Project Canterbury

Songs and Ballads for the People

By the Rev. John Mason Neale

London: James Burns, 1843.


X. Village Politicians.

So they're down at the Chequers, and at it once more!
Our rare politicians, they'll never give o'er!
And when they have done, they're as wise as before:
Which nobody can deny.

There's nothing on earth that they don't understand;
The corn-laws, the taxes, the state of the land;
But the charter's the thing they have mostly in hand:
Which nobody can deny.

A clever contrivance that charter must be,
To make a whole nation wise, glorious, and free!
But how 'twill be done, they don't rightly agree:
Which nobody can deny.

They would fain do away all the corn-laws, and think
It would cheapen provisions, their meat and their drink;
And forget that their wages would equally sink:
Which nobody can deny.

Vote by ballot, with other rare changes, they'd have;
That coward's contrivance all cowards to save,
That makes a man, whether or no, like a knave:
Which nobody can deny.

There they wrangle and prate of their hardships and wrongs;
To the "Weekly Dispatch," too, they listen by throngs;
Which I, for my part, would not touch with the tongs:
Which nobody can deny.

Now I think, though 'tis vain to dispute about taste,
That none but a madman would run in such haste,
His time, and his health, and his money to waste:
Which nobody can deny.

All the care that I take for the State is to pray
My best for the Church and the Queen every day;
And I know nothing more, and I hope never may:
Which nobody can deny.


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