talk, to jabber
Of parties o'er our bonnyclabber;
Nor are we studious to inquire,
Who votes for manors, who for hire:
Our care is, to improve the mind
With what concerns all human kind;
The various scenes of mortal life;
Who beats her husband, who his wife;
Or how the bully at a stroke
Knock'd down the boy, the lantern broke.
One tells the rise of cheese and oatmeal;
Another when he got a hot-meal;
One gives advice in proverbs old,
Instructs us how to tame a scold;
One shows how bravely Audouin died,
And at the gallows all denied;
How by the almanack 'tis clear,
That herrings will be cheap this year.
_T_. Dear Mullinix, I now lament
My precious time so long mispent,
By nature meant for nobler ends:
O, introduce me to your friends!
For whom by birth I was design'd,
Till politics debased my mind;
I give myself entire to you;
G---d d--n the Whigs and Tories too!

[Footnote 1: This is a severe satire upon Richard Tighe, Esq., whom the
Dean regarded as the officious informer against Sheridan, in the matter
of the choice of a text for the accession of George I, Swift had
faithfully promised to revenge the cause of his friend, and has certainly
fully redeemed his pledge, in this and the following pasquinades. Mad
Mullinix, or Molyneux, was a sort of crazy beggar, a Tory politician in
His madness, who haunted the streets of Dublin about this time. In a
paper subscribed Dr. Anthony, apparently a mountebank of somewhat the
same description, the doctor is made to vindicate his loyalty and regard
for the present constitution in church and state, by declaring that he
always acted contrary to the politics of Captain John Molyneux. The
immediate occasion for publication is assigned in the Intelligencer, in
which paper the dialogue first appeared.--_Scott_.

"Having lately had an account, that a certain person of some distinction
swore in a public coffee-house, that party should never die while he
lived, (although it has been the endeavour of the best and wisest among
us, to abolish the ridiculous appellations of Whig and Tory, and entirely
to turn our thoughts to the good of our prince and constitution in church
and state,) I hope those who are well-wishers to our country, will think
my labour not ill-bestowed, in giving this gentleman's principles the
proper embellishments which they deserve; and since Mad Mullinix is the
only Tory now remaining, who dares own himself to be so, I hope I may not
be censured by those o