[Footnote 5:  In the reign of Henry II, 1172, Dermot Macmorrogh, King of Leinster, having been expelled from his kingdom by Roderick, King of Connaught, sought and obtained the assistance of the English for the recovery of his dominions.  See Hume’s “History of England,” vol. i, p. 380.—­W.  E. B.]

[Footnote 6:  There are no snakes, vipers, or toads in Ireland; and even frogs were not known here till about the year 1700.  The magpies came a short time before; and the Norway rats since.—­Dublin Edition.  These plagues are all alluded to in this and the subsequent stanzas.—­Scott.]

[Footnote 7:  The University of Dublin, called Trinity College, was founded by Queen Elizabeth in 1591.—­Dublin Edition.]

[Footnote 8:  Wood’s ruinous project against the people of Ireland was supported by Sir Robert Walpole in 1724.—­Dublin Edition.]

[Footnote 9:  The absentees, who spent the income of their Irish estates, places, and pensions, in England.—­Dublin Edition.]

ON READING DR. YOUNG’S SATIRE,
CALLED THE UNIVERSAL PASSION
1726

If there be truth in what you sing,
Such godlike virtues in the king;
A minister[1] so fill’d with zeal
And wisdom for the commonweal;
If he[2] who in the chair presides,
So steadily the senate guides;
If others, whom you make your theme,
Are seconds in the glorious scheme;
If every peer whom you commend,
To worth and learning be a friend;
If this be truth, as you attest,
What land was ever half so blest! 
No falsehood now among the great,
And tradesmen now no longer cheat: 
Now on the bench fair Justice shines;
Her scale to neither side inclines: 
Now Pride and Cruelty are flown,
And Mercy here exalts her throne;
For such is good example’s power,
It does its office every hour,
Where governors are good and wise;
Or else the truest maxim lies: 
For so we find all ancient sages
Decree, that, ad exemplum regis,
Through all the realm his virtues run,
Ripening and kindling like the sun. 
If this be true, then how much more
When you have named at least a score
Of courtiers, each in their degree,
If possible, as good as he? 
  Or take it in a different view. 
I ask (if what you say be true)
If you affirm the present age
Deserves your satire’s keenest rage;
If that same universal passion
With every vice has fill’d the nation: 
If virtue dares not venture down
A single step beneath the crown: 
If clergymen, to show their wit,
Praise classics more than holy writ: 
If bankrupts, when they are undone,
Into the senate-house can run,
And sell their votes at such a rate,
As will retrieve a lost estate: 
If law be such a partial whore,
To spare the rich, and plague the poor: 
If these be of all crimes the worst,
What land was ever half so curst?