From "The Parish: A Satire"
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n politics and politicians' liesThe modern farmer waxes wondrous wise;Opinionates with wisdom all compact,And een could tell a nation how to act;Throws light on darkness with excessive skill,Knows who acts well and whose designs are ill,Proves half the members nought but bribery's tools,And calls the past a dull dark age of fools. As wise as Solomon they read the news,Not with their blind forefathers' simple views,Who read of wars, and wished that wars would cease,And blessed the King, and wished his country peace;Who marked the weight of each fat sheep and ox,The price of grain and rise and fall of stocks;Who thought it learning how to buy and sell,And him a wise man who could manage well.No, not with such old-fashioned, idle viewsDo these newsmongers traffic with the news.They read of politics and not of grain,And speechify and comment and explain,And know so much of Parliament and stateYou'd think they're members when you heard them prate;And know so little of their farms the whileThey can but urge a wiser man to smile. A thing all consequence here takes the lead,Reigning knight-errant oer this dirty breed--A bailiff he, and who so great to bragOf law and all its terrors as Bumtagg;Fawning a puppy at his master's sideAnd frowning like a wolf on all beside;Who fattens best where sorrow worst appearsAnd feeds on sad misfortune's bitterest tears?Such is Bumtagg the bailiff to a hair,The worshipper and demon of despair,Who waits and hopes and wishes for successAt every nod and signal of distress,Happy at heart, when storms begin to boil,To seek the shipwreck and to share the spoil.Brave is this Bumtagg, match him if you can;For there's none like him living--save his man. As every animal assists his kindJust so are these in blood and business joined;Yet both in different colours hide their art,And each as suits his ends transacts his part.One keeps the heart-bred villain full in sight,The other cants and acts the hypocrite,Smoothing the deed where law sharks set their ginLike a coy dog to draw misfortune in.But both will chuckle oer their prisoners' sighsAnd are as blest as spiders over flies.Such is Bumtagg, whose history I resign,As other knaves wait room to stink and shine;And, as the meanest knave a dog can brag,Such is the lurcher that assists Bumtagg.
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