At last comes a servant, In grief very fervent: “Alas! Doctor Derwent, Poor Master is flat! He’s drawn his last breath, Sir-- That dose was his death, Sir.” “Yes, yes,” said the Doctor, “I meant it for that!” LAYING DOWN THE LAW. ----“I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.” MERCHANT OF VENICE. “If thou wert born a Dog, remain so; but if thou wert born a Man, resume thy former shape.”--ARABIAN NIGHTS. A Poodle, Judge-like, with emphatic paw, Dogmatically laying down the law,-- A batch of canine Counsel round the table, Keen-eyed, and sharp of nose, and long of jaw, At sight, at scent, at giving tongue, right able: O, Edwin Landseer, Esquire, and R.A., Thou great Pictorial Æsop, say, What is the moral of this painted fable? O, say, accomplished artist! Was it thy purpose, by a scene so quizzical, To read a wholesome lesson to the Chartist, So over partial to the means called Physical, Sticks, staves, and swords, and guns, the tools of treason? To show, illustrating the better course, The very Brutes abandoning Brute Force, The worry and the fight, The bark and bite, In which, says Doctor Watts, the dogs delight, And lending shaggy ears to Law and Reason, As uttered in that Court of high antiquity Where sits the Chancellor, supreme as Pope, But works--so let us hope-- In equity, not iniquity? Or was it but a speculation On transmigration, How certain of our most distinguished Daniels, Interpreters of Law’s bewildering book, Would look Transformed to mastiffs, setters, hounds, and spaniels (As Brahmins in their Hindoo code advance) With that great lawyer of the Upper House Who rules all suits by equitable _nous_, Become--like vile Armina’s spouse-- A Dog, called Chance?[4] Methinks, indeed, I recognise In those deep-set and meditative eyes Engaged in mental puzzle, And that portentous muzzle, A celebrated judge, too prone to tarry To hesitate on devious ins and outs, And, on preceding doubts, to build _re-doubts_ That regiments could not carry-- Prolonging even Law’s delays, and still Putting a skid upon the wheel up-hill, Meanwhile the weary and desponding client Seem’d--in the agonies of indecision-- In Doubting Castle, with that dreadful Giant Described in Bunyan’s Vision!