P. What Riches give us let us then enquire: Meat, Fire, and Cloaths. B. What more? P. Meat, Is this too little? would you more than live? NOTES. 80 Bart. a person of an antient | sand into the Charitable family, and ample fortune, without one other quality of a Gentleman, who, after ruining himself at the Gaming-table, past the rest of his days in fitting there to fee the ruin of others; preferring to fubfift upon borrowing and begging, rather than to enter into any reputable method of life, and refufing a poft in the army which was offered him. P. VER. 82. Turner] One, who, being poffeffed of three hundred thousand pounds, laid down his Coach, because Intereft was reduced from five to four per cent. and then put feventy thou Corporation for better intereft; which fum having lost, he took it fo much to heart, that he kept his chamber ever after. It is thought he would not have outlived it, but that he was heir to another confiderable estate, which he daily expected, and that by this course of life he faved both cloaths and all other expences. P. VER 84. Unhappy Whar ton,] A Nobleman of great qualities, but as unfortunate in the application of them, as if they had been vices and follies See his Character in the first Epiftle. P. What can they give? to dying Hopkins, Heirs; 85 Or heal, old Narfes, thy obfcener ail, They might (were Harpax not too wise to spend) NOTES. VER. 85. Hopkins,] Ait to the heir at law. P. Citizen, whofe rapacity obtained him the name of Vultur Hopkins. He lived worthlefs, but died worth three bundred thousand pounds, which he would give to no perfon living, but left it fo as not to be inherited till after the fecond generation. His counfel reprefenting to him how many years it muft be, before this could take effect, and that his money could only lie at intereft all that time, he expreffed great joy thereat, and faid, They would then be as long in fpending, as he "had been in getting it." But the Chancery afterwards fet afide the will, and gave ་་ 90 VER. 86. Japhet, Nofe and Ears?] JAPHETCROOK, alias Sir Peter Stranger, was punished with the lofs of thofe parts, for having forged a conveyance of an Estate to himself, upon which he took up feveral thousand pounds. He was at the fame time fued in Chancery for having fraudulently obtained a Will, by which he poffeffed another confiderable Eftate, in wrong of the brother of the deceased. By these means he was worth a great fum, which (in reward for the fmall lofs of his ears) he enjoyed in prifon till his death, and quietly left to his executor. P. 95 Or find some Doctor that would fave the life Perhaps you think the Poor might have their part? Bond damns the Poor, and hates them from his heart: NOTES. VER. 96. Die, and endow a College, or a Cat.] A famous Duchefs of R. in her laft Will left confiderable legacies and annuities to her Cats. P. VER. 100. Bond damns the Poor, &c.] This epiftle was written in the year 1730, when a corporation was established to lend money to the poor upon pledges, by the name of the Charitable Corporation; but the whole was turned only to an iniquitous method of enriching particular people, to the ruin of fuch numbers, that it became a parliamentary concern to endeavour the relief of thofe unhappy fuf ferers, and three of the managers, who were members of the house, were expelled. By the report of the Committee, appointed to enquire into that iniquitous affair, it appears, that when it was objected to the intended removal of the office, that the Poor, for whose use it was erected, would be hurt by it, Bond, one of the Directors, replied, Damn the Poor. That "God hates the "poor," and, "That every man in want is knave or fool," c. were the genuine apothegms of fome of the perfons here mentioned. P. 66 The grave Sir Gilbert holds it for a rule, 101 That" ev'ry man in want is knave or fool: "God cannot love (fays Blunt, with tearless eyes) "The wretch he starves”—and piously denies : But the good Bishop, with a meeker air, Admits, and leaves them, Providence's care. 105 Yet, to be just to these poor men of pelf, Each does but hate his Neighbour as himself: Damn'd to the Mines, an equal fate betides The Slave that digs it, and the Slave that hides. I10 B. Who fuffer thus, mere Charity should own, Muft act on Motives pow'rful, tho' unknown. P. SomeWar, fome Plague, or Famine they foresee, Some Revelation hid from you and me. Why Shylock wants a meal, the cause is found, 115 He thinks a Loaf will rife to fifty pound. What made Directors cheat in South-fea year? To live on Ven'fon when it fold fo dear. Afk you why Phryne the whole Auction buys? Phryne forefees a general Excife. NOTES. 120 VER. 118. To live on from three to five pounds. Ven'fon] In the extrava- P. gance and luxury of the South-fea year, the price of a haunch of Venifon was VER. 120. general Excife.] Many people about the year 1733, had a con Why she and Sappho raife that monftrous fum? Wife Peter fees the World's refpect for Gold, NOTES. ceit that fuch a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have fome intimation. P. VER. 123. Wife Peter] PETER WALTER, a perfon not only eminent in the wifdom of his profeffion, as a dextrous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a fafe, conveyancer; extremely refpected by the Nobility of this land, tho' free from all manner of luxury and oftentation: his Wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own fon, for whom he procured an em ployment of confiderable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necefa 1125 ry. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any Ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. P. VER. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman Lawyer, fo rich as to purchase the Empire, when it was fet to fale upon the death of Pertinax. P. VER. 127. The Crown of Poland, &c.] The two perfons here mentioned were of Quality, each of whom in the Miffiffippi defpis'd to realize above three hundred thousand pounds; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the Crown of Poland, the Lady on a vifion of the like royal nature. They fince retired inL |