POETRY. 415 



IMPROMPTU. 



IN systems as much out of sense as of season 

 Tom Pain names this age as the true age of reason ; 

 But if right I can judge, or if right I can see. 

 It is treason he means, and he's right to a T. 



Upon the promotion of Mr. Gibbon to the Board of Trade, In 1779. 

 By C. J. Fox, esq. 



KING George in a fright, 

 Lest Gibbon should write 

 The story of Britain's disgrace, 

 Thought no means more sure. 

 His pen to secure, 



Than to give the historian a place. 



But his caution is vain ; 

 'Tis the curse of his reign 



That his projects should never succeed, 

 Tho' he write not a line. 

 Yet a cause of Decline, 



In the author's example we read. 



His book well describes 

 How corruption and bribes 



Overthrew the great Empire of Rome ; 

 And his writings declare 

 A degen'racy there. 



Which his conduct exhibits at home. 



Occasional Prologue, nvrltten ly the right hon. major-general Fitz- 

 patrick, and spoken by Mr. Kemble, on opening of the Theatre-Royjl, 

 Drury-lane, zvitb Shakespeare's Macbeth, Monday, yipri! 21, 179i. 



AS tender plants, which dread the boist'rous gale. 

 Bloom in the shelter of a tranquil vale. 

 Beneath fair Freedom's all-protecting wing 

 The liberal arts, secure from danger, spring ; 

 Thro' ravag'd Europe now while discord reigns, 

 And War's dire conflicts desolate her plain, 

 O, lest they perish in this boasted age. 

 Once more the victims of barbarian rage. 

 Her sliield to guard them let Britannia rear. 

 And fix, in safety, their asylum here ! 



Here 



