1830.] [ *695 



THE LAST WORDS OF THE MEN AT ST. DUNSTAN S. 



PLACEMEN, churchmen, sinecurists. 



Fops and courtiers, fools, and cits, 

 Nobles, noodles, talkers, tourists, 



Kings, economists and wits ! 

 Come, all creatures, clowns, sublime, 

 Tumblers in life's Pantomime ! 

 Come, each whipper-in that lingers 



To support some precious plan ; 

 Ye who cannot " count your fingers/' 



Ye who, graced with genius, can ! 

 Come ye finders, and ye seekers, 

 Voters dumb, and drowsy speakers. 



State-physicians, rhetoricians, 



Deeply read in <e aye" and " no ;" 



Advocates for abolitions, 



Foes to fetters, whips and woe; 



Half-pay hero, pensioned peer, 



Dukes and dunces, hear us ! hear ! 



Ye who, with unchanged approval, 

 Crown the fallen Duke with flowers, 



Ye who mourn o'er his removal, 

 What have you to say to ours ? 



We, who held so long together, 



Laughing at all sorts of weather ! 



We were more for office fitted, 

 Far more, than his Grace, whose phiz 



Rivalled ours though all admitted 

 That our heads resembled his ; 



Whether made of brass or wood, 



Still the likeness holdeth good. 



We were to the people's liking, 

 For the folks who stopped the way, 



Seeing us, saw something striking 

 Every hour throughout the day. 



Yet we witnessed, while in place, 



Nothing striking in his Grace ! 



One thing, though not used to slaughters, 

 Still we shared, as equals should ; 



For, like him, we looked for quarters, 

 Let the time be what it would. 



He like us the moment hailed, 



Never missed it, never failed. 



Yet again some difference dwells ; 



For while Mars, allured by Venus, 

 To himself had several belles, 



We had only two between us. 

 Still it must be here conceded 

 That he struck them not as we did. 



We, you know, near " Peele's" resided ; 



So did he, although he scoffed ; 

 But the folks who there presided, 



When they feared to listen, coughed. 

 Mammoth shrunk into a mouse, 

 And 'twas called " Peel's Coughing-House !' 



