Sir Thomas, observing this Hartley withal
So expert and so active at brushes and ball,
Was moved with compassion, and thought it a pity
A youth should be lost, that had been so witty:
Without more ado, he vamps up my spark,
And now we'll suppose him an eminent clerk!
Suppose him an adept in all the degrees
Of scribbling _cum dasho_, and hooking of fees;
Suppose him a miser, attorney, _per_ bill,
Suppose him a courtier--suppose what you will--
Yet, would you believe, though I swore by the Bible,
That he took up two news-boys for crying the libel?
[Footnote 1: Variation from Ovid, "Met.," ii, 541:
"Qui color albus erat, nunc est contrarius albo."--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 2: So in _Hudibras_, Pt. II, Canto II:
"_Vespasian_ being dawb'd with Durt,
Was destin'd to the Empire for't
And from a Scavinger did come
To be a mighty Prince in _Rome_."]
[Footnote 3: Squire Hartley Hutcheson, "that zealous prosecutor of
hawkers and libels," who signed Faulkner's committal to prison. See
"Prose Works," vii, 234.--_W. E. B._]
[Footnote 4: Sir T. Domvile, patentee of the Hanaper office.--_F._]
A FRIENDLY APOLOGY FOR A CERTAIN JUSTICE OF PEACE
BY WAY OF DEFENCE OF HARTLEY HUTCHESON, ESQ.
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