The stricken City Fathers, Disgusted, slink away, But round great Gee-O-Emius The jocund victors stay, Until, midst shouts and laughter, And cheering long and loud, He passes from the Forum, Hailed by the joyous crowd. They gave him and Harcourtius A banquet straightaway, And passed of votes of thanks, at least, A score or so a day. And they made a graven image Of both these statesmen good, And set them up where hitherto The Civic Griffin stood. And still their names are music Wherever they are heard; Still by the daring deeds they did, The City’s pulse is stirred. And its wives still pray for offspring With hearts and will as bold As those who passed the Bill so well, And stormed bold Bumble’s hold. And in the nights of winter, When from Turnham-Green to Bow, And from Camberwell to Hackney The Cits all homeward go; When round their cosy firesides The happy households draw, No longer dreading Bumble, Nor Vestry-muddled law; When the evening print is opened, And electric-lamps are lit, And, their rates no longer dreading, The serene breadwinners sit; When the young and old in circle Around their parents close; When the girls make high-art doyleys, And the boys make classic _mots_; When Papa writes to the paper To Civic ways commend, And London’s central government To London’s weal doth tend; Then, with many a burst of laughter, Shall the story still be told How brave Harcourtius passed his Bil. In the bad days of old! __Truth._ April 10, 1884. The Right Hon. Sir William V. Harcourt, M.P. for Derby, introduced his Bill for the Reform of the London Municipality, and it was read a first time on April 8, 1884. The other Members of Parliament here referred to are Lord Mayor Fowler, Joseph F. B. Firth (Chelsea), C. N. Warton, the Blocker (“Magnus Blockus”), Alderman A. McArthur, Alderman Sir Robert Carden, Sir Andrew Lusk, Alderman Cotton, Alderman Owden, Lord Randolph Churchill, Sir Stafford Northcote, G. Sclater-Booth, and the Right Hon. Sir Richard Cross. ―――― THE BATTLE OF THE INSTITUTE.[101] _A Lay sung on the Feast of St. Guy, about the ides of November_, 1875. CHARLES COCHRANE of the Institute, By the heathen gods he swore That that great swell, Lothian Bell, Should Cocci Walkus be no more. By all the gods he swore it, And Marshall[102] named a day, And circulars were posted forth East and west, and south and north, Calling members to the fray.