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What! though, just Heaven! thou leav'st thy prison throne,
Denounced! bereft! abandoned and alone!

Still shalt thou shine, in Freedom's fane enrolled,
Wreath'd with her amaranth-a Name of Gold!
Still with thy Country, lingering o'er that name,
Tear it with tears from many a page of shame!
And while her sighs and blush by turns disclose
The mingled grief and glory of thy woes,
Oft will she bless the, blighted in thy bloom,
A primrose, withering on her wintry tomb!

ADDRESS TO A CHILD ON ITS BIRTH
DAY.

Welcome sweet boy to this thy natal day,
Thus far thou'rt travell'd on life's dubious way,
May cheerful health, and smiling peace divine,
Their blessings shed, and on thee ever shine.
May no rough thorns, bestrew thy path thro' life,
Nor ranc'rous passions urge the on to strife ;
And as thou ripen'st to maturer years,

May virtue guide thee from those paths she fears;
Let all her precepts center in thy heart,
Then when thou diest thy soul will quick depart
To blissful regions far beyond the skies,

For such awaits the good, the just, and wise.

EPIGRAM.

J. D.

"No patients of mine of my treatment complain,"
Doctor Bolus most braggingly said;

"True enough," cried a friend," which I can explain,
Since accusation ne'er came from the dead."

The Amusing Chronicle is published at No. 6, Gilbert's Passage, Portugal street, and served at the houses of the subscribers, in the same manner as newspapers and magazines.

G. Stobbs, Printer, Catherine Street, Strand.

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AMUSING CHRONICLE,

a Weekly Repository for

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

No. XI.]

NOVEMBER 28, 1816.

[VOL. I.

Price only Four Pence.

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE.

Gambia in a fit of jealousy attempts to strangle Zelinda's child, but is prevented by the agony of her terror.

CHILD "Dear Gambia, you hold me so tight, I cunnot reach to kiss you," Vide The Slave-Act the first.

[It was our intention to have accompanied the Plate with some Account of the Performance, but after perusing an Account of the Mecting at the Mansion House in favour of the Spitalfields Poor, we think it our bounden duty (avoiding Politics and Religion) to record the eloquent Address of Mr. BuxTON to the Lord Mayor.]

SPEECH OF MR. BUXTON AT THE MANSION HOUSE.

My Lord-As one of the persons who were instrumental in convening this Meeting, it has been intimated to me that it is my duty to explain our objects-this, and this alone, I can truly say, has urged me to place myself in a situation more prominent and more considerable than any other circumstance would warrant. It has been my lot to see something of the distress that rages in our unhappy district; and whoever had seen, as I have seen, the utmost 'ravages of hunger, cold, and disease, would excuse the transgression of propriety I feel I commit in coming forward so early, would do, as I do, would endeavour to enkindle in the breasts of others those strong emotions of compassion which the sight of such distress would raise in his own mind, and would feel most deeply itnerested that something this day may be done, may be nobly done, for the relief of my poor neighbours, sunk as they are to the lowest depths of misery; but first allow me to state the causes in which it originates; because these are generally unknown, because they are very curious and pe culiar, and because a knowledge of these operate as an apology for this public application, as it will shew that this district has claims not only on your compassion, but something like claims even on your

Macpherson, Printer, Russell Court, Covent Garden.

justice, not only those claims which distress always has on the bene volence of the affluent, but those intimate and almost legalised claims which the labourer possesses on his own employer, the mechanic on his own master, the pauper on his own parish. I make bold to think that I can convince you that the persons for whom we plead are your own labourers, your own mechanies, and your own poor. In the Act by which the Poor Laws were established in this country, there is a clause enabling Magistrates, where any parish is too poor to support its own inhabitants, to conjoin with it other parishes more competent. This is right; and if it stopped here, this meeting would be super fluous, as long ago we should have negociated a union between our poverty and your wealth; but one word excludes us from this-this conjunction is restricted to parishes within the same county, and London is a county within itself. Now, this is very unfortunate, as it has been estimated that much more than one-half of our popula tion work for masters who reside in the city. Now observe, my Lord, how unequal a division takes place-you have the man, and the labours of the man, when he can work, and we have him and his family when he cannot; you have his strength, and we his infirmity; you his health, and we his sickness; you his youth, and we his age; in short, you have the labourer, and we the pauper; you have the profits of his labour, and we the charges of his maintenance. But let not any Gentleman imagine, that we now ask for aid to our parochial funds no such misapplication will take place; whether this subscription be large or small, it will still be the duty of the Overseers to exact from the householders every shilling that can be obtained. But I shall be asked, why do we uot increase our rates, and thus raise sufficient for the support of the poor? Because we cannot-because the majority of those who pay the rates are themselves poor; and, perhaps, there is no class more distressed, more the objects of pity, than these householders. Great commisseration is due to those who have seen better times; who, struggling against the waves that threaten to overwhelm him, can hardly resist them. Great pity is also due to those who are obliged to support a respectable appearance, and to do so, are obliged to curtail their food. These are our householders, and experience has convinced us that with these we have arrived at the maximum of parochial assessment; that if we increase the rates, we lessen the amount they produce that the only conséquence of such attempted advance is, that we are obliged to strike their names out of the list of those who pay the rates, and insert it in that of those who received them. Observe, then, the hardship of our case-our proximity to the city (which being in another county) deprives us of the benefit of the Poor Laws, while that very proximity overloads us with poor-the dearness of house rent in the city, its cheapness in the fields, sends to us all that are too miserable to reside amongst you, and renders Spitalfields what indeed it is, a grand drain for the distresses of the capital-a kind of metropolitan work-house, to which all that is wretched resorts. Other causes also operate. The depression throughout the country deprives us of our most considerable market for the silk ma

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