BURKE
's ADDRESS TO The "SWINISH
☞ The following Passage is extracted verbatim from Mr. BURKE's Reflections on the French
Revolution,
p. 117. "Along with its natural Protectors and Guardians, Learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a
Swinish
Multitude."
" Multitude!
Tune
"Derry down, down."
&c.
YE vile SWINISH Herd, in the Sty of Taxation,
What would ye be after?—disturbing the Nation?
Give over your grunting—Be off—To your Sty!
Nor dare to look out, if a KING passes by:
Get ye down! down! down!—Keep ye down!
Do ye know what a KING is? By
Patrick
I'll tell you;
He has power in his pocket, to buy you and sell you:
To make you all Soldiers, or keep you at work;
To hang you, and cure you for Ham or Salt Pork!
Get ye down! &c.
Do you think that a KING is no more than a Man?
Ye Brutish, Ye Swinish, irrational Clan?
I swear by his Office, his Right is divine,
To flog you, and
eed you, and treat you like Swine!
Get ye down! &c.
To be sure, I have said—but I spoke it abrupt—
That "the State is
defective,
and also
corrupt.
"
Yet remember I told you with caution to peep,
For
Swine
at a distance WE prudently keep—
Get ye down!
&c.
Now the
Church
and the
State,
to keep each other warm,
Are
married
together. And where is the harm?
How healthy and wealthy are Husband and Wife!
But
Swine
are excluded the conjugal Life—
Get YE down!
&c
The
State,
it is true, has grown fat upon SWINE,
And
Church
's weak Stomach on TYTHE-PIG can dine;
But neither, you know, as they
roast,
at the fire,
Have a
ight to find fault with the
Cooks,
or enquire.
Get Ye down!
&c.
"What use do we make of your Money"—You say?
Why, the first law of Nature:—
We take our own Pay
—
And next on our Friends a few
Pensions
bestow—
And to you we apply when our
Treasure
runs low.
Get ye down!
&c.
Consider our
Boroughs,
Ye grumbling SWINE!
At Corruption and Taxes, they never repine:
If we only
Proclaim,
"YE ARE HAPPY!"—They say
"
WE
ARE
Happy!
"—Believe and be
Happy
as they!
Get ye down!
&c.
What know ye of COMMONS, of KINGS, or of LORDS,
But what the dim
Light
of TAXATION affords?
Be contented with that—and no more of your rout:
Or a new
Proclamation
shall muzzle your Snout!
Get ye down!
&c.
And now for the
SUN
—or the
LIGHT
OF THE DAY!
"IT doth not belong to a PIT?"—You will say.
I tell you be silent, and hush all your Jars:
Or he'll charge you a
Farthing
a-piece for the Stars.
Get ye down!
&c.
Here's MYSELF, and
His Darkness,
and
Harry Dundass;
Scotch, English,
and
Irish,
with Fronts made of Brass—
A cord platied three-fold will stand a good pull,
Against SAWNEY, and PATRICK, and old
Johnny Bull III
Get ye down! &c.
To conclude▪ Then no more about MAN and his RIGHTS,
TOM PAINE, and a Rabble of
Liberty Lights:
That you are but our "SWINE," if ye ever forget,
We'll throw you alive to the HORRIBLE PIT!
Get ye down! down! down!—Keep ye down!