Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/334

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298
WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE
CH. VIII

conversation might extend itself to the occupations of retired statesmen.

The authors of Rolliad celebrated the conclusion of these negotiations in a Pastoral poem, in which the First Lord of the Treasury and the Marquis address one another in amœbæan strains.

THE STATESMEN

an eclogue

Lansdowne

While on the Treasury-Bench you, Pitt, recline,
And make men wonder at each vast design;
I, hapless man, my harsher fate deplore,
Ordain'd to view the regal face no more;
That face which erst on me with rapture glow'd,
And smiles responsive to my smiles bestow'd:
And now the Court I leave, my native home,
"A banish'd man, condemn'd in woods to roam";
While you to senates, Brunswick's mandates give,
And teach white-wands to chaunt his high prerogative.

Pitt

Oh! Lansdowne, 'twas a more than mortal pow'r
My fate controul'd, in that auspicious hour,
When Temple deign'd the dread decree to bring,
And stammer'd out the firmaun of the King;
That power I'll worship as my household god,
Shrink at his frown, and bow beneath his nod;
At every feast his presence I'll invoke,
For him my kitchen fires shall ever smoke;
Not mighty Hastings, whose illustrious breath
Can bid a Rajah live, or give him death,
Though back'd by Scott, by Barwell, Palk, and all
The sable squadron scowling from Bengal;
Not the bold Chieftain of the tribe of Phipps,[1]
Whose head is scarce less handsome than his ship's;[1]
Not bare-breech'd Graham[2] nor bare-witted Rose,
Nor the great Lawyer with the little Nose;[3]
Nor even Villiers self shall welcome be,[4]
To dine so oft, or dine so well as he.


  1. 1.0 1.1 Created Lord Mulgrave in 1794. Minister for Foreign Affairs in the second Administration of Mr. Pitt in succession to Lord Harrowby. He had been in the Navy.
  2. The Marquis of Graham. See Wraxall, Posthumous Memoirs, i. 279.
  3. Pepper Arden, Attorney-General.
  4. Mr. John Villiers, second son of the Earl of Clarendon, "the Nereus of the party, comely, with the flaxen hair." Wraxall, Posthumous Memoirs, i. 279.