“Victoria and Albert’s big
With city’s wealth and soldier’s glory:
To Army, Queen, and Country swig:
Improve, my friends, and prove the Tory!”
We do not think the Captain quite liked the word “swig,” but he could find no better in “Walker’s Rhyming Dictionary;” or the last expression—but Conservative could not be lugged in any how:—however, we must say, this ostensible improvisatorial effort produced a grand effect, and a greater noise; which had scarcely subsided, when Mr. Serjeant Wideawake, the Honourable Member for Bloomsbury, and author of “Lays of a Liberal,” rose to retort, saying,—
“We beg to doubt your precious rig,
And I’ll tell you another story:
To improve is to be a whig;
But not to improve-is-a-tory!”
The effect of this latter burst of poetic fire was truly electric; it completely extinguished the Captain’s impromptu glimmer, lighting up that gallant bosom with a passion of another kind—he feels miserably “put out;”—and, like a dying rush-light in its last moments, seemed determined to end with a spark of unusual brightness. The Captain stood erect, awaiting his opportunity; but, alas!—it was one that never came; for the ventriloquist, that caused the rupture between Mr. Potts and the “Spooney,” made the “Lion” wince, by observing, “he hoped there would be no cruelty to animals”—a remark that