THE NEWSPAPER.
Thermometer of politics! strange folio of news!
Which young and old, which rich and poor, which grave and gay, peruse:
A faithful portraiture of all the manners of the age;
A pieture of the actors proud who crowd the public stage;
A medley of most rare events; a "map of busy life,"
With all its shifting lights and shades, its pleasure and its strife;
Containing acts of statesmen wise, accounts of bloody wars,
Rebellions, murders, robberies, infernal feuds and jars;
How greedy churchmen meanly fawn, and to a patron bow;
What small regard for people's rights the most of princes show;
How wily lawyers love to hear of squabbles and contentions;
How titled fools, tho' wanting sense, are often blessed with pensions;
How some are hunting after fame, how some are seeking health,
And others with avidity are toiling after wealth:
The varying phrases of the times there we distinctly mark,
And see the nation's healthful signs, or plague-spots deep and dark.
It is a Courier bringing news from shores and climes afar;
A Herald the flag of peace, or symbol red of war;
A Mercury hastening on its way, the messenger of fate;
A Sun that lights us with its ray; a Standard of the state;
A Record of the Times; a Globe that daily shews its light:
A " Northern Whig" that forward comes, and pleads the people's rights;
'Tis a Spectator looking on with sharp discerning eyes;
A calm Observer of the world; Examiner that prys
Into the schemes and secrets deep that statesmen sly devise:
An Atlas large of politics; a Morning Post that flies
With fashionable gossip round; a Chronicle of news:
A Journal of intelligence; a Scotsman true, that views
With joy the efforts making now in freedom's noble cause:
A Free Press urging on Reform, with just and equal laws;
An Advertiser spreading wide accounts of soups and sales,
With prices of estates and books, of ships and merchants' bales.
It is a thing that's sorely taxed to fill the public purse,
Which selfish politicians fear, and despots loudly curse;
And though it seems a feeble thing, of trail materials made,
It can alarm oppressors fierce, and helpless sufferers aid:
For, guided by the voice of truth, it has a power unknown,
A lever that can overturn the greatest tyrant's throne.
November, 1831. Robin Strap.
