¹ A short satire was likewise published in the same paper, in which were the following lines:

For cruel murder doom’d to hempen death,

Savage, by royal grace, prolong’d his breath.

Well might you think he spent his future years

In prayer, and fasting, and repentant tears.

—But, O vain hope!—the truly Savage cries,

“Priests, and their slavish doctrines, I despise.

Shall I——

Who, by free-thinking to free action fir’d,

In midnight brawls a deathless name acquir’d,

Now stoop to learn of ecclesiastic men?—

—No, arm’d with rhyme, at priests I’ll take my aim,

Though prudence bids me murder but their fame.”

WEEKLY MISCELLANY.

An answer was published in The Gentleman’s Magazine, written by an unknown hand, from which the following lines are selected:

Transform’d by thoughtless rage, and midnight wine,

From malice free, and push’d without design;

In equal brawl if Savage lung’d a thrust,

And brought the youth a victim to the dust;

So strong the hand of accident appears,

The royal hand from guilt and vengeance clears.

    Instead of wasting “all thy future years,

Savage, in prayer and vain repentant tears;”

Exert thy pen to mend a vicious age,

To curb the priest, and sink his high-church rage;

To shew what frauds the holy vestments hide,

The nests of av’rice, lust, and pedant pride;

Then change the scene, let merit brightly shine,

And round the patriot twist the wreath divine;

The heavenly guide deliver down to fame;

In well-tun’d lays transmit a Foster’s name;

Touch every passion with harmonious art,

Exalt the genius, and correct the heart.

Thus future times shall royal grace extol;

Thus polish’d lines thy present fame enrol.

—But grant—

—Maliciously that Savage plung’d the steel,

And made the youth its shining vengeance feel;

My soul abhors the act; the man detests,

But more the bigotry in priestly breasts.

GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, May 1735.