THE COMPLAINT OF THE COCKNEY CLERK.
"I know of no cure but for the Englishman (1) to do his best to compete in the particulars where the German now excels; (2) to try to show that, taken all round, he is worth more than the German."
Mr. Gladstone on English Clerks and German Competition.
All very fine, O orator illustrious!
But I as soon would be a Mole, or Merman,
As a short-grubbing, horribly industrious,
Linguistic German.
A Clerk's a Clerk, that is a cove who scribbles
All day, and then goes in for cue, and "jigger,"
And not a mere machine who feeds by nibbles,
Slaves like a nigger.