A PROVERB REFUTED.

At the Surrey menagerie every one knows,

(Because 'tis a place to which every one goes,)

There's a model of Rome; and as round it one struts,

One sinks the remembrance of Newington Butts;

And having a shilling laid down at the portal,

One fancies one's self in the city immortal.

This model so splendid one night was burn'd down,

When, lo! the next day, 'twas announced to the town

That the damage had all been repair'd and put straight,

In time for the next zoological fête.

Then who is there henceforth will venture to say

That Rome cannot sometimes be built in a day.

Oh! what on earth induced Sir Robert Peel

Such wondrous sympathy to feel

For that unprofitable class—the foreign ass?

When we have native asses by the score,

How could Sir Robert think we needed more?

But the provision is not worth a pin,

Which now, for twenty shillings, lets them in;

When they have all along been coming over,

For half a guinea, in the boats to Dover.

If with the common donkey we compare

The foreign asses—they display

A trifling difference of bray,

With coats peculiar, and lengthy hair.

Zoologists the jackass would describe

As of the vertebrated tribe,

But then there's so much softness in the head,

To the molluscous class, it might be said,

The foreign donkey throng—belong.

With further information all may meet,

On any afternoon, in Regent-street.

9. Fire Insurances due.

All those who don't wish their insurance to stop,

Out of policy wont let their policy drop;

And 'tis better, a premium though they require,

To be scorch'd in the Sun, than burnt out in the fire.