Broadsides; Chapbooks; Street literature -- Great Britain
When the Whigs shall cease to be a milk and water set, and prove to the
people of England, that like good and trusty servants they will stick
up for their rights, and pass such measures as will be for the benefit
of the nation at large: then, and not till then, shall we consider them
as trumps, and look upon them with confidence.
Dearly bought and never-to-be-forgotten Johnny.--To your noble and
all-powerful self, do we, an over-taxed, poorly-fed people appeal,
trusting that, O most merciful Johnny, that by the virtue of thy most
exalted position, that you will be pleased to intercede with our Most
Gracious Majesty, that she will reside amongst us, and so improve the
condition of the tradesmen and mechanics of this mighty metropolis,
whose affairs now are in a most shaky condition. Grant this, O most
mighty John, and we will pray for the well-being of thy favourite
bantling, Reform, that you have nursed with such care for so many
years, and will sing praises unto thee, now and evermore. Amen.
Now the Services for the Day is taken from unprinted Bills that lay on
or under the tables of the House of Incurables, better known by the
name of St. Stephen’s.
Now it came to pass in the second month of the year ’66, and on the
first day of the month, that the Dictators who formed the seventh
Parliament in the reign of Good Queen Vic, assembled together to
consider the weighty affairs of the nation, and after relating their
rigs and sprees during the holidays, adjourned to crack a bottle and a
joke at the expense of patient John Bull.
And again on the 6th they met in the presence of our Good Queen, and
after bestowing six thousand a-year out of the pockets of the people as
a trifle for pin money for a certain little lady, they wished the Queen
good day, shook their heads, and went to lunch, entirely worn out with
their morning’s labour.
And they held long discussions on the plague among the cattle, and soon
came to the sage conclusion, that beasts that were ill could not be in
good health; but whether it was the cow or chicken pock they were not
prepared to say.
But the people cried aloud that it was done to raise the price of meat,
and those who used to treat themselves to a joint on a Sunday were
compelled to put up with a few ornaments from off the block.
Now near unto the commencement of the year, great excitement was caused
through the land, of strange revelations concerning a certain tribe
of persons called paupers, whose treatment in the Whig Bastiles, or
Union-houses, were likened unto swine; and the rate-payers of Lambeth,
and people in general, cried out sorely against the Poor Law nabobs,
and the ratepayers cried, Turn off the unworthy servants of the poor
and give the inheritance to others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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