How many Criminals, by thee assisted,

Old Smith, have been most orthodoxly twisted! And when they laboured with a dying qualm, Were decently suspended to a psalm.

How oft hast thou set harden'd Rogues a squeaking,

By urging the great sin of Sabbath-breaking; And sav'd Delinquents from Old Nick's embraces,

By flashing fire and brimstone in their faces! Thou wast a Gospel Smith, and after sentence, Brought'st Sinners to the anvil of Repentance; And tho' they prov'd obdurate at the Sessions, Could'st hammer out of them most strange Confessions:

When I late was stray'd, and Silver Spoons were

missing,

7

And Chamber maid betray'd by Judas kissing.
Thy Christian bowels cheerfully extended
Towards such, as by their Mammon were be-
friended.

Tho' Culprit in enormous acts was taken,
Thou wouldst devise a way to save his bacon;
And if his purse could bleed a half pistole,
Legit, my Lord, he reads upon my soul.
Spite of thy charity to dying wretches,
Some fools wou'd live to bilk thy Gallows
Speeches;

But who'd refuse, that has a taste of writing,
To hang, for one learn'd Speech of thy enditing.

Thou always hadst a conscientious itching,
To rescue Penitents from Pluto's kitchin;
And hast committed upon many a soul
A pious theft, but so St. Austin stole;

And shoals of Robbers, purg'd of sinful leaven,
By thee were set in the high road to Heaven.
With several Mayors hast thou eat beef and
mustard,

And frail mince-pyes, and transitory custard.
But now that learned head in dust is lay'd,
Which has so sweetly sung, and sweetly pray'd
Yet tho' thy outward man is gone and rotten,
Thy better part shall never be forgotten.
While Newgate is a mansion for good fellows,
And Sternhold's rhymes are murder'd at the gal-

lows;

While Holborn Cits at executions gape,

And Cut-purse follow'd is by Man of Crape; While Grub-street Muse, in garrets most sublime, Trafficks in doggrel, and aspires to rhime;

Thy deathless name and memory shall reign, From fam'd St. Giles to Smithfield and Duck

lane.

⚫ But since thy death does general sorrow give,
We hope thou in thy Successor will live;
Newgate and Tyburn jointly give their votes,
Thou may'st succeeded be by Doctor Otes."

Much will be said in the Anecdotes of the 8th Century concerning Private Lotteries. At present

present it will be sufficient to give, "A Dialogue betwixt the New Lotteries and the Royal Oak," as it appeared in the Post Boy, of January 3, 1698.

"A Dialogue betwixt the New Lotteries and the Royal Oak.

"New Lot. To You, the Mother of our Schools, Where Knaves by licence manage Fools, Finding fit juncture and occasion,

To pick the pockets of the nation;

We come to know how we must treat 'em, And to their heart's content may cheat 'em. "Oak. It chears my aged heart to see

So numerous a progeny;

I find by you, that 'tis Heaven's will
That Knavery should flourish still.
You have docility and wit,
And Fools were never wanting yet.
Observe the crafty Auctioneer,
His art to sell Waste Paper dear;
When he for salmon baits his hooks,
That Cormorant of Offal Books,
Who bites, as sure as maggots breed,
Or carrion crows on horse-flesh feed;
Fair specious Titles him deceive,

To

wou'd ensnare,

sweep what Sl and Tn leave. If greedy Gulls Make 'em proposals wondrous fair;

you

Tell him strange golden show'rs shall fall,
And promise mountains to 'em all.

"New

"New Lot!. That craft we've been already

taught,

And by that trick have millions caught;

Books, Bawbles, Toys, all sorts of stuff,
Have gone off this way well enough.
Nay Musick, too, invades our art,
And to some tune wou'd play her part.
I'll shew you now what we are doing,
For we have divers wheels a going.
We now have found out richer lands
Than Asia's hills, or Africk's sands,
And to vast treasures must give birth,
Deep hid in bowels of the earth ;
In fertile Wales, and God knows where,
Rich mines of gold and silver are,
From whence we drain prodigious store
Of silver coin'd, tho' none in ore,

Which down our throats rich Coxcombs pour,
In hopes to make us vomit more.

"Oak. This Project surely must be good,

Because not eas❜ly understood:

Besides, it gives a mighty scope

To the Fool's argument-vain Hope.

No eagle's eye the cheat can see,

Thro' Hope thus back'd by Mystery.

"New Lott. We have, besides, a thousand

more,

For Great and Small, for Rich and Poor,

From him that can his thousands spare,

Down to the Penny Customer.

" Oak,

"Oak. The silly Mob in crowds will run, To be at easy rates undone.

A Gimcrack-show draws in the rout,
Thousands their All by Pence lay out.

"New Lott. We, by experience, 'find it true,
But we have methods wholly new,
Strange late-invented ways to thrive,
To make men pay for what they give,
Το get the rents into our hands
Of their hereditary lands,

And out of what does thence arise,
To make 'em buy annuities.
We've mathematick combination,
To cheat folks by plain demonstration,
Which shall be fairly manag'd too,
The Undertaker knows not how.

Besides

"Oak. Pray, hold a little, here's enough, To beggar Europe of this stuff.

Go

on, and prosper, and be great,

I am to you a puny Cheat."

"The English, especially the gentry," says Chamberlayne, "are so much given to prodigality, sports, and pastimes, that estates are oftener spent and sold, than in any other country. They think it a piece of frugality (beneath a gentleman) to bargain beforehand, or to count afterward, for what they eat in any place, though the rate be most unreasonable: whereby it comes to pass, that cooks, vintners, innkeepers, and

such