And had beside his den well stor❜d,
Whilst meanly serv'd the royal board.

A day of reckoning must come,
And Bruin chanc'd abroad to roam-
(Which seldom was the case through fear
His deeds should reach the royal ear);
An elephant, as passing by,

Happen'd to strike the monarch's eye.

"How!" quoth the king, "whence comes it then,

"You pass unheeded by our den?

"Whence this neglect ?”—“ Sire, may it please,
"Your subjects think the royal ease
86 Requires retirement, and repose-
"Or so 'tis giv'n them to suppose;
"If they approach, your keeper growls,
"Whilst with complaints the forest howls:
"Your minister"-The ice once broke,
What other subjects thought, he spoke,
Nor matters minc'd:-the monarch foam'd
To find himself alive entomb'd.

The bear was seiz'd, accusers heard,
No friend on his behalf appear'd.

Disgrac'd, his sycophantic crew
From him, as from infection, flew.
Those, whom his pride had overborne,
A thousand-fold return'd his scorn.
Humbled his pride-his senses clear,
He knew himself-a very bear.

MORAL.

A wise king ne'er will shut his ears Against his loyal subjects' pray'rs; Nor minister abuse his trust,

Lest both be humbled in the dust,

MORE EXPEDITIONS!

"For all delays are dangerous in war.

* *

*

Things, once resolv'd, are ruin'd by delay."

DRYDEN.

Ir was once reckoned a capital state trick, but it is now grown so stale as to be nosed by every schoolboy, when a minister had committed a most egregious blunder, or had been caught in some dirty peculation, to throw out a tub to the whale; and there have been various expedients used for drawing the indignant people from the right scent. They no sooner began to lay their heads together, and to grow loud in their complaints, than some foreign indignity, offered to our national honor, was trumped up, and then farewell politics, and hey for war! But, if the French, or Spanish, or Dutch, did not happen to be

in the same humour, or under the same pressing necessity for foreign strife as ourselves, or rather our juggling ministers, some domestic wonder-a Mary Canning, or a CockLane ghost-is contrived for the purpose of furnishing the politicians with another subject of conversation. It seldom happened, however, but that a few years interval of peace had rendered both states rather too rich and plethoric, and the people troublesome to their rulers; for which reason princes seldom enjoy peace at home, but when they are fighting abroad. Therefore, the challenge given was soon accepted; the princes were quite happy, as both conquered-in their own country; both shared the bootyof their own subjects; who, though griped to death by the expences, in turns rung the bells, fired feux de joie, or chaunted Te Deum. This manœuvre is termed by the state quacks, breathing a political vein, and preventing a national inflammation.

It happened most opportunely for the present ministry, that the nation had been,

for upwards of sixteen years past, and still were engaged in a most desperate war, at a time when *

Colonel Wardle, Mr. Maddocks, and a few others, let the cat out of the bag, with a label attached to its neck, whereon were inscribed the words-" Corruption and peculation in all quarters!" Nay, they went farther; they produced damning proofs of their existence. The people were all in a roar-not of laughter, but indignation. Something must be done to draw them off the scent, when every effort to leave them at fault had been tried in vain. At last it was determined to have

ANOTHER EXPEDITION,

such as was never seen before! Well, such an one was prepared; but, like all its predecessors, the expedition was not expedited, until the whole line of the enemies' coasts