Poor devils were found to do this for their betters;--
And one day a Bishop, addressing a _Blue_,
Said, "Ma'am, have you read my new Pastoral Letters?"
To which the _Blue_ answered--"No, Bishop, have you?"
The same is now done by _our_ privileged class;
And to show you how simple the process it needs,
If a great Major-General[1] wishes to pass
For an author of History, thus he proceeds:--
First, scribbling his own stock of notions as well
As he can, with a _goose_-quill that claims him as _kin_,
He settles his neckcloth--takes snuff--rings the bell,
And yawningly orders a Subaltern in.
The Subaltern comes--sees his General seated,
In all the self-glory of authorship swelling;--
"There look," saith his Lordship, "my work is completed,--
"It wants nothing now but the grammar and spelling."
Well used to a _breach_, the brave Subaltern dreads
Awkward breaches of syntax a hundred times more;
And tho' often condemned to see breaking of heads,
He had ne'er seen such breaking of Priscian's before.
However, the job's sure to _pay_--that's enough--
So, to it he sets with his tinkering hammer,
Convinced that there never was job half so tough
As the mending a great Major-General's grammar.
But lo! a fresh puzzlement starts up to view--
New toil for the Sub.
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