Jan. 5. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
153 
You have little to fear—even critical spite 
Gives some quarter at least to the songsters of night, 
And when you, or the nightingale, warble your 
lays, 
Those who listen at all are most likely to praise. 
In the pictures with which your effusions are 
graced, 
Each saint in due order of merit is placed ; 
But chiefly St. Crispin—let no honest muse 
That mark of respect to St. Crispin refuse ; 
And never, oh never, his name be forgot 
By the watch that has shoes, or the bard that has 
not. 
Then after your pictures we come to your lines, 
And here at the outset your loyalty shines. 
To our monarch, as due, the first place you afford, 
And for him, and his race, are all blessings im- 
plored. 
Next come your “ Good masters and mistresses all,” 
Good enough, I presume, if they come at this call ; 
And can they do less, when but once in the year 
_ (Though you call every hour) you care if they 
hear ? 
Then you give good advice to our maids and our 
men, 
To be honest, and sober, and cleanly —and then 
A few rules for the choice of a husband or wife, 
With mae hints for their subsequent conduct in 
ife. 
All good things, with abundance of wishes and 
prayers 
That whatever we wish for may fall to our shares, 
You freely wish us—and I'd willingly learn 
What good things we can wish to yourself in re- 
turn. 
Should you and your dog ever call at my door, 
You'll be welcome, I promise you, nobody more. 
May you call at a thousand each year that you live, 
A shilling at least may each householder give ; 
May the “ Merry Old Christmas” you wish us 
befal, 
And yourself, and your dog, be the merriest of all! 
Rurvs. 
Ballad-Makers and Legislators. — The aphorism 
inquired after by C. U. B. E. R. (p. 124.), is from 
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun’s very curious paper, 
entitled “ An Account of a Conversation concern- 
ing a right Regulation of Governments, .... in a 
Letter to the Marquiss of Montrose, &c..... from 
London, the first of December, 1703. Edinburgh, 
printed in the year mpcciy.” But Fletcher does 
not give it as hisown. After reporting a remark 
by Sir Christopher Musgrave, to the effect that 
even the poorer sort of both sexes in London were 
daily tempted to all manner of lewdness by infa- 
mous ballads sung in every corner of the streets, 
to which the Earl of Cromarty is made to reply, 
“One would think this last were of no great con- 
sequence,” he adds: “I said, I knew a very wise 
| p.310., some years ago. 
man so much of Sir Christopher’s sentiment, that 
he believed, if a man were permitted to make all 
the ballads, he need not care who should make 
the laws of a nation. And we find that most of 
the ancient legislators thought they could not well 
reform the manners of any city without the help 
of a lyric, and sometimes of a dramatic, poet. But 
in this city the dramatic poet, no less than the 
ballad-maker, has been almost wholly employed to 
corrupt the people, in which they have had most 
unspeakable and deplorable success.” — Fletcher’s 
Political Works, 12imo., p. 266. Glasgow, 1749. 
I stated this in the Penny Cyclopedia, vol. x. 
G. L. C. 
Old Brompton, Dee. 21. 1849. 
J.S. furnishes us with a similar reference to 
Fletcher of Saltoun ; as does also Mrtanton, who 
adds, “to whom does Fletcher allude?” I have, 
in a note-book, the following notice of Lord 
Wharton :— 
“ Lord Wharton used to boast that he effected a re- 
volution which cost a monarch three crowns by a song 
[Lillibtrlero]; but what bard has yet been able to 
uphold a tottering and decrepit state by the magic of 
his poesy ?” — Note on Hudibras, Part I. Canto ii. line 
399., in an edition, with notes by Grey and others ; 
published by T. M‘Lean. London, 1819. 
I cannot say that I envy him the boast. Three 
crowns and asong! Why, it’s the line-of- 
battle ship and the teredo! the towering Falcon 
and the mousing Owl! 
Ogilby’s Britannia.—The frequent references 
by Macaulay, in his graphic History, to Ogilby’s 
Britannia, have awakened public attention to this 
neglected but “noble description of Britain,” as 
it is deservedly entitled by Bishop Nicholson; and 
in No.5. of your invaluable “ Norrs AnD QUERIES,” 
a desire is expressed for the second volume of the 
edition of 1675. It will be sufficient to state that 
the work never proceeded beyond the first volume, 
although it was the intention of the author to have 
furnished views of English cities in Vol. IL, and 
a topographical description of the whole kingdom 
in Vol. III. Bishop Nicholson, in his Historical 
Library, refers to an edition of the Britannia of 
1612, which is manifestly an error, as the author 
at that time was barely twelve years of age; and 
in the Anecdotes of British Topography, allusion 
is made to an edition of 1674, which is doubtless a 
misquotation of the date. The subject is one of 
little interest, beyond the fact of correcting an 
error and satisfying a correspondent that (even in 
trivial matters) there are those who will gladly 
communicate information through these pages. 
Birmingham. J.G. 
A Mess.— Agreeably to the spirit of your motto, 
I have “made a note” of the following parallel 
passages :— 
=—_——$—$_—$ $$ 
