Ode to the People of Preston
By Joseph Carson
composed after reading Cobbett鈥檚 speech
(Note: Cobbett was聽a candidate for representing the people of Preston in Parliament.)
YE proud inhabitants of Preston town,
Return to Parliament the roasted knight,
To keep the opponents of Reform down;
Let Stanley, Wood, and Barry, all go s---.
Fear not that WILL will be the least afraid
His plans of Reformation to propose,
Nor yet by dread prerogative dismay'd,
To take some impious G--b--n by the nose.
If Cobbett wins the work of Reformation,
And long-sought Catholic Emancipation,
Will not go backward for the want of votes:
With Brownlow, Brougham, and Burdett, at his back,
He'll make St. Stephen's benches crack,
And cram their lying jargon down the throats.
Of all the Members who his plan opposes,
And lay his lion's paw upon their noses.
'Twas not from venal mercenary views,
Will's candidate aspiring spirit sprung:
Return him, and not all the wiles in use
Can place a golden keeper on his tongue.
(The tongue's a noble gift of mother nature's
Bestow'd on us poor human creatures,
To be the tell-tale of our mental part;
But yet the oily rogue so cunning,
Full many a time it's proper functions shunning,
Belies the heart.)
But William Cobbett's tongue will not do so;
'Twill strike corruption's root a blow
Unchain'd by Pension's golden tether
His heart and it will wag together,
And voice stentorian---loud as thunder,
To aid Reform's honest cause,
And to erase some penal laws,
And keep some rotten borough-mongers under.
.
