VERSES ON SEEING THE SPEAKER ASLEEP IN HIS CHAIR DURING ONE OF THE DEBATES OF THE FIRST REFORMED PARLIAMENT

SLEEP, Mr. Speaker; ’tis surely fair, If you mayn’t in your bed, that you should in your chair; Louder and longer still they grow, Tory and Radical, Aye and No; Talking by night and talking by day. Sleep, Mr. Speaker—sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; slumber lies Light and brief on a Speaker’s eyes; Fielden or Finn in a minute or two Some disorderly thing will do; Riot will chase repose away. Sleep, Mr. Speaker—sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; Sweet to men Is the sleep that cometh but now and then; Sweet to the weary, sweet to the ill, Sweet to the children that work in the mill. You have more need of repose than they. Sleep, Mr. Speaker—sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker; Harvey will soon Move to abolish the sun and the moon; Hume will no doubt be taking the sense Of the House on a question of sixteen pence; Statesmen will howl, and patriots bray. Sleep, Mr. Speaker—sleep while you may! Sleep, Mr. Speaker, and dream of the time, When loyalty was not quite a crime; When Grant was a pupil in Canning’s school, And Palmerston fancied Wood a fool. Lord, how principles pass away! Sleep, Mr. Speaker—sleep while you may! Winthrop M. Praed.