THE DOGS' BILL.
The goodness of Parliament all things surpasses;
Its kind fellow-feeling no pride ever clogs:
It has stooped to the representation of asses,
And during last Session it went to the dogs.
How kind of a conclave of Solons and Daniels,
Whose wisdom and greatness there's no one disputes,
To sympathize nobly with lap-dogs and spaniels,
And adopt as their own all the feelings of brutes!
But the dogs of the country are sore discontented,
The Bills to protect them should out have been thrown;
If the species canine is to be represented,
Why is it by London-bred puppies alone?
Theatrical managers also will feel it—
No dogs for performance they now can engage;
In town, by the act (if they do not repeal it),
No dog can be suffered to draw on the stage.
Dog Latin, doxology, reason dogmatic,
And physic, which oft to the dogs has been thrown,—
Are all these confined, by a plan systematic,
To the puppies residing in London alone?
Oh! can it be ever with reason pretended
That civilization's beneficent lights
Have not to the dogs in the country extended,
Which makes them unfit for political rights?
Oh! is there no ear in the House will be harking
To all the complaints which with justice are made?
Oh! where are the members of Houndsditch and Barking?
By them are the dogs of the country betrayed.