In our cart famed for staching in story;
Nicely and neatly we done 'em brown,
For we bolted away in our glory.
At the time when the first Reform Bill was under discussion its opponents constantly asserted that, if it were carried, the ancient constitution of the country would be swept away, and that ruin, revolution, and anarchy would result. The following parody appeared in a Liberal newspaper of the period:—
ODE ON THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF THE
CONSTITUTION.
"Who will not be alive to the merits of the following verses on the death of the British Constitution, which has been dying for the last four years at least. The lament of the Conservative party over his death and burial abounds in feeling and sentiment worthy of its prototype."
NOT a moan was heard—not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the devil they hurried,
Not a speaker discharged his farewell shot,