NEWGATE's GARLAND;

Being a new ballad, fhewing how Mr Jonathan Wild's throat was cut from ear to ear with a penknife by Mr Blake, alias Blueskin, the bold highwayman, as he ftood at his trial in the Old Bailey, 1725.

YE

To the tune of the Cut purse.

I.

E gallants of Newgate, whofe fingers are nice
In diving in pockets, or cogging of dice;

Ye sharpers fo rich, who can buy off the noose;
Ye honefter poor rogues, who die in your fhoes,,
Attend and draw near,

Good news ye shall hear,

How Jonathan's throat was cut from ear to ear, How Blueskin's fharp penknife hath set you at ease, And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

II.

When to the Old Bailey this Bluefkin was led,
He held up his hand; his indictment was read;
Loud rattled his chains; near him Jonathan stood;
For full forty pounds was the price of his blood.
Then, hopeless of life,

He drew his penknife,

And made a fad widow of Jonathan's wife.

But forty pounds paid her, her grief shall appease;
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

Some fay there are courtiers of highest renown,

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Who steal the King's gold, and leave him but a

crown:

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Some fay there are peers, and fome parliament-men, Who meet once a-year to rob courtiers agen.

Let them all take their swing

To pillage the King,

And get a blue ribbon, instead of a string.

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Now Bluefkin's fharp penknife hath set you at ease; And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

IV.

Knaves of old, to hide guilt by their cunning inventions,

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Call'd briberies grants, and plain robberies penfions;
Phyficians and lawyers (who take their degrees
To be learned rogues) call'd their pilfering fees.
Since this happy day

Now ev'ry man may

Rob (as fafe as in office) upon the highway.

For Blueskin's fharp penknife hath set you at ease ; 35 And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

V.

Some cheat in the cuftoms, fome rob the excife;
But he who robs both is esteemed moft wife.
Churchwardens, too prudent to hazard the halter,
As yet only venture to steal from the altar.
But now to get gold,

They may be more bold,

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And rob on the highway, fince Jonathan's cold:
For Bluefkin's fharp penknife hath fet you at eafe;
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he pleaset 45

VI.

Some by public revenues, which pafs'd thro' their hands, Have purchas'd clean houfes, and bought dirty lands: Some to steal from a charity think it no fin,

Which at home (fays the proverb) does always begin.

But, if ever you
Affign'd the trustee,

Treat not orphans like mafters of the chancery;
But take the highway, and more honestly seize;
For ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

50

VII.

What a pother has here been with Wood and his brass,
Who would modeftly make a few halfpennies pafs ! 56
The patent is good, and the precedent's old,
For Diomede changed his copper for gold:
But, if Ireland despise

The new halfpennies,

With more fafety to rob on the road I advise:
For Blueskin's sharp penknife hath set thee at ease;
And ev'ry man round me may rob, if he please.

PROMETHEU S.

60

On Wood the patentee's Irish halfpence.

A

Written in the year 1724.

I.

S when the 'fquire and tinker, Wood,
Gravely confulting Ireland's good,

Together mingled in a mass

Smith's duft, and copper, lead, and brass;
The mixture thus by chymic art

United clofe in ev'ry part,

In fillets roll'd, or cut in pieces,
Appear'd like one continued fpecies;
And by the forming engine ftruck,
On all the fame impreffion ftuck:

So, to confound this hated coin,
All parties and religions join;
Whigs, Tories, Trimmers, Hanoverians,
Quakers, Conformifts, Prefbyterians,

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Scotch, Irish, English, French unite,

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With equal intreft, equal spite;

See an account of Wood's project in the Drapier's letters, vol. iii.

Together mingled in a lump,
Do all in one opinion jump;
And ev'ry one begins to find
The fame impreffion on his mind.

A ftrange event! whom gold incites.
To blood and quarrels, bras unites :
So, goldfmiths fay, the coarseft ftuff
Will ferve for folder well enough:
So by the kettle's loud alarm

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When Jove was young, was made of gold.

Jove flood amaz'd; but, looking round,
With much ado the cheat he found;

"Twas plain he could no longer hold

The world in any chain but gold;

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A great lady was faid to have been bribed by Wood.

And to the god of wealth his brother,
Sent Mercury to get another.

PROMETHEUS on a rock is laid,
Ty'd with a chain himself had made,

On icy Caucafus to shiver,

While vultures eat his growing liver.

III.

Yε pow'rs of Grubstreet, make me able Difcreetly to apply this fable;

Say, who is to be understood

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By that old thief Prometheus? WOOD.
For Jove, it is not hard to guess him;

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I mean his Majefty, God bless him.

This thief and blacksmith was fo bold,
He ftrove to steal that chain of gold,
Which links the subject to the King,
And change it for a brazen ftring.
But fure, if nothing else must pass
Between the King and us, but brass,
Altho' the chain will never, crack,
Yet our devotion may grow flack.

BUT Jove will foon convert, I hope,
This brazen chain into a rope ;
With which Prometheus fhall be ty'd,
And high in air for ever ride;
Where, if we find his liver grows,

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For want of vultures, we have crows.

* STREPHON AND FLAVIA.

WITH ev'ry lady in the land

Soft Strephon kept a pother;

One year he languish'd for one hand,
And next year for the other.