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 In what dread scenes their courage grows, 
 And how they conquer'd all their foes." 
 
 I look'd, and saw in wintry skies 
 Our spacious prison-walls arise, 
 Where Britons, all their captives taming, 
 Plied them with scourging, cold and famine. 
 By noxious food and plagues contagious 
 Reduced to life's last, fainting stages. 
 Amid the dead, that crowd the scene. 
 The moving skeletons were seen. 
 Aloft the haughty Loring* stood. 
 And thrived, like Vampire,t on their blood. 
 
 * Loring was a refugee from Boston, made commissary 
 of prisoners by General Howe. The consummate cruel- 
 ties, practised on the American prisoners under his ad- 
 ministration, almost exceed the ordinary powers of human 
 invention. The conduct of the Turks in putting all pris- 
 oners to death is certainly much more rational and 
 humane, than that of the British army for the three first 
 years of the American war, or till after the capture of 
 Burgoyne. Lond. Edit 
 
 t The notion of Vampires is a superstition, that 
 formerly prevailed in many nations of Europe. They 
 pretend it is a dead body, which rises out of its grave in 
 the night and sucks the blood of the living. 
 
 ii 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 And counting all his gains arising, 
 Dealt daily rations out, of poison. 
 At hand our troops, in vaunting strain. 
 Insulted all their wants and pain, 
 And turn'd upon the dying tribe 
 The bitter taunt and scornful gibe ; 
 And British captains, chiefs of might. 
 Exulting in the joyous sight. 
 On foes disarm'd, vvitli courage daring. 
 Exhausted all their tropes of swearing. 
 Distain'd around with rebel blood. 
 Like Milton's Lazar* house it stood, 
 V -lere grim Despair presided Nurse, 
 And Death was Regent of the house. 
 
 Amazed I cried, " Is this the way 
 That British valor wins the day ?" 
 More had I said in strains unwelcome. 
 Till interrupted thus by Malcolm. 
 
 " Blame not, said he, but learn the reason 
 Of this new mode of conq'ring treason. 
 
 151 
 
 -* a place 
 
 Before bis eyes appear'd, sad, noisome, dark, 
 
 A Lazar house it seem'd ■ Despair 
 
 Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch. 
 And over them triumphant Death his dart 
 Shook, but delay'd to strike Milton. 
 
;;,!,! 
 
 13.- ■f 
 
 : i !:■ !l 
 
 % 
 
 1*1': ^ 
 
 152 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 'Tis but a wise, politic plan 
 To root out all the rebel clan ; 
 For surely treason ne'er can thrive 
 Were not a soul is left alive ; 
 A scheme all other chiefs to surpass, 
 And do th' effectual work to purpose. 
 Know, War itself is nothing further 
 Than th' art and mystery of Murther: 
 He, who most methods has essay 'd, 
 Is the best Gen'ral of the trade, 
 And stands Death's plenipotentiary 
 To conquer, poison, starve and bury. 
 This Howe well knew and thus began ; 
 (Despising Carlton's* coaxing plan, 
 To keep his pris'ners well and merry. 
 And deal them food, like commissary. 
 And by parol or ransom vain, 
 Dismiss them all to fight again) 
 
 * Sir Guy Carlton, afterwards Lord Dorchescer, was 
 Governor of Canada, at the time of our unfortunate attack 
 on Quebec by the forces under Montgomery. He treated 
 his American prisoners on principles of humanity, and 
 formed the only exception to the cruelty and folly of the 
 British commanders 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 Hence his first captives, with great spirit 
 He tied up, for his troops to fire at,* 
 And hoped they'd learn on foes thus taken, 
 To aim at rebels without shaking. 
 Then deep in stratagem, he plann'd 
 The sure destruction of the land ; 
 Turn'd famine, torture and despair 
 To useful enginry of war ; 
 Sent forth the small-pox,t and the greater. 
 To thin the land of every traitor; 
 Spread desolation o'er their head. 
 And plagues in providence's stead ; 
 Perform'd with equal skill and beauty 
 Th' avenging Angel's tour of duty 
 Then bade these prison-walls arise, 
 Like temple tow'ring to the skies. 
 Where British clemency renown'd 
 Might fix her seat on hallow'd ground. 
 
 153 
 
 * This was done openly and without censure, in many 
 instances, by the troops under Howe's command, on his 
 first conquest of Long Island. 
 
 f Great pains was taken by emissaries from New York 
 to communicate the small-pox through the country. It 
 became necessary to counteract the attempt by a general 
 inoculation of the inhabitants. 
 
154 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 'i}':. 
 
 (That Virtue, as each herald saith, 
 
 Of whole blood kin to Punic Faith) 
 
 Where all her godlike pow'rs unveiling, 
 
 She finds a grateful shrine to dwell in : 
 
 And at this altar for her honor. 
 
 Chose this High-priest to wait upon her, 
 
 Who with just rites, in ancient guise. 
 
 Offers the human sacrifice. 
 
 Here every day, her vot'ries tell. 
 
 She more devours, than th' idol Bel ; 
 
 And thirsts more rav'nously for gore, 
 
 Than any worshipp'd Power before. 
 
 That ancient heathen godhead, Moloch, 
 
 Oft stay'd his stomach with a bullock ; 
 
 And if his morning rage you'd check first : 
 
 One child sufficed him for a breakfast : 
 
 But British clemency with zeal 
 
 Devours her hundreds at a meal ; 
 
 Right well by nat'ralists defined 
 
 A being of carniv'rous kind : 
 
 So erst Gargantua* pleased his palate. 
 
 And eat six pilgrims up in sallad. 
 
 Not blest with maw less ceremonious 
 
 The wide-mouth'd whale, that svvallow'd Jonas ; 
 
 * See Eabelais' History of the Giant Gargantua. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 155 
 
 Like earthquake gapes, to death devote, 
 
 That open sepulchre, her throat 
 
 The grave or barren womb you'd stuff. 
 
 And sooner bring to cry, enough ; 
 
 Or fatten up to fair condition 
 
 The leal ^ ?sL ine of Pharaoh's vision. 
 
 Behold ner teiuple, where it stanJ 
 Erect, by famed Britannic hands. 
 'Tis the Black-hole of Indian structure, 
 New-built in English architecture, 
 On plan, 'tis said, contrived and wrote 
 By Clive before he cut his throat ; 
 Who, ere he took himself in hand. 
 Was her high-priest in nabob-land : 
 And when with conq'ring triumph crown'd, 
 He'd well enslaved the nation round, 
 With tender British heart, the chief. 
 Since slavery's worse than loss of life. 
 Bade desolation circle far. 
 And famine end the work of war; 
 And loosed their chains, and for their merits 
 Dismiss'd them free to worlds of spirits. 
 Whence they with choral hymns of praise, 
 Return'd to soothe his latter days,* 
 
 * Clive in the latter years of his life, conceived him- 
 self haunted by the ghosts of those persons, who were the 
 
156 
 
 WFiy^ AL. 
 
 » '■, f. 
 
 I 
 
 And hov'ring round his restless bed. 
 Spread nightly visions o'er his head. 
 
 Now turn thine eyes to nobler sights, 
 And mark the prowess of our figiits. 
 Behold like whelps of Britain's lion, 
 Our warriors, Clinton, Vaughan, and Tryon, 
 March forth with patriotic joy 
 To ravish, plunder, burn, destroy. 
 Great Gen'rals, foremost in their nation. 
 The journeymen of Desolation I 
 Like Samson's foxes, each assails. 
 Let loose with firebrands in their tails. 
 And spreads destruction more forlorn. 
 Than they among Philistine corn. 
 And see in flames their riumphs rise, 
 Illuming all the nether .ies, 
 O'er-streaming, like a new Aurora, 
 The western hemisphere with glory ! 
 What towns, in ashes laid, confess 
 These heroes' prowess and success ! 
 What blacken'd walls and burning fanes. 
 For trophies spread the ruin'd plains ! 
 
 victims of his humanity in the East Indies. It is pre- 
 sumed that he showed them the vote of parliament, re- 
 turning thanks for his services. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 157 
 
 pre- 
 re- 
 
 What females, caught in evil hour, 
 
 By force submit to British power ; 
 
 Or plunder'd negroes in disaster 
 
 Confess King George their lord and master ! 
 
 What crimson corses strew their way, 
 
 What smoking carnage dims the day ! 
 
 Along the shore, for sure reduction. 
 
 They wield the besom of destruction, 
 
 Great Homer likens, in his Ilias, 
 
 To dogstar bright the fierce Achilles; 
 
 But ne'er beheld in red procession 
 
 Three dogstars rise in constellation. 
 
 Nor saw, in glooms of evening misty. 
 
 Such signs of fiery triplicity, 
 
 Which, far beyond the comet's tail. 
 
 Portend destruction where they sail. 
 
 Oh, had Great Britain's warlike shore 
 
 Produced but ten such heroes more. 
 
 They'd spared the pains, and held the station 
 
 Of this world's final conflagration ; 
 
 Which when its time comes, at a stand, 
 
 Would find its work all done t' its hand ! 
 
 Yet though gay hopes our eyes may bless. 
 Malignant fate forbids success ; 
 Like morning dreams our conquest flies. 
 Dispersed before the dawn arise." 
 
 U 
 
•ill 1^ 
 
 i-,1*:' 
 
 :' r ( 
 
 m: '[\ 
 
 158 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 Here Malcolm paused ; when pond'ring long 
 Grief thus gave utt'rance to my tongue. 
 " Where shrink in fear our friends dismay'd, 
 And where the Tories' promi cd aid ? 
 Can none, amid these fierce alarms, 
 Assist the power of royal arms ?" 
 "In vain, he cried, our King depends 
 On promised aid of Tory friends. 
 When our own efforts want success, 
 Friends ever fail, as fears increase. 
 As leaves, in blooming verdure wove. 
 In warmth of summer clothe the grove. 
 But when autumnal frosts arise. 
 Leave bare their trunks to wintry skies : 
 So, while your power can aid their ends. 
 You ne'er can need ten thousand friends ; 
 But once in want, by foes disgi'iy'd, 
 May advertise them, stol'n or stray'd. 
 Thus ere Great Britain's force grew slack, 
 She gain'd .that aid she did not lack ; 
 But now in dread, imploring pity, 
 All hear unmoved her dol'rous ditty ; 
 Allegiance wand'ring turns astray, 
 And Faith grows dim for lack of pay. 
 In vain she tries, by new inventions, 
 Fear, falsehood, flatt'ry, threats, and pensions ; 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 Or sends commiss'ners with credentials 
 Of promises and penitentials. 
 As, for his fare o'er Styx of old, 
 The Trojan stole the bough of gold, 
 And least grim Cerb'rus should make head, 
 Stuff 'd both his fobs with ginger-bread;* 
 l^ehold, at Britain's utmost shifts, 
 Comes Jonstonef loaded with like gifts. 
 To venture through the whiggish tribe. 
 To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe ; 
 And call, to aid his desp'rate mission, 
 His petticoated politician, 
 
 159 
 
 -* medicatam frugibus offam. 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 f In the year 1778, after the capture of Burgoyne, our 
 good government passed an act, repealing all the acts of 
 which the Americans complained, provided they would 
 rescind their declaration of Independence, and continue 
 to be our colonies. The ministry then sent over three 
 commissioners, Mr. Johnstone, Mr. Eden, and a certain 
 lord. These commissioners began their operations and 
 finished them, by attempting to bribe individuals among 
 the members of the states, and of the army. This bait 
 appears to have caught nobody but Arnold. The 'petti- 
 coated politician^ here mentioned, was a woman of Phila- 
 delphia, through whose agency they offered a bribe to 
 Joseph Reid, Governor of Pennsylvania. London Edit. 
 K 
 
160 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 : 5 I 
 
 :) I 
 
 m 
 
 r 
 
 While Venus, joiii'd to act the farce, 
 Strolls forth einbassadress for Mars. 
 In vain he strives, for while he lingers, 
 These mastiffs bite his off'ring fingers ; 
 Nor buys for George and realms infernal 
 One spaniel, but the mongrel, Arnold. 
 
 " 'Tvvere vain to paint, in vision'd show, 
 The mighty nothings done by Howe j 
 What towns he takes in mortal fray. 
 As stations whence to run away ; 
 What triumphs gain'd in conflict warm. 
 No aid to us, to them no harm ; 
 For still th' event alike is fatal, 
 Whate'er success attend the battle, 
 Whether he vict'ry gain or lose it, 
 Who ne'er had skill enough to use it. 
 And better 'twere, at their expense, 
 T' have drubb'd him into common sense, 
 And waked, by bastings on his rear, 
 Th' activity, though but of fear. 
 By slow advance his arms prevail, 
 Like emblematic march of snail. 
 That, ^e Millennium nigh or far, 
 TVould long before him end the war. 
 From York to Philadelphian ground, 
 He sweeps the pompous flourish round. 
 
M'FIN GAL. 
 
 161 
 
 Whccl'd circ'inr by eccentric stars, 
 Like racing hoys at prison-bars, 
 Wiio take th' opposing crew in whole, 
 By running round the adverse goal; 
 "Works wide the traverse of his course, 
 Like ship t' evade the tempest's force ; 
 Like mill-horse circling in his race. 
 Advances not a single pace, 
 And leaves no trophies of reduction, 
 Save that of cankerworms, destructim. 
 Thus having long both countries curst, 
 lie quits them as he found them first. 
 Steers home disgraced, of little worth, 
 To join Burgoyne and rail at North. 
 
 " Now raise thine eyes and view with pleasure, 
 The triumphs of his famed successor." 
 
 " I look'd, and now by magic lore 
 Faint rose to view the Jersey shore : 
 But dimly seen in gloom array'd, 
 For night had pour'd her sable shade. 
 And every star, with glimm'ri ::;s pale, 
 Was muffled deep in ev'ning veil. 
 Scarce visible, in dusky night 
 Advancing red-coats rose m sight ; 
 The length'ning train in gleaming rows 
 Stole silent from their slumb'ring foes j 
 
 14* 
 
i I ' 
 
 }■■ r 
 
 * " ' i 
 
 *!. i! 
 
 
 ,'i;!'^'! 1 
 
 
 il; :H!i 
 
 162 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 No trembling soldier dared to speak. 
 And not a wheel presumed to creak. 
 My looks my new surprize confess'd, 
 Till by great Malcolm thus address'd. 
 " Spend not thy wits in vain researches : 
 'Tis one of Clinton's moonlight marches. 
 From Philadelphia now retreating 
 To save his baffled troops a beating, 
 With hasty strides he flies m vain, 
 His rear attack'd on Monmouth plain. 
 With various chance the dread affray 
 Holds in suspense till close of day. 
 When his tired bands, o'ermatch'd in fight, 
 Are rescued by descending night. 
 He forms his camp, with great parade, 
 While evening spreads the world in shade, 
 Then still, like some endanger'd spark. 
 Steals off on tiptoe in the dark : 
 Yet writes his king in boasting tone 
 How grand he march'd by light of moon.* 
 
 * General Clinton's official despatches, giving an ac- 
 count of his raarching from Monmouth by moonlight, 
 furnished a subject of much pleasantry in America ; 
 where it was known that the moon had set two hours 
 before the march bcRan. London Edit. 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 163 
 
 I see him, but thou canst not ; proud 
 He leads in front the trembling crowd, 
 And wisely knows, as danger's near, 
 'Twill fall much heaviest on his rear. 
 Go on, great gen'ral, nor regard 
 The scoflfs of every scribbling bard ; 
 Who sings how gods, that fearful night, 
 Aided by miracle your flight. 
 As once they used, in Homer's day, 
 To help weak heroes tun away ; 
 Tells how the hours, at this sad trial. 
 Went back, as erst on Ahaz' dial. 
 While British Joshua stay'd the moon 
 On Monmouth plains for Ajalon. 
 Heed not their sneers or gibes so arch. 
 Because she set before your march. 
 A small mistake ! your meaning right ; 
 You take her influence for her light ; 
 Her influence, which shall be your guide, 
 And o'er your gen'ralship preside. 
 Hence still shall teem your empty skull 
 With vict'ries, when the moon's at full, 
 Which by transition passing strange 
 Wane to defeats before the change. 
 Still shall you steer, on land or ocean. 
 By like eccentric lunar motion ; 
 
164 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 \J', 
 
 Ml 
 
 *■ li 
 
 Eclips'ii in many a fatal crisis, 
 
 And dimm'd when Washington arises. 
 
 " And see how Fate, herself turn'd traitor. 
 Inverts the ancient course of nature ; 
 And changes manners, tempers, climes, 
 To suit the genius ^f the times ! 
 See, Bourbon forms a gen'rous plan, ' 
 
 New guardian of the rights of man. 
 And prompt in firm alliance joins 
 To aid the Rebels' proud designs ! 
 Behold from realms of eastern day 
 His sails* innum'rous shape their way, 
 In warlike line the billows sweep, 
 And roll the thunders of the deep ! 
 See, low in equinoctial skies, » 
 The western islands fall their prize ; 
 See British flags, o'ermatch'd in might. 
 Put all their faith in instant flight. 
 Or broken squadrons, from th' aifray. 
 Drag slow their wounded hulks away ! 
 
 * In 1779, the French king sent a powerful fleet to the 
 "West Indies, which was very successful in the conquest 
 of St. Viuoents and Grenada, the defeat of Admiral Biron 
 in a naval engagement, and the capture of a British ship 
 of the line and several frigates, on the American coast. 
 
M'FINGAL. 155 
 
 Behold his chiefs, in daring setts, 
 D'Estaignes, De Grasses, and Fayeltes, 
 Spread through our camps their dread alarms, 
 And swell the fear of rebel arms ! 
 Yet ere our glories sink in night, 
 A gleam of hope shall strike your sight ; 
 As lamps, that fail of oil and fire, 
 Collect one glimm'ring to expire. 
 
 " For lo, where southern shores extend, 
 Behold our gather'd hosts descend. 
 Where Charleston views, with varying beams 
 Her turrets gild th' encircling streams ! 
 Ther'^ by superior force compell'd. 
 Behold their gallant Lincoln* yield; 
 Nor aught the wreaths avail him now, 
 Pluck'd from Burgoyne's imperious brow. 
 
 * General Lincoln was second in command in the 
 army of General Gates, during the campaign of 1777, 
 which ended in the capture of General Burgoyne. He 
 afterwards commanded the army in South Carolina, and 
 was taken prisoner with the garrison of Charleston in 
 1780. London Edit. 
 
 This happened in consequence of the determination 
 of Congress, that Charleston should at all events be 
 defended. 
 
166 
 
 M'FINQAL. 
 
 ''m 
 
 ihi 
 
 See, furious from the vanquish'd strand, 
 Comwallis leads his mighty band ; 
 The southern realms and Georgian shore 
 Submit and own the victor's power; 
 Lo ! sunk before his wasting way. 
 The Carolinas fall his prey ! 
 See. shrinking from his conq'ring eye. 
 The Rebel legions fall or fly ; 
 And with'ring in these torrid skies. 
 The northern laurel fades and dies !* 
 With rapid force he leads his train 
 To fair Virginia's cultured plain, 
 Triumphant eyes the travell'd zone. 
 And boasts the southern realm his own. 
 
 " Nor yet this hero's glories bright 
 Blaze only in the fields of fight. 
 Not Howe's humanity more deserving 
 In gifts of hanging and of starving; 
 Not Arnold plunders more tobacco. 
 Or steals more negroes for Jamaica ;t 
 
 * This refers to the fortune of General Gates, who after 
 having conquered Burgoyne in the Nortb, was defeated 
 by Comwallis iu the South. London Edit. 
 
 f Arnold in the year 1781, having been converted to 
 our cause, commanded a detachment of our army in Vir- 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 167 
 
 Scarce Rodney's self, among th' Eustatians, 
 
 Insults so well the laws of nations ; 
 
 Ev'n Tryon's fame i jws dim, and mourning 
 
 He yields the civic crown of burning. 
 
 I see, with pleasure and surprize, 
 
 New triumph sparkling in your eyes ; 
 
 But view, where now renew'd in might. 
 
 Again the Rebels dare the fight." 
 
 " I look'd, and far in southern skies 
 
 Saw Greene, their second hope, arise, 
 
 And with his small, but gallant, band. 
 
 Invade the Carolinian land. 
 
 As winds, in stormy circles whirl'd. 
 
 Rush billowy o'er the darken'd world, 
 
 And*where their wasting fury roves 
 
 Successive sweep th' astonish'd groves : 
 
 Thus where he pours the rapid fight. 
 
 Our boasted conquests sink in night. 
 
 ginia ; where he plundered many cargoes of negroes and 
 tobacco, and sent them to Jamaica for his own account. 
 How far Lord Eodney may have excelled nim in this 
 \ind of heroic achievements, time perhaps will never dis- 
 cover. London Edit. 
 
168 
 
 M ' F I N G A L . 
 
 And far o'er all the extended field 
 Our forts resign, our armies yield, 
 Till now, regain'd the vanquish'd land, 
 He lifts his standard on the strand. 
 
 Again to fair Virginia's coast 
 I turn'd and vievv'd the British host 
 Where Chesapeak's wide waters lave 
 Her shores and join th' Atlantic wave. 
 There famed CornwalHs tow'ring rose, 
 And scorn'd secure his distant foes; 
 His bands the haughty rampart raise, 
 And bid the royal standard blaze. 
 When lo, where ocean's bounds extend, 
 Behold the Gallic sails ascend. 
 With fav'ring breezes stem their way, 
 And crowd with ships the spacious bay. 
 Lo ! Washington, from northern shores. 
 O'er many a region wheels his force. 
 And Rochambeau, with legions bright. 
 Descends in terror to the fight. 
 Not swifter cleaves his rapid way 
 The eagle, cow'ring o'er his prey; 
 Or knights in famed romance, that fly 
 On fairy pinions through the sky. 
 Amazed, the Briton's startled pride 
 Sees ruin wake on every side. 
 
 
M'FINGAL. 
 
 And all his troops, to fate consign'd, 
 By instantaneous stroke, Burgoyned.* 
 Not Cadmus vievv'd with more surprise, 
 From earth embattled armies rise, 
 Who from the dragon's teeth beheld 
 Men starting fierce with spear and shield 4 
 I saw, with looks downcast and grave, 
 The chief emerging from his cave, 
 Where chased, like fox, in mighty round, 
 His hunters earth'd him first in ground ;;j: 
 And doom'd by fate to rebel sway. 
 Yield all his captured host a prey. 
 There while I view'd the vanquish'd town. 
 Thus with a sigh my friend went on." 
 
 "Behold'st thou not that band forlorn, 
 Like slaves in Roman triumphs borne. 
 Their faces length'ning with their fears. 
 And cheeks distain'd with streams of tears ; 
 
 169 
 
 * To Burgoyne an army was during the war, a favorite 
 phrase in America, to express a complete capture. 
 
 f See Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 X Alluding to the fact of Cornwallis' taking up his 
 
 residence in a kind of Cave, made bomb-proof, during 
 
 the siege of York Town. 
 
 15 
 
170 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 ' I 
 
 I I 
 
 Like dramatis personas sage, 
 Equipp'd to act on Tyburn's stage. 
 Lo, these are they, who lured by follies 
 Left all, and follow'd great Cornwallis, 
 Expectant of the promised glories. 
 And new millennial reign of Tories ! 
 Alas! in vain, all doubts forgetting, 
 They tried th' omnipotence of Britain ; 
 But found her arm, once strong and brave, 
 So shorten'd now, she cannot save. 
 Not more aghast, departed souls 
 Who risk'd their fate on Popish bulls 
 And find St. Peter, at the wicket, 
 Refuse to countersign their ticket. 
 When driven to purgatory back. 
 With each his pardon in his pack ; 
 Than Tories, must'ring at their stations. 
 On faith of royal proclamations. 
 As Pagan chiefs at every crisis, 
 Confirm'd their leagues by sacrifices. 
 And herds of beasts, to all their deities, 
 Oblations fell, at close of treaties : 
 Cornwallis thus, in ancient fashion. 
 Concludes his grand capitulation ;* 
 
 * All tlie favor, whicli Cornwallis, on his surrender, 
 
 J, 
 
M'FINGAL. 17i 
 
 And heedless of their screams or suff 'rings, 
 Gives up the Tories for sin-oflfrings. 
 See where, relieved from sad embargo, 
 Steer off consign'd a recreant cargo; 
 Like old scape-goats to roam in pain, 
 Mark'd like their great forerunner, Cain. 
 The rest now doom'd by British leagues 
 To vengeance of resentful Whigs, 
 Hold doubtful lives on tenure ill 
 Of tenancy at Rebel-will, 
 While hov'ring o'er their forfeit persons. 
 The gallows waits his just reversions. 
 " Thou too, M'FiNGAL, ere that day, 
 Shalt taste the terrors of th' affray. 
 See, o'er thee hangs in angry skies, 
 Where Whiggish constellations rise. 
 And while plebean signs ascend. 
 Their mob-inspiring aspects bend. 
 That baleful star, whose horrid hair* 
 Shakes forth the plagues of down and tar ! 
 
 stipulated for the Tories who had joined him, was a single 
 frigate free from search, to convey away a few of the 
 most obnoxious. 
 
 * From his horrid hair 
 
 Shakes pestilence and war. Milton. 
 
,^ 
 
 172 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 \]\ 
 
 I see tlie pole, that rears on high 
 Its flag terrific through the sky ; 
 Tiie mob beneath prepared t' attack, 
 And tar predestined for thy back. 
 Ah quit, my friend, this dang'rous home. 
 Nor wait tlie darker scenes to come. 
 For know, that fate' . u''spicious door, 
 Once shut to flight, is oped no more ; 
 Nor wears its hinge, by changing stations. 
 Like Mercy's door in proclamations.* 
 
 " But lest thou pause, or doubt to fly. 
 To stranger visions turn thine eye. 
 Each cloud, that dimm'd thy mental ray, 
 And all the mortal mists decay. 
 See, more than human pow'rs befriend, 
 And lo ! their hostile forms ascend.f 
 
 * Tlie door of mercy is •now open, and the door of mercy 
 will he shut, were phrases so often used in the proclama- 
 tions of the British Generals in America, that our poet 
 seems to fear that the hinge of that door will be quite 
 worn out. London Edit. 
 
 f Apparent dirae facies, inimicaq; Trojse 
 Numina magna deurn. Virgil." 
 
M ' F I N G A L . 
 
 There tovv'ring o'er the extended strand, 
 The Genius* of this western hind, 
 For vengeance arin'd, his sword assumes, 
 And stands, like Tories, dress'd in plumes ! 
 See, o'er yon Council-scat, with pride 
 How Freedom spreads her b;in its wide! 
 There Patriotism, with torch address'd 
 To fire with zeal each daring breast ; 
 While all the virtues in their train, 
 Escap'd with pleasure o'er the main. 
 Desert their ancient British station, 
 Possess'd with rage of emigration. 
 Honor, his bus'ncss at a stand. 
 For fear of starving quits their land ; 
 And justice, long disgraced at court, had 
 By Mansfield's sentence been transported. 
 Vict'ry and Fame attend their way, 
 Though Britain wish their longer stay ; 
 Care not what George or North would be at, 
 IS or heed their writs of Ne exeat : 
 But fired with love of colonizing, 
 Quit the fall'n empire for the rising." 
 
 173 
 
 * Generally drawn in symbolical paintings, in the 
 dress of a ative, with his head ornamented with a high 
 plume of feathers. 
 
 16* 
 
174 
 
 M'iMNO AL. 
 
 " I look'd, and saw, with liorror smitten, 
 These hostile pow'rs averse to Britain. 
 
 •* When lo, an awful spectre rose, 
 With languid paleness on his brows; 
 Wan dropsies swell'd his form beneath, 
 And iced his bloated cheeks with death ; 
 His tatter'd robes exposed him bare 
 To every blast of ruder air ; 
 On two weak crutches propp'd he stood, 
 That bent at every step he trod ; 
 Gilt titles graced their sides so slender. 
 One, "Regulation," t'other, "Tender;" 
 His breastplate graved, with various dates, 
 "The faith of all th' United States-"* 
 Before him went his funeral pall. 
 His grave stood, dug to wait his fall. 
 
 "I started, and aghast I cried, 
 " What means this spectre at their side ? 
 What danger from a pow'r so vain, 
 Or union with that splendid train ?" 
 
 "Alas, great Malcolm cried, experience 
 Might teach you not to trust appearance. 
 
 * On all the emissions of Continental Bills of credit, 
 Congress pledged for their punctual redemption, Thf 
 Faith of the United States. 
 
M»FINGAL. 
 
 Here stands, as dress'd by fell ndlona, 
 The ghost ofConthicntal Money!* 
 Of Dame Necessity descended, 
 With whom credulity engcnder'd : 
 Though born with* constitution frail, 
 And feeble strength that soon must fall. 
 Yet strangely vers'd in magic lore, 
 And gifted with transforming power, 
 Ilis skill the wealth Peruvian joins. 
 With diamonds of Brazilian mines. 
 
 175 
 
 * The description here given of the Continental paper- 
 money is not more remarkable, as a splendid example of 
 the sublime burlesque, than as a faithful picture of that 
 financial operation. Though this money was counter- 
 feited by waggon loads in the British garrisons, and sent 
 into circulation in the country, yet none of the conse- 
 quences followed, which were expected from this manoeu- 
 vre. The paper money carried on the war for five years ; 
 when it gave place to other measures, which the circum- 
 stances of the country rendered practicable, and went 
 peaceably to rest, as here described by the Author. — The 
 " weak crutches," called Regulation and Tender, by which 
 this Spectre is supported, allude to the difterent acts of the 
 State legislatures, made with the design of maintaining 
 the credit of the Continental paper. Some of these acts 
 regulated the prices of commodities, others made this 
 paper a legal tender in payment. London Edit. 
 L 
 
176 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 As erst Jove fell, by subtle wiles, 
 On Danae's* apron through the tiles. 
 In shovv'rs of gold; his potent wand 
 Shall shed like show'rs o'er all the land. 
 Less great the wondrous art was reckon'd 
 Of tallies cast by Charles the second, 
 Or Law's famed Mississippi schemes. 
 Or all the wealth of South Sea dreams. 
 For he, of all the world, alone 
 Osvns the long-sought philos'pher's stone. 
 Restores the fabulous times to view. 
 And proves the tale of Midasf true. 
 O'tir heaps of rags he waves his wand ; 
 All turn to gold at his command. 
 Provide for present wants and future. 
 Raise armies, victual, clothe, accoutre. 
 
 iij :;« H 
 
 II 
 
 * The ancient poets say, that Jupiter having fallen in 
 love with Danae, who was imprisoned and guarded in a 
 brazen tower, succeeded by transforming himself into a 
 shower of Q'jid, and falling through the roof into her 
 lap. 
 
 Persea, quem pluvio Danae conceperat auro. 
 
 Ovid Metam. lib, 4. 
 
 f Midas, says the fable, had the gift of turning every 
 thing he touched to gold. 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 177 
 
 Adjourn our conquests by essoin, 
 
 Check Howe's advance, and take Burgoyne; 
 
 Then makes all days of payment vain. 
 
 And turns all back to rags again? 
 
 In vain great Howe* shall play his part 
 
 To ape and counterfeit his art ; 
 
 In vain shall Clinton,* more belated, 
 
 A conj'rer turn to imitate it. 
 
 With like ill luck and pow'rs as narrow, 
 
 They'll fare, like sorcerers of old Pharaoh; 
 
 Who, though the art they understood 
 
 Of turning rivers into blood. 
 
 And caused their frogs and snakes t' exist. 
 
 That with some merit croak'd and hiss'd. 
 
 Yet ne'er by every quaint device 
 
 Could frame the true Mosaic lice. 
 
 He for the W higs his art shall try, 
 
 Their first, and long their sole, ally ; 
 
 * Vast quantities of counterfeit bills, in imitation of the 
 American currency, were struck and sent into the .coun- 
 try from New York and Long Island, while those 
 Generals commanded the British army, with the hope of 
 aiding the depreciation of the Continental money — a mode 
 of warfare which they esteemed very honorable against 
 rebels. 
 
n 
 1,1 
 
 R:y 
 
 178 
 
 M'FING AL. 
 
 A Patriot firm, while breath he draws, 
 He'll perish in his country's cause, 
 And when his magic labors cease, 
 Lie buried in eternal peace. 
 
 Now view the scenes, in future hours, 
 That wait the famed European powers. 
 See, where yon chalky ciiflTs arise, 
 The hills of Britain strike }^>ur eyes; 
 Its small extension Ion/ supplied 
 By full immensity ofprid^; 
 So small, that had it found a station 
 In this new world, at first creation, 
 Or doom'd by justice, been betimes 
 Transported* over for its crimes, 
 We'd find full room fbr't in lake Erie, or 
 Tliat larger water-pond, Superior,! 
 
 * Transportation to tlie colonies for felony is a com- 
 mon punishment by the English laws : but that the whole 
 British Island should be transported seems an idea extra- 
 vagantly poetical. 
 
 f Lake Superior is more than 2200 miles in circum- 
 ference ; an extent sufficient to warrant the assertion of 
 the poet, that the inhabitants of Britain, in the supposed 
 situation, would not be able to spy the surrounding shores 
 of the lake. 
 
M'FIN GAL. 
 
 179 
 
 Where North at margin taking stand, 
 Would scarce be able to spy land.* 
 See, dwindling from her height amain, 
 What piles of ruin spread the plain ; 
 With mould'ring hulks her ports are fiU'd, 
 And brambles clothe the lonely field ! 
 See, on her cliffs her genius lies, 
 His handkerchief at boih his eyes, 
 
 * This has been a most unlucky couplet. The poem, 
 completed by the addition of the two last cantos, w as first 
 p«blished in America in the year 1782. Some years after, 
 the whole was reprinted in London. In that interval. Lord 
 yt$ft\i was so unhappy, as to lose his sight. And the 
 Birinyh reviewers of that day, with their wonted sagacity, 
 imagined that these lines were intended as an insult upon 
 him for that misfortune; thiukinfr, as we may presume, 
 that M'Fingal foresaw the futur'^? blindness of his Loii- 
 ship, by the aid of his secon."" sigh'. Their abuse of the 
 author, as wanting candor and C' .m non sense, need not 
 be repeated. In a subsequent copy of the poem, he 
 struck out the name of Lor i North and inserted t].at of 
 King George — and lo, in r. few years mort;, the king also 
 was afflicted with blindness. To prevent all fm ther mis- 
 haps, the lines are now restored to their original form. 
 See the Lond. Edition of 1792. 
 
 i 
 
m 
 
 180 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 m 
 
 '( I 
 
 With mo y a deep-drawn sigh and groan, 
 To mourn her ruin, and his own ! 
 While joyous Holland, France,^, and Spam 
 With conq'ring navies awe the main ; 
 And Russian banners wide unfurl'd 
 Spread commerce round the eastern world. 
 
 And see, (sight hateful and tormenting !) 
 This Rebel Empire, proud and vaunting, 
 From anarchy shall change her crasis, 
 And fix her pow'r on firmer basis ; 
 To glory, wealth, and fiime ascend, 
 Her commerce wake, her realms extend ; 
 Where now the panther guards his den. 
 Her desert fi>rests swarm with men ; 
 Gay cities, tow'rs and columns rise, 
 And dazzling temples meet the skies : 
 Her pines, descending to the main, 
 In triumph spread the wat'ry plain, 
 Ride inland seas w ith fav'ring gales. 
 And crowd her ports with whitening sails : 
 Till to the skirts of western day. 
 The peopled regions own her sway." 
 
 Thus far M'Fingal told his tale. 
 When startling shouts his ears assail ; 
 And strait the Constable, their sentry. 
 Aghast rush'd headlong down the entry, 
 
M'FING AL. 
 
 181 
 
 And V id outcry, like magician, 
 
 Dispel a the residue of vision.* 
 For now the Whigs the news had found 
 Of Tories must'ring under ground. 
 And with rude bangs and loud uproar, 
 'Gan thunderf furious at the door. 
 The lights put out, each Tory calls. 
 To cover him on cellar walls, 
 Creeps in each box, or bi:i, or tub. 
 To hide him from the rage of mob. 
 Or lurks, where cabbage-heads in row 
 Adorn'd the sides with verdant show. 
 
 * It seems unfortunate that the vision was here 
 abruptly broken off. The capture of two British fleets 
 on our lakes by Commodores Perry and M'Donough, with 
 the naval victories of Hull, Decatur, Bainbridge, and 
 other American commanders, in our late war with Great 
 Britfan, could not have escaped the prophetic second- 
 sight of M'Fingal, nor lailed of due commemoration, had 
 he been suffered to complete his detail of futurity. H) 
 would probably have closed his vision with the battle 
 of New Orleans, which put a fatal end to all the British 
 dreams of conquest of America. 
 
 either tropic now 
 
 Milton. — Paradise Regaii^. 
 16 
 
 'Gan thunder. 
 
182 
 
 M'FINGAL. 
 
 w ..i' 
 
 M'FiNGAL deem'd it vain to stay, 
 
 And risk his bones in second fray : 
 
 But chose a grand retreat from foes, 
 
 In literal sense, beneath their nose.* 
 
 The window then, which none else knew, 
 
 Ho softly open'd and crept through. 
 
 And crawling slow in deadly fear. 
 
 By movements wise made good his rear. 
 
 Then scorning all the fame of martyr. 
 
 For Boston took his swift departure, 
 
 Nor look'd back on the fatal spot, 
 
 More than the family of Lot. 
 
 Not Nortli in more distress'd condition, 
 
 Out-voted first by opposition ; 
 
 Nor good King Geovge, when our dire phantom 
 
 Of Independence came to haunt him,t 
 
 * This, during the American war, was a fashionable 
 phrase with the British. No officer, who had a lucky 
 escape, failed of stating in his report, that he made a 
 grand retreat under the very nose of iae enemy, 
 
 f On the Declaration of Independence, the ministerial 
 speakers in P'a'iam.M.t, amused themselves by calling it, 
 the pha7itom of Independence. The wit was echoed by all 
 their newspapers. 
 
M'FINGAL. 183 
 
 Which liov'ring round by night and day, 
 
 Not all his conj'rors e'er could lay, 
 
 His friends, assembled for his sake, 
 
 He wisely left in pawn, at stake, 
 
 To tarring, feath'ring, kicks, and drubs 
 
 Of furious, disappointed mobs. 
 
 Or with their forfeit heads to pay 
 
 For him, their leader,* crept away. 
 
 So when wise Noah summon'd greeting. 
 
 All animals to gen'ral meeting, 
 
 From every side the members went, 
 
 All kinds of beasts to represent ; 
 
 Each, from the flood, took care t' embark. 
 
 And save his carcase in the ark : 
 
 But as it fares in state and church, 
 
 Left his constituents in the lurch. 
 
 * As the flight of Mahomet to Mecca fixes the -.Era of 
 Mussulman computation ; so the flight of M'Fingal to 
 Boston forms the grand catastrophe of this immortal 
 work. So sublime a denouement, as the French critics 
 term it, never appeared before in Epic Poetry, except 
 that of the Hero turning Papist, in the Ilenriade of 
 Voltaire. 
 
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