than all, thou didst find the houses in that neighbourbood wherein thou
didst build, so preternaturally hideous that thou didst require but
little science to be less frightful in thy creations. If thou didst not
improve thy native village and thy various homes with a solid, a lofty,
and a noble taste, thou didst nevertheless very singularly improve. And
thy posterity, in avoiding the faults of thy masonry, will be grateful
for the effects of thy ambition. The same demi-philosophy which
influenced thee in private life exercised a far benigner and happier
power over thee in public. Thou wert not idly vexatious in vestries, nor
ordinarily tyrannic in thy parish; if thou wert ever arbitrary it was
only when thy pleasure was checked, or thy vanity wounded. At other
times thou didst leave events to their legitimate course, so that in thy
latter years thou wert justly popular in thy parish; and in the grave thy
great good fortune will outshine thy few bad qualities, and men will say
of thee with a kindly, not an erring judgment, "In private life he was
not worse than the Rufers who came to this bar; in public life he was
better than those who kept a public before him." Hark! those huzzas!
what is the burden of that chorus? Oh, grateful and never time-serving
Britons, have ye modified already for another the song ye made so solely
in honour of Gentleman George: and must we, lest we lose the custom of
the public and the good things of the tap-room,--roust we roar with
throats yet hoarse with our fervour for the old words, our ardour for the
new--

"Here's to Mariner Bill, God bless him!
God bless him!
God bless him!
Here 's to Mariner Bill, God bless him!"