Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/150

128 Nor sought to substitute with ruthless hand The alien systems of a distant land. Friend of the people, in their midst he moved, To all familiar and by all beloved; And those who gathered prattling where he came, Grey-headed now, still gossip of his name.


 * For the good Magistrate, our Rulers say,

Decides all night, investigates all day; The crack Collector, man of equal might, Reports all day, and corresponds all night. Oh, could I raise my fascinated eyes From Salt, Stamps, Cesses, Income-Tax, Excise, Or quit the bench, and loose my courser's rein, To scour observant o'er the teeming plain. Could I, with Janus, boast a double face Incongruous scenes alternately to grace, To twin tribunals twin delights afford, Please the High Court, and gratify the Board— Then all were well; and I might touch the goal, A square, round, man within a round, square, hole.