"Lord Palmerston said that Mr Layard had indulged in what he must be permitted to call vulgar declamation against the aristocracy. Talk to him of the aristocracy! Why in the charge at Balaklava, LORD CARDIGAN (loud cheers), &c. &c."
Debate, Monday, Feb.19th.
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Vulgar? How sad! But then he spoke
Of vulgar, low, and common things,
Such as with gay WAT TYLER joke,
A Viscount to oblivion flings.
Of common honour, common sense,
Of common soldiers' wasted bones —
And bored the Commons with defence
0f common folks like BROWN and JONES.
He talked of armies doomed to die
Through dull officials' want of thought,
Your Lordship stated in reply
How nobly CARDIGAN had fought.
That "points" of yours but rarely miss
A docile House of Commons owns,
But really logic such as this
Would hardly do for BROWN and JONES.
Such audience as your Lordship finds
Accept and cheer each jaunty flash,
But vulgar and plebeian minds
Regard it as evasive trash.
'Twill hardly teach us to forget
Who caused sad Balaklava's groans;
And there's another matter yet
That will occur to BROWN and JONES:
Three Lords were mixed in that affair,
LUCAN and RAGLAN blundered, both,
The third, who showed a hero there,
Did their Joint bidding, greatly loath.
Two Lords were blunderers out of three,
(One bee between a brace of drones),
A chance of better odds you'd see
In taking SMITH, and BROWN, and JONES.
But not at Lords he aimed his shot —
You ne'er mistook what he was at:
You talk some folly, but you're not
Quite such a MALMESBURY as that.
He spoke (unhappily he's young,
And has to learn convention's tones),
The words you'd hear from every tongue
If Lords could mix with BROWNS and JONES.
He cursed our great State Lottery scheme,
Whose prizes fall to Wealth and Rank,
While Merit wakes from patriot dream
To find he draws a hopeless blank:
He banned the System, where Routine
Jobs, shuffles, bullies, shirks, postpones,
Until its clumsy working's seen
By those vulgarians, BROWN and JONES.
He told you, (Punch has said the same)
JOHN BULL at many a fault will wink,
But ruined armies, sullied name,
And crushing taxes make him — think.
A vulgar hint — yet those who prize
Honours whose fountains are but thrones,
Should take it, lest, in coarser guise
It come, some day, from BROWN and JONES.