to the Earl of Lonsdale

“Magistratus indicat virum.”

Lonsdale! it were unworthy of a Guest,
Whose heart with gratitude to thee inclines,
If he should speak, by fancy touched, of signs
On thy Abode harmoniously imprest,
Yet be unmoved with wishes to attest
How in thy mind and moral frame agree
Fortitude and that christian Charity
Which, filling, consecrates the human breast.
And if the Motto on thy ’scutcheon teach
With truth, “The Magistracy shows the Man:”
That searching test thy public course has stood;
As will be owned alike by bad and good,
Soon as the measuring of life’s little span
Shall place thy virtues out of Envy’s reach.