What made Directors cheat in South-sea year? Ask you why Phryne the whole auction buys? 120 Why she and Sappho raise that monstrous sum? Alas! they fear a man will cost a plum. Wise Peter sees the world's respect for gold, And therefore hopes this nation may be sold: NOTES. Ver. 118. To live on venison] In the extravance and luxury of the South-sea year, the price of a haunch of venison was from three to five pounds. Pope. Ver. 120. general excise.] Many people, about the year 1733, had a conceit that such a thing was intended, of which it is not improbable this lady might have some intimation. Pope. Ver. 123. Wise Peter] PETER WALTER, a person not only eminent in the wisdom of his profession, as a dexterous attorney, but allowed to be a good, if not a safe, conveyancer; extremely respected by the nobility of this land, though free from all manner of luxury and ostentation. His wealth was never seen, and his bounty never heard of, except to his own son, for whom he procured an employment of considerable profit, of which he gave him as much as was necessary. Therefore the taxing this gentleman with any ambition, is certainly a great wrong to him. Pope. Peter Walter purchased Stalbridge Park, near Sherborne, a seat of the Boyle Family, now in possession of the Earl of Uxbridge, where he lived many years. He was a neighbour of Henry Fielding, who lived at East Stour, about four miles distant, and was supposed to be the character described by him in Tom Jones, the important" Peter Pounce." "The manor of Stalbridge was purchased by Peter Walter, Esq., who was Clerk of the Peace for the county of Middlesex, steward to the Duke of Newcastle, and other Noblemen and Gentlemen. He acquired an immense fortune, represented the borough of Bridport in Parliament, and died 1745, æt. 83.” History of Dorset. He resided, during the latter period of his life, in a spacious mansion within this manor, where some particulars of him are still remembered. Glorious ambition! Peter, swell thy store, NOTES. 125 remembered. He had been assisted in making a favourite purchase by a dependant, who consequently expected a compensation: Mr. W. refused making any at his own expense, but promised to reward him at the expense of some other person. He accordingly prevailed on a neighbouring Baronet, to lease to him a part of his demesne lands on terms so unusually advantageous, that they could not escape observation; the taxes and parochial imposts being charged on the occupier of the adjoining farm. The estate is still possessed by a daughter of the lessee, with all the advantages attached to it. A characteristic scene was described by a son of his bailiff, who, when a boy, attended his father in an evening on business at the manor-house. They found its possessor sitting without light in a small room communicating with the kitchen. On their approach he applied a dry raspberry stick to his fire, and lighted a small candle which stood on the table before him; but finding, on inquiry, that the present business required no light, he extinguished the candle, and continued the conversation in the dark. Notwithstanding his rigid parsimony, he exacted the respect usually paid to opulence; for observing that the youth had continued with his hat on, supposing no extraordinary deference due to the great man's appearance, he rated him violently for his rusticity and inattention. The story of the "Miser and the Candle," is not uncommon; but I have this account from undoubted authority. The other anecdote shews the propriety of Pope's epithet, "Wise Peter." Bowles. Ver. 126. Rome's great Didius] A Roman lawyer so rich, as to purchase the Empire when it was set to sale upon the death of Pertinax. Pope. Ver. 127. The crown of Poland, &c.] The two persons here mentioned were of quality, each of whom in the Mississippi despised to realize above three hundred thousand pounds; the Gentleman with a view to the purchase of the crown of Poland, the Lady on a vision of the like royal nature. They since retired into Spain, But nobler scenes Maria's dreams unfold, NOTES. 130 Spain, where they are still in search of gold in the mines of the Asturias. Pope. A country devoted to ruin by its ambitious and unjust neighbours; who deserve the severest strokes of such a satirist as our author. Warton. Ver. 128. stinted modest Gage.] "The names of these two persons were Mr. Gage, and Lady Mary Herbert, daughter of William, Marquis of Powis, who, dying in October 1745, left in the hands of his executors and trustees an annuity of 2001. a-year to be paid to the use of this daughter, not for the payment of her many debts which she had contracted, but to keep her from wanting necessaries. William, Marquis of Powis, son of the former, litigated the said will, but died while the suit was pending in the Ecclesiastical Court, leaving the residue of the lands and profits of his estates, after his debts should be paid, in the hands of trustees for the use of the Right Honourable Henry Arthur, then Lord Herbert, afterwards Earl of Powis, with whom he had no relation, friendship, or acquaintance; which Arthur afterwards married Barbara Herbert, niece and heir at law of the latter Earl Powis. This man, by fair promises and threats, got the trustees of the first Earl to agree in obtaining administration with the will and codicil of the Marquis the father annexed, in May 1749, and then repented paying the annuity of 200l. to Mary Herbert, daughter of the said Marquis. As she now resided in France, she had obtained a promise there of being made Dame of Honour to the Queen of France; which Lord Herbert hearing of, went out of England to dissuade her from accepting it, as being a disgrace to her and the family; and promised he would pay her all the arrears of the annuity of 2001. due by her father's will, and would give her, over and above, 2001. a-year more. This he never performed, till after several suits of law the cause was brought to the House of Lords, who decreed both her annuities to be paid, with all arrears due in the year 1766. Throughout a long life, so little difference has this lady found between dreams and realities." From MSS. Notes of Mr. Bowyer. Warton. 135 Much injur'd Blunt! why bears he Britain's hate? A wizard told him in these words our fate: "At length corruption, like a general flood, (So long by watchful Ministers withstood,) Shall deluge all; and avarice creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun; Statesman and patriot ply alike the stocks, Peeress and butler share alike the box, And judges job, and bishops bite the town, 140 And mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown. arms!" NOTES. Ver. 133. Much injur❜d Blunt!] Sir JOHN BLUNT, originally a scrivener, was one of the first projectors of the South Sea Company, and afterwards one of the directors and chief managers of the famous scheme in 1720. He was also one of those who suffered most severely by the bill of pains and penalties on the said directors. He was a Dissenter of a most religious deportment, and professed to be a great believer. Whether he did really credit the prophecy here mentioned is not certain, but it was constantly in this very style he declaimed against the corruption and luxury of the age, the partiality of Parliaments, and the misery of partyspirit. He was particularly eloquent against avarice in great and noble persons, of which he had indeed lived to see many miserable examples. He died in the year 1732. Pope. Ver. 137. -avarice creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun;] The similitude is extremely apposite, implying that this vice is of base and mean original; hatched and nursed up among scriveners and stock-jobbers, and unknown, till of late, to the Nobles of this land but now, in the fulness of time, she rears her head, and aspires to cover the most illustrious stations in her dark and pestilential shade. The Sun, and other luminaries of Heaven, signifying, in the high eastern style, the Grandees and Nobles of the earth. Warburton. : SCRIBL. 'Twas no Court-badge, great Scrivener! fir'd thy brain, Nor lordly luxury, nor city gain : No, 'twas thy righteous end, asham'd to see And nobly wishing party rage to cease, 145 To buy both sides, and give thy country peace. 150 "All this is madness," cries a sober sage: But who, my friend, has reason in his rage? COMMENTARY. Ver. 151. "All this is madness," &c.] But now the Sage, who has confined himself to books, which prescribe the government of the passions; and never looked out upon the world, where he might see them let loose, and, like Milton's devils, riding the air in whirlwind, cries out, All this is madness. True, replies the Poet (from ver. 151 to 177.), but this madness is a common one; and only to be prevented by a severe attention to the rule laid down in the Essay : "Reason still use, to Reason still attend;" Ep. ii. ver. 68. for amongst the generality of men, and without the greatest circumspection, "The ruling Passion, be it what it will, The ruling Passion conquers Reason still." But then (continues he), as senseless as this passion appears, by the sway of its overbearing bias, it would be still more senseless had it no bias at all: you have seen us here intermix with the real, the most fantastical and extravagant that imagination could invent; yet even these are less extravagant than a ruling Passion without a constant aim. Would you know the reason? then listen to this important truth: ""Tis HEAVEN itself that gives the ruling Passion, and thereby directs different men to different ends: but these being exerted through the ministry of NATURE (of whom the great Philosopher truly observes, modum tenere nescia est, Aug. Scient. 1. ii. c. 13.), they are very apt to run into extremes to correct which, Heaven, at the same time, added the moderatrix Reason; not to take the ruling Passion out of the hands and ministry of Nature, but to restrain and rectify its irregular impulses (see Essay, Ep. ii. ver. 151, et seq.); and what extremes, after this, remained uncorrected in the administration of this weak Queen (ver. 140. Ep. ii.), the |