The following is taken from the fly-leaves of my copy of Gibbon's _Rome_,
1st vol. 1779, 8vo.:
"The following anecdote and verses were written by the late
Charles James Fox in the first volume of _his_ Gibbon's
_Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_.
"The author of this work declared publicly at Brookes's (a
gaming-house in St. James' Street), upon the delivery of the
Spanish Rescript in June, 1779, that there was no salvation
for this country unless six of the heads of the cabinet
council were cut off and laid upon the tables of both houses
of parliament as examples; and in less than a fortnight he
accepted a place under the same cabinet council.
"ON THE AUTHOR'S PROMOTION TO THE BOARD OF TRADE IN 1779.
By the Right Hon. C. J. Fox.
"King George in a fright
Lest Gibbon should write
The story of Britain's disgrace,
Thought no means more sure
His pen to secure
Than to give the historian a place.
"But his caution is vain,
'Tis the curse of his reign
That his projects should never succeed;
Tho' he wrote not a line,
Yet a cause of decline
In our author's example we read.
"His book well describes
How corruption and bribes
O'erthrew the great empire of Rome;
And his writings declare
A degeneracy there,
Which his conduct exhibits at home."