Oft lend I, loth, to some sage friend an ear, (For we who will not speak are doom'd to hear); While he, bewilder'd, tells his anxious thought, Infectious fear from tainted scribblers caught, Or idiot hope; for each his mind assails, As Lloyd's court-light or Stockdale's gloom prevails. 150 Yet stand I patient while but one declaims, Or gives dull comments on the speech he maims: But oh! ye Muses, keep your votary's feet From tavern-haunts where politicians meet; Where rector, doctor, and attorney pause, First on each parish, then each public cause: [Indicted] roads and rates that still increase; The murmuring poor, who will not fast in peace; Election-zeal and friendship, since declined; A tax commuted, or a tithe in kind; 160 The Dutch and Germans kindling into strife; Dull port and poachers vile, the serious ills of life. Here comes the neighbouring justice, pleased to guide His little club, and in the chair preside. In private business his commands prevail, On public themes his reasoning turns the scale; Assenting silence soothes his happy ear, And, in or out, his party triumphs here. Nor here th' infectious rage for party stops, But flits along from palaces to shops; 170 Our weekly journals o'er the land abound, And spread their plague and influenzas round; The village, too, the peaceful, pleasant plain, Breeds the Whig-farmer and the Tory-swain; Brookes' and St. Alban's boasts not, but, instead, Stares the Red Ram, and swings the Rodney's Head:-- Hither, with all a patriot's care, comes he Who owns the little hut that makes him free; Whose yearly forty shillings buy the smile Of mightier men, and never waste the while; 180 Who feels his freehold's worth, and looks elate, A little prop and pillar of the state. Here he delights the weekly news to con, And mingle comments as he blunders on; To swallow all their varying authors teach, To spell a title, and confound a speech: Till with a muddled mind he quits the news, And claims his nation's licence to abuse; Then joins the cry, "That all the courtly race Are venal candidates for power and place"; 190 Yet feels some joy, amid the general vice, That his own vote will bring its wonted price. These are the ills the teeming press supplies, The pois'nous springs from learning's fountain rise; Not there the wise alone their entrance find, Imparting useful light to mortals blind; But, blind themselves, these erring guides hold out Alluring lights, to lead us far about; Screen'd by such means, here Scandal whets her quill, Here Slander shoots unseen, whene'er she will; 200 Here Fraud and Falsehood labour to deceive, And Folly aids them both, impatient to believe.