“They shan’t cramp Justice with their feigned flaws; For since I govern only by the Laws, (!) Why they should be exempt, I see no cause.” The actual “Oxford Poem” in the Bagford Collection is addressed:-- “ON PARLIAMENT REMOVING FROM LONDON TO OXFORD. “You London lads be merry, Your Parliament friends have gone That made us all so sorry And would not leave us alone.” “THE WHIGS’ DOWNFALL. “To perfect which, they made their choice Of parliaments of late, Of members that had nought but voice, And Megrims in their pate. _Wi Williams_ he the Speaker was, And is’t not wondrous strange; The reason’s plain, he told it was, Because they would not change; He told you truth, nor think it strange; He knew well their intent, They never meant themselves to change, But change the Government. For now cry they ‘The King’s so poor, He dares not with us part; And therefore we most loyally Will break his royal heart.’” For a fine, ancient, divine-right-of-kings effusion commend us to the following full-flavoured High Tory manifesto:-- “TO MR. E. L. ON HIS MAJESTY’S DISSOLVING THE LATE PARLIAMENT AT OXFORD. “An Atheist now must a Monster be, Of strange gigantic birth His omnipotence does let all men see, That our King’s a God on earth. “_Fiat_, says he, by proclamation, And the parliament is created: He repents of his work, the Dissolution Makes all annihilated. “We Scholars were expell’d awhile, To let the Senators in; But they behav’d themselves as vile, So we return again: “And wonder to see our Geometry School All round about be-seated, Though there’s no need of an Euclid’s rule To demonstrate ’em all defeated. “The Commons their Voting Problems would In Riddles so involve, That what the Peers scarce understood, The King was forc’d to solve. “The Commons for a good omen chose An old consulting station: Being glad to dispossess their foes O th’ House of Convocation. “So Statesmen like poor scholars be, For near the usual place They stood, we know, for a great Degree, But the King deny’d their Grace. “Though sure he must his reason give, And charge them of some crime: Or else by course they’ll have reprieve For this is the _Third time_. “It was because they did begin, With insolent behaviour: And who should expiate their sin The King himself’s no Saviour. “Their faults grew to a bulk so high, As mercy did fore-stall: So Charter forfeited thereby, They must like Adam fall. “It is resolv’d the Duke shall fail A Sceptre to inherit: Nor right nor desert shall prevail, ’Tis Popish to plead merit.