(How the Budget strikes a Brain-Worker.)

Would I were poor (but not too poor),

A working plumber, say, by trade,

One of the class for whom the lure

Of Liberal Chancellors is laid;

For then no single sou from my revénue

Should go to swell the Treasury's bin,

Save indirectly through my breakfast-menu,

My pipe, my beer, my gin.

Would I were rich (O passing rich),