1832.] [-495 ] 



ADDRESS TO THE STATUE OF MR. PITT, IN HANOVER-SQUARE. 



PROUD Statue of a Statesman ! in his time 



As great as auy little soul can be; 

 A most gigantic dwarf a thing sublime, 



Yet insignificant exceedingly. 



I come to thee, O Statue ! lately set 



On high, to let this ancient truth be shewn, 



That when a famished people bread would get, 

 The Tories always proffer them a stone : 



To thee I come thou Weatherer of the Storm, 



Thou stationary Pilot to St. George's ; 

 I fain would know thy notions of Reform, 



And of corruption's daily-dying orgies ! 



Thou sure can'st speak : heads, innocent as thine 

 Of brains, are heard to speak whole nights together ; 



And thou should' st feel ; for near thee, I opine, 

 Hearts no less hard now flutter like a feather. 



Some service thou should' st render us, since thou 



Art all we ever got, or e'er shall get 

 Except the glory somewhat tarnished now 



For that pecuniary plague, the Debt. 



Then, Statue! O, for once be patriotic ; 



Thou art the likeness of a rare magician, 

 Who moulded peers from commoners chaotic, 



And made plebeian people quite patrician. 



The prince of peer-makers, who scorning detail, 



With barons, earls, and viscounts, crammed the nation; 



Who wrote above his door " Lords wholesale, retail, 

 And" would that I could add" for exportation." 



A sort of marble moral to the story 



Thy master left, be thou his country's friend ; 



Quick emulate the Spanish statue's glory : 

 Start from thy pedestal ! descend, descend ! 



As Guzman's stony image to the Don, 

 Go thou at once to that delinquent, Grey ; 



Thy chiselled hand his shoulder place upon, 

 But mind be cautious, or he'll slip away. 



Then teach him wisdom triple and quadruple ; 



Teach him to trust no more to steps of sand ; 

 Teach him to make some sturdy peers, sans scruple : 



There's much of raw material in the land. 



Say, Statue, say, he'll want them soon or later ; 



Say that some twenty might secure redress ; 

 That if he will not make the number greater, 



The nation may resolve to make it less ! 



Thy task complete, O Statue, it were fit 



That thou should'st be Mac-Adamized ; this praise 



Would then be thine more useful far than Pitt 

 'Twas thine, not his, to mend the public ways. 



