BATH FESTIVITIES.

[From the Oracle.]

THE following Jeu d'Efprits on foine Mufical Festivities, &c. at the Upper and Lower Rooms, were the cause of much mirth there to the votaries of the Beau Monde.

"Two mufical parties to Bladud belong,

To delight the Old Rooms and the Upper;
One gives to the ladies a fupper-no fong;
The other a fong, and no fupper."

"The ladies complain

Of the musical strain

At the Old Rooms, but not at the Upper;
At the New ones is found

The fweet concord of found,

At the Old you but pay for a fupper."

Which of the two parties, in their arrangements to please their visitors, were in the right, the following lines, perhaps, may in feme measure ferve to exemplify:

Orpheus, we 're told

By the poets of old,

Could play on his harp fuch fweet ditty,

That the ftones of themselves

Danc'd a galliard like elves,

And settled in form of a city.

But, ye mufical Sirs,
Not one of us ftirs,

Though your Handels you play and Corellis :
If you 'd pleafe, you must treat

With much wine and much meat,
And so touch our hearts through our bellies!

A COOLING

A COOLING RECIPE *.

WHEN Senex, who long from the world had retir'd,
No more by its juvenile follies infpir'd,

Again fallied forth from his hermit-like state,
To visit Walsh Porter's Egyptian fête ;

As drops from the ftream in the morning of life
Salute our first knowledge of forrow and ftrife,
So-Senex, refolving to take the fame path,

Would again be-baptiz'd in Walsh Porter's cold bath.

TO THE LADIES:

A PROCLAMATION.

[From the Oracle.]

LA FONTAINE,

WHEREAS it hath been humbly reprefented unto

us, that divers malicious and evil-difpofed

women do walk up and down in our CITIES of LONDON and WESTMINSTER, and PARKS adjacent, with their necks, bofoms, and arms, indecently uncovered, to the great difparagement and feduction of the more modeft part of our liege female fubjects-Now we do hereby take it into our most ferious confideration, and hereby direct and order all our Bailiffs and Conftables, inhabiting within our faid Cities of London and Weftminster, te parade the streets of our faid Cities and Parks adjacent, and take into cuftody all fuch indecent women, who fhall be fo immodeftly uncovered as aforefaid, and take them before the proper Magiftrates, whom we do hereby authorize to cominit the faid women to our Houfe of Correction in Cold Bath Fields, there to be confined to hard labour for fix calendar months. And we do hereby likewife direc

Occafioned by the odd circumftance of a gentleman walking into a cold bath, while he was in search after novelties at an entertainment given by Mr. Walsh Porter.

and

and order our faid Bailiffs to take into cuftody all young or old men who fhall be feen walking with any of the faid indecently dreffed women aforefaid, we thinking it tends to the corruption of our young men, thereby rendering them effeminate and unfit defenders of their country. And we do hereby authorize all our Conftables as aforefaid, to imprefs all young men who shall be seen as aforefaid, into our fea-fervice, and put them on board our tender now lying off the Tower.

REVENUE CUTTERS.

[From the Morning Herald.] ̧

To his Honour CHARLES BISHOPP, Efq. of Doctors

HONOURED SIR,

Commons.

FOLKS tell us here that you are the King's Proctor;

and that your birth is made a good one, that you might protect the rights of poor feamen who have ferved His Majefty faithfully, and not foffer them to be plundered of their prize-money by the thoals of land-fharks who would devour it, after we have hardly earned it. I take the liberty, therefore, Honoured Sir, to tell you, in behalf of myself, and brother meffmates, on board one of His Majefty's Excife Cutters, that we have all of us been treated very ill, by having had our prize-money detained from us more than three years, while the Cuflom-house Cutiers have had theirs paid them, as we understand, a long while ago; though not without fome hard fqueezes by your hard-hearted agents-a great fcandal in a free country. I am emboldened, therefore, to tell your Honour, that more than half my meffmates, and their families, are in great diftrefs for want of their honeft fhares; while fome rich folks in London, as we are told, are living upon the fat of the land, out of the intereft of our

money,

116 LINOIS'S ACCOUNT OF HIS ENGAGEMENT.

money, our prizes having been fold, and the money paid, fomewhere or other, more than three years ago. -To tell your Honour the truth, as we feamen don't like much chopping about of the wind, for fear it fhould bring dirty weather--fo we don't at all relish fo many changes in your Government men, because, just as our money was ordered to be shared, by both the two laft gangs of them, as the d-1 would have it, they were unfhipped, fo that all our expectations were put to fea again. Now, Honoured Sir, all the favour we have to crave of you is, that you will only be fo good as to tell His Majefty's new Head Servants of State the rights of our hard cafe, left any great man among 'em should good-naturedly give our juft property to any other people, for want of knowing the honest truth of the matter.-Some people fay, that you are too busy in getting oceans of money for yourfelf, to trouble your head about that belonging to poor feamen-but we don't believe a word on 't.

Į remain, your Honour, for Self and Messmates,
Your humble Servant to command,

Portsmouth, Feb. 10.

JEREMIAH WILSON. N. B. As you must have the law at your fingers ends, pray, good Sir, tell us, whether fomething lefs than fourteen and a half per cent. ought not to fatisfy thofe agents, and others, for keeping us out of our money.

ANTICIPATION

OF LINOIS'S ACCOUNT OF HIS ENGAGEMENT WITH OUR EAST INDIA SHIPS, UNDER CAPTAIN DANCE.

[From the General Evening Poft.]

OFF the Streights of Malacca I'd the fortune to meet,
My long-look'd-for object-the enemy's fleet:

In an instant my fquadron moft gallant bore down,
Though their force more than ten-fold exceeded our own

For

For three-deckers they 'd several-fecond rates eight or nine,
In fhort, the foe's fhips were all ships of the line.
The Marengo alone, for fix hours or more,

Fought their fam'd Royal George-with befides half a score,
And fuch havoc among them dealt out, while 't was light,
That they gladly stole off under cover of night:

I purfu'd them till morn, with all fail I could fet,
But in vain-fo return'd into port to refit―

Convinc'd, if of daylight we'd had one more hour,
That the whole of their fleet would have struck to our pow'r;
For no lions e'er fought, that's recorded in story,
More fiercely than mine for great Bonaparte's glory.

OCCASIONAL PROLOGUE,

SPOKEN ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP BRITANNIA,

MY Lord + and Gentlemen-alas! off Cadiz,

How hard it is we can't addrefs the ladies!
For "if the brave alone deferve the fair,"
Britannia's fons fhould furely have their fhare!
But, fince their valour, though upon record,
Like other merits, is its own reward;

Though female charms infpire us not-again
We welcome you-my Lord and Gentlemen!
You too, brave fellows! who the back ground tread,
Alike we welcome,-jackets, blue or red!

And humbly hope, "That, while we give our aid,
To cheer the tedium of a dull blockade,
To banish ennui for a few short hours,
However feeble our theatric powers;

Our well-meant efforts, to amufe awhile,

Will meet the wish'd reward—your fav'ring smile."

* In the Britannia, and two or three, other fhips of the fleet off Cadiz, dramatic pieces are occafionally performed by fome of the young officers. On one of thofe occafions, this Prologue was delivered by Lieut. L. B. Halloran, of the Royal Marines.

+ Rear-admiral the Earl of Northefk, who, with his ufual condefcenfion and good nature, honours these performances with his presence.

For