After a little conversation,

The Devil told Peter, if he chose,

He'd bring him to the world of fashion
By giving him a situation

In his own service-and new clothes.

And Peter bowed, quite pleased and proud,
And after waiting some few days
For a new livery-dirty yellow

Turned up with black-the wretched fellow
Was bowled to Hell in the Devil's chaise.

PART THIRD.

HELL.

HELL is a city much like London-
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;

Small justice shown, and still less pity.

There is a Castles, and a Canning,

A Cobbett, and a Castlereagh; All sorts of caitiff corpses planning, All sorts of cozening for trepanning Corpses less corrupt thar they.

There is a

who has lost

His wits, or sold them, none knows which;

He walks about a double ghost,

And though as thin as Fraud almost,
Ever grows more grim and rich.

There is a Chancery Court; a King;
A manufacturing mob; a set
Of thieves who by themselves are sent
Similar thieves to represent;

An army; and a public debt,

Which last is a scheme of paper money,
And means-being interpreted-
"Bees, keep your wax-give us the honey,
And we will plant, while skies are sunny,
Flowers, which in winter serve instead."

There is great talk of revolution—
And a great chance of despotism;
German soldiers-camps-confusion-
Tumults-lotteries-rage-delusion-

Gin-suicide-and methodism ;

Taxes too, on wine and bread,

And meat and beer, and tea, and cheese; From which those patriots pure are fed,

Who

gorge before they reel to bed

The tenfold essence of all these.

There are mincing women, mewing,

(Like cats, who amant miserè,*)
Of their own virtue, and pursuing
Their gentler sisters to that ruin,
Without which-what were chastity ?†

Lawyers-judges-old hobnobbers

Are there; bailiffs-chancellors-
Bishops-great and little robbers—
Rhymesters-pamphleteers-stock-jobbers—
Men of glory in the wars,—

Things whose trade is, over ladies

To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper,
Till all that is divine in woman

Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman,
Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper ;—

Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling,
Frowning, preaching-such a riot!

* One of the attributes in Linnæus's description of the Cat. To a similar cause the caterwauling of more than one species of this genus is to be referred;-except, indeed, that the poor quadruped is compelled to quarrel with its own pleasures, whilst the biped is supposed only to quarrel with those of others.

What would this husk and excuse for a virtue be without Its kernel prostitution, or the kernel prostitution without this ask of a virtue? I wonder the women of the town do not form an association, like the Society for the Suppression of Vice, for the support of what may be called the "King, Church, and Constitution" of their order s almost too horrible for a joke.

But this subject

Each with never-ceasing labour,

Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour,
Cheating his own heart of quiet.

And all these meet at levees;
Dinners convivial and political;
Suppers of epic poets; teas,
Where small talk dies in agonies;
Breakfasts professional and critical;

Lunches and snacks so aldermanic

That one would furnish forth ten dinners, Where reigns a Cretan-tongued panic,

Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic

Should make some losers, and some winners;

At conversazioni-balls

Conventicles and drawing-rooms-
Courts of law-committees-calls
Of a morning-clubs-book-stalls-
Churches-masquerades-and tombs.

And this is Hell-and in this smother
Are all damnable and damned;
Each one damning, damns the other;
They are damned by one another,
By none other are they damned.

Tis a lie to say,

"God damns!"*

*This libel on our national oath, and this accusation of all our countrymen of being in the daily practice of solemnly

Where was Heaven's Attorney-General
When they first gave out such flams?
Let there be an end of shams:

They are mines of poisonous mineral.

Statesmen damn themselves to be

Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls
To the auction of a fee;

Churchmen damn themselves to see
God's sweet love in burning coals.

The rich are damned, beyond all cure,

To taunt, and starve, and trample on The weak and wretched; and the poor Damn their broken hearts to endure

Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan :

Sometimes the poor are damned indeed

To take,—not means for being blest,—
But Cobbett's snuff, revenge; that weed
From which the worms that it doth feed
Squeeze less than they before possessed:

And some few, like we know who,
Damned-but God alone knows why-
To believe their minds are given

To make this ugly Hell a Heaven;

In which faith they live and die.

asseverating the most enormous falsehood, I fear deserves the notice of a more active Attorney-General than that here alluded to.