At Brookes's they met--but demurr'd to the call Of producing the cash--as they had none at all For the Black Wig and the Character white. Coke growl'd about rents, swore the funds ought to pay; But Baring grimaced, and Ricardo squeak'd "Nay!" And the young ones exclaim'd, in a querulous tone, They each had to pay for a Saint of their own, With a Black Wig and a Character white. But though the subscription was tardy, and they Had nothing to give, they had plenty to say For the Black Wig and the Character white. Lord Tavistock stammer'd three words in her praise, And Sefton his voice and his shoulders did raise; And Calcraft his nose cock'd, and Grant cock'd his eye, And hypocrite Bennet pretended to cry For the Black Wig and her Character white. Fitzwilliam, that reverend proselyte, rose-- (We'll make him speak verse since he cannot speak prose) For the Black Wig and her Character white. "You seem," quoth the sage, "all averse to give cash, And, in truth, you are right--what is money but trash?" Let's give something better to end all these quarrels, And raise a subscription of virtue and morals, For the Black Wig and her Character white. Besides, 'tis no merit one's surplus to share, Then let us give _that_ which the least we can spare To the Black Wig and her Character white. For me I have changed all my friends at the brunt, From Fox, Pitt, and Burke, down to Cobbett and Hunt, As fickle in age as I was in my youth: So freely subscribe my political truth To the Black Wig and her Character white. Old Tierney set down, with a sorrowful face, The hopes of his life, all the prospects of place, To the Black Wig and her Character white. The message which Brougham had advised and had penn'd, Poor Tierney had rashly advanced to defend, And not to subscribe would be rather uncivil, So he gives very frankly--he gives--to the Devil The Black Wig and her Character white. Such cheap contributions delighted the pack, And, for once, they were ready their leaders to back, For the Black Wig and her Character white. Silly Billy, God bless him! subscribed all his sense; Of loyalty Grey made a gallant expense; The Gospels, Lord Grosvenor flung down in a boast; And Erskine gave nobly--himself, as a toast; For the Black Wig and her Character white.