"They toil not, neither do they spin"— Aught but occasional orations! Ah! that was in my days of sin. How time has altered our relations Yes, I was down upon the Lords, When I compared them with the lilies: New Rads remind me of my words; But then New Rads are all old sillies.
How dare they, dupes of Gladstone's guile, Poor Party tools, mere flies in amber, To imitate my earlier style, And rave against a Second Chamber? And do they think to corner me By mere tu quoque and quotation? A gift of ready repartee Secures such easy extrication.
I worship what I wished to burn?— The jeer is really most unhandsome! For things have taken quite a turn Since I ran rather wild on Ransom. The House of Lords is our sole hope, Sheet-anchor, lighthouse, ægis, haven; The only power which can cope With the New Rad—that nerveless craven!
A Single Chamber means the sway Of the majority—most shocking!— With no devices of delay, Progress impeding, freedom mocking— Hold hard! I'm quoting—from myself!— Of Commoners a mere majority Means rule of party, passion, pelf, Which in the Peers have no authority.
Non-representative, but nice, The Peers are patriots, heroes, sages Class-selfishness is not their vice; They haste not, don't get into rages. To a majority of them We safely may entrust our freedom. But mere M.P.'s? With venal phlegm They'd sell it—for the mess of Edom.
Mesopotamia—blessèd word!— Than the word "Peer" is far less blessèd! Mere Commoners are crass, absurd, Foolish as Creon, false as Cressid. To trust to an elected mob Our Glorious Empire, were sheer treason; But dukes and earls may do the job, For a Peer's robe must cover reason.
Still an "elective element" Perhaps might bring their "composition" "In touch with popular sentiment," And hush the howlings of sedition. To pick the best and brightest stars From court and college, bench and platform, Might still some poletariat jars.— Hah! how should I appear in that form?
Of course, a robe and coronet Would never make me turn a Tory, Like—well, so many. Now I'll bet King Solomon in all his glory Was not arrayed—tut! tut!—no more I'd like them to forget those lilies, These quoted bits are such a bore,— Unless they're that old "tonguester" Willy's!
Experimentum in—well, no! The context is not very flattering, (How seldom my quotations go! There are some drawbacks in mere smattering.) But if the "elective element" Would Peers improve, as not a few think, I might—some day—who knows?—consent To show them how—well, what do you think?