218 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 123. 



six. Insurance on Lives. 



" Come all ye gen'rous husbands with }'our wives 

 Insure round sums on your precarious lives, 

 'l"hat to your comfort, when you're dead and rotten, 

 Your widows may be rich when you're forgotten." 



Seven. Stockings Company. 



" You that delight to keep your sweaty feet, 

 By often changing stockings, clean and neat, 

 Deal not in stocking shares, because I doubt 

 Those that buy most 'ere long will go without." 



Eight. Puckles Machine (BiiUets round and square). 



" A rare invention to destroy the crowd 

 Of fools at home, instead of foes abroad. 

 Fear not, my friends, this terrible machine, 

 •They're only wounded that have shares therein." 



Nine. ffelsh Copper. 



" This bubble for a time may current pass. 

 Copper's the title, but 'twill end in brass ; 

 Knaves cry it up, fools buy, but when it falls, 

 The losing crowd will cry 'lots splutter a'nails.'" 



Ten. Providing for and employing all the Poor of 

 Great Britain, 



" The poor when managed and employ'd in trade, 

 Are to the public welfare useful made. 

 But if kept idle, from their vices spring 

 •W s for the stews, and soldiers for the king." 



Knave. Raddish Oil. 



" Our oily project with the gaping town, 

 Will surely for a time go smoothly down. 

 We sow and press to carry on the cheat : 

 To bite Change Alley is not fraud, but wit." 



Queen. For erecting Hospitals for taking in and main- 

 taining Illegitimate Children. 



" Love on, ye jolly rakes and buxom dames, 

 A child is safer than venereal flames ; 

 Indulge your senses with the sweet ofPence, 

 We'll keep your bastards at a small expence." 



King. An inoffensive Way of emptying Houses of Office. 



" Our fragrant bubble, would the world believe it. 

 Is to make human dung smell sweet as civet ; 

 None sure before us ever durst presume 

 To turn a . . . . into a rich perfume." 



Clubs. 



Ace. Lute-string Co. 



" These crafty managers have play'd for years 

 The world as many tricks as dancing bears. 

 By bubbling too they broke their ancient rules ; 

 They first made lute-strings, but they now make fools.' 



Two. Paste-board Manufacturing Co. 



" As empty sayings flow from windy fools. 

 So pasteboard bubbles rise from paper skulls. 

 Madness must surely be the town's disease 

 When knaves get money by such whims as these." 



Three. Trade to Harborovgh. 

 " You that delight to take up foreign linen, 

 At Harbro' made, a little town near Bremen, 

 Encourage trade abroad for time to come. 

 And, like kind fools, neglect your own at home." 



Four, Saltpetre. 



" Come all ye black infernal powder makers, 

 And Rocketeers that deal in squibs and crackers. 

 Buy petre stock, let me be your adviser, 

 'Twill make you (tho' not richer) much the wiser." 

 Five. For Bleaching Coarse Sugars. 



" Fair tattling gossips, you that love to see 

 Fine sugar blended with expensive tea, 

 Since you delight in things both dear and sweet, 

 Buy sugar shares, and you'll be sweetly bit." 



Six. Fatting of Hogs. 

 " Come all ye bacon making, greasy rogues 

 That want good names for your meagre hogs, 

 Send them to us, and at a small expence. 

 We'll fat 'em up with ofFal, blood, and grains." 



Seven. Bose Insurance from Fire. 

 " Projecting sure must be a gainful trade. 

 Since all the elements are bubbles made ; 

 They're right that gull us with the dread of fire, 

 For fear makes'greater fools than' fond desire." 



Eight. Buying Seamen^s Tickets. 

 " As the case stands, the Wapping wives all buy 

 The seamen's tickets for a small supply ; 

 But 'tis no matter whether spendthrift slaves 



Are choused by Wapping w s, or bubbling 



knaves." 



Nine. Liverpool Fresh Water. 

 " This town does to our Western Islands deal, 

 And serves 'em with malt liquors, and with meal. 

 Both excellently good ! then how in nature 

 Can people brew fine drink, yet want fresh water." 



Ten. Bleaching of Hair Company. 

 " Here dirty brown, dark red, and yellow hair, 

 Are bleach'd to colours that are fine and fair, 



Theii blended, ^ so that half the w s in town 



Contribute to adorn one addled crown." 



Knave. Freeholders Company. 

 " Come all ye spendthrift prodigals that hold 

 Free land, and want to turn the same to gold, 

 We'll buy your all, provided you agree 

 To drown your purchase-money in South Sea." 



Queen. Lending Money on Bottomry. 

 " Some lend their money for the sake of more. 

 And others borrow to increase their store ; — ■ 

 Both these do oft engage in Bottomree, 

 But curse sometimes the bottom of the sea." 



King. Irish Sail Cloth. 

 " If good St.. Patrick's friends should raise a stock, 

 And niiikein Irish looms true hollands duck, 

 Then shall this noble project, by my soul, 

 No longer -be a bubble, but a bull." 



