Note xxiv — THE ART of POLITICKS, In Imitation of HORACE's ART of POETRY.

P. 15, lines 2ff. The famous speech of Colonel Silius Titus (7 Jan. 1681) was widely reported in two slightly different versions; see Grey, 8, 279 and Cobbett, 4,1291. In both these versions the question is whether to keep the lion out or to let him in and chain him. Bramston may have been following an independent tradition or merely exercising poetic license. The lion is, of course, James, Duke of York, the Roman Catholic heir to the throne.