• BOOKS BRING ME FRIENDS
• WHERE'ER ON EARTH I BE.
• SOLACE OF SOLITUDE-
• BONDS OF SOCIETY!

   

• Ho ye that nothing have to lose! ho rouse ye, one & all!
• Come from the sinks of the New Cut,— the purlieus of Vauxhall!
• Did ye not hear the mighty sound boom by ye as it went?
• The Seven Dials strike the hour of man's enfranchisement.

• Ho! cock your eyes, my gallant pals, and swing your heavy staves:
• Remember—Kings and Queens being out, the great cards will be knaves.
• And when the pack is ours,—oh then, at what a slapping pace
• Shall the tens be trodden down to five, and the fives kicked down to ace!

• It was but yesterday the Times and Post and Telegraph
• 10Told how from France King Louy—Phil was shaken out like chaff:
• To-morrow, boys, the National, the Siècle, and the Débats,
• Shall have to tell the self-same tale of “La Reine Victoria.”

• What! shall our Incomes we've not got be taxed by puny John?
• Shall the policeman keep Time back by bidding us move on?
• Shall we too follow in the steps of that poor sneak Cochrane?
• Shall it be said, “They came, they saw,—and bolted back again”?

• Not so! Albeit great men have been among us, and are floor'd,—
• (Frost, Williams, Jones, and other ones who now reside abroad)—
• Among the master-spirits of the age there still are those
• 20Who'll pick up fame—even though, when smelt, it makes men hold the (nose.

• What ho there! clear the way! make room for him, the “fly” and wise,
• Who wrote in mystic grammar about London's “Mysteries,”—
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• For him who takes a proud delight to wallow in our kennels,—
• For Mr. A. B. C. D. E. F. G. M. W. Reynolds!

• Come hoist him up! his pockets will afford convenient hold
• To grab him by: and, if inside there silver is or gold,
• And it should be found sticking to our hands when they're drawn out,—
• Why, 'twere a chance not fair to say ill-natured things about.

• Silence! Hear hear! He says that we're the sovereign people, we!
• 30And now? And now he states the fact that one and one make three!
• Now he makes casual mention of a certain Miscellany!
• He says that he's the Editor! He says it costs a penny!

• O thou great Spirit of the World! shall not the lofty things
• He saith be borne unto all Time for noble lessonings?
• Shall not our sons tell to their sons what we could do and dare
• In this the great year Forty-eight, and in Trafalgar-Square?

• Swathed in foul wood, yon column stood 'mid London's thousand marts;
• And at their wine, Committee-men grinned as they drank “The Arts.”
• But our good flint-stones have bowled down each poster-hidden board,
• 40And from their hoarded malice our strong hands have stript the hoard.

• Yon column is a prouder thing than Cæsar's triumph-arch!
• It shall be called “The Column of the Glorious Days of March!”
• And stone-masons' apprentices shall grow rich men therewith,—
• By contract chiselling the names of Jones, and Brown, and Smith.

• Upon what point of London, say, shall our next vengeance burst?
• Shall the Exchange or Parliament be immolated first?
• Which of the Squares shall we burn down?—which of the Palaces?
• ( The speaker is nailed by a policeman.)
• Oh please Sir don't! It isn't me. It's him. Oh don't Sir please!

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By G.C.D.R.    March 1848