The Royal Cockneys In America[145]

1797

Why travel so far from your insular home, Ye cockneys of London, and all in a foam, To talk, and to talk, with coxcombical phiz, And tell what a nuisance democracy is: Twas a lesson we learn'd When you were concern'd In wishing success to the vast preparations To conquer and pillage the royal-plantations.

We Americans far from your king-ridden isle Do humbly beseech you, all democrat haters, For fear that your bodies or souls you defile, Would fairly go off, with your lies and your satires: The monarch you worship requests your assistance, And how can you help him at such a long distance? Tis an Englishman's creed, And they all have agreed That, out of old England, there's nothing, they swear, That can with old England--dear England--compare; So, away to old England, or we'll send you there.

A swarm is arrived from the hives of the east, Determined to sap the republic's foundation; And who is their leader, their scribe, and their priest? Why, Porcupine Peter, The democrat-eater, Transported by Pitt, at the charge of the nation, To preach to the demos a new revelation.

His patrons in England, and some who are here, Consented to join in his sink of scurrility, And gave him, tis certain, four thousand a year To print a damn'd libel, to please our nobility: Where I--is the hero of all that is said I--Corporal Cobbett[A]-a man of the blade! If his countrymen thought That for nothing we fought And they mean to regain, by the aid of his press, A country they lost, to their shame and disgrace, Let them fairly engage In some liberal page: We can give them an answer, not relish'd by some, Who will see their friend Peter go, whimpering, home.

[A] Alluding to the egotistical style of his writings.--Freneau's note.

From the edition of 1815.