The poet speaketh concerning assizes at Macclesfield.

The people looked out of the window, &c.

I.
To Macclesfield at Easter tide,

With solemn pomp and show,
With the sheriff's band, and the crowd beside,
The learned judges go.

II.
And aye the people gazing stood,

From house-top, window, door,
On the long array of grave and gay
As it passed their eyes before.

III.
The judges sat in the judgment-seat

The criminals to try,
And barristers seeking, by clever speaking,

To puzzle the yeomanry,
And in gown and wig, looking learned and big,

To aid their clients, sat by.

After what manner the assizes were ordered.

IV.

The poet tells what became of the prisoners.

And some they tried for forgery

And some for theft or slaughter, And some they fined, and some they hanged, And sent some beyond the water!

v. Fit punishment of crime--for life

Were some from their country driven,
Some were sent off for fourteen years,
And some they sent for seven !

VI.
And some there were who to prison fare,

To the whip and to labour hard
They doomed, as they sat in conclave there,
Some for one year, and some for a pair,

As their guilt's most just reward.

VII.
Ah! little knew the scoundrel crew,

When before the judges standing,
How their careering o'er the main

Would their daily dinner to dance constrain“Down the middle and up again,' And they be made with lash and chain

To dance themselves at landing.

VIII.

Speaketh concerning the des patch of business.

Cause after cause, with but small pause,
They decided according to learned laws,

As long as they were able :
Nor counsel nor judge from the court would budge
Till hunger compelled them at last to trudge

Off to the dinner-table.

XIX.

But a pettifogger can nothing change

Let him try however he will, For he'll look (despite his hypocrisy)

Like a pettifogger still.

Describeth a very common bird, which it is dangerous to make game of.

Containeth a hint to trustees and executors.

Containeth a hint to profane old gentlemen.

How the lawyer farmed his ground.

And how those who had no thing better to do made their remarks upon it.

XX.
The widows and the orphans' tears

Against this man of Sin
Cried out, and to the ears of God
Their cries had entered in.

XXI.
He had wallowed and revelled for fifty years

In crime, till grace was passed,
And no wonder the d-1 he'd served so long
Should look out for his prey at last.

XXII.
He had a farm some miles away

From the town, in a quiet village,
Where he spent his leisure hours from law
As an amateur of tillage.

XXIII.
They told some awkward anecdotes

About these “leisure hours,"
But what he did at his lonely farm
Is no concern of ours.

XXIV.
Hither before the sun was up

Each morn he bent his way,
But hạstened homewards ere the clouds
Had fled before the day. ::

XXV.
Ah me! it was a mighty change

From the fresh green fields to come,
To the thronging crowd and the voices loud

Of the trumpet and the drum,
And the prancing steed and the rattling wheel,
And the gathering thousand's hum.

XXVI.
But the lawyer had soinething else to do,

Than to think as on he came,
How he passed from the tokens of nature's love,
To the records of crime and shame.

XXVII.
No friend of his a smiling glance

Upon his brows could find,
But he bent them down with a surly frown,

And he switched his cane behind.

What seasons the lawyer chose for agricultural experi. ments.

Babbles of green fields, and digresseth to trumpets and drums.

Showeth how the lawyer “ cared

for

none of these things :"

But conteuted himself with exercising social courtesy,

And general philanthropy.

XXVIII.
And while within the court he sat,

He gloated in his soul,
On the ashen cheek, and the trembling tone
Of the culprit band, and the victims' moan,
As on his ear they stole.

XXIX.
The grim delight of a fiendish spite

Gleamed in his keen grey eye,
Like the flash that wakens the thunder-clap,
When he saw the judge in his sable cap,

Condemn some wretch to die.

How the lawyer delighted in “ the Master of the Sentences."

XXX.
And to the theatre, at times,

When the court was closed he hied,
To see Othello's murdered wife,
Or stern Macbeth uplift the knife,
Or the ghost of Hamlet glide !

XXXI.
Thus did he gain some critic fame,
So the players to the lawyer came
To beg the favour of his name,

And ask his kind protection.
But he refused-then paused awhile-
And then with a sardonic smile

Bespoke--and gave direction-
And " The D-1 take the Lawyer” was
The play of his selection !*

XXXII.
Whew! whistled Higgs, the manager,

Back starting with affright,
While the “walking gentleman” grew pale,
Started and ran outright.

XXXIII.
But no other play would the lawyer name,
And when the night appointed came,

The house was fully crammed ;
Boxes, and pit, and gallery,
All were as full as they could be,
And the very doors were jammed.

XXXIV.
All alone did the lawyer sit,

With aspect sour and stern ;
Nor could those who watched him narrowly
A single smile discern.

XXXV,
Gay were the boxes—silken curls

Droop'd around beauteous faces ;
There were sparkling jewels on snowy brows,
Bright flowers and costly laces.

XXXVI.
Vests by Nugee, and coats by Stultz,

Nothing correct was lacking ;
And boots, by Hoby, were glittering

With Day and Martin's blacking.