Because I bade the people pull
The House into the Lobby O.
2.
"Who are your grand Reformers now,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
There's me and Burdett,—gentlemen,
And Blackguards Hunt and Cobby O!
3.
"Have you no other friends but these,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
Yes, Southwark's Knight,[*] the County Byng,
And in the City, Bobby O!
4.
"How do you recreate yourselves,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
We spout with tavern Radicals,
And drink with them hob-nobby O!
5.
"What purpose can such folly work,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
It gives our partisans a chance
Watches to twitch from fob-by O!
6.
"Have they no higher game in view,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
Oh yes; to stir the people up,
And then to head the mob-by O.
7.
"But sure they'll at their ruin pause,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
No! they'd see King and Parliament
Both d—d without a sob-by O!
8.
"But, if they fail, they'll be hanged up,
My boy, Hobby O? (bis)
Why, then, they'll swing, like better men,
And that will end the job-by O!
"April 15, 1820."
↑ * "Southwark's Knight" was General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849), who was returned for Southwark in 1818, and again in 1820; "County Byng" was George Byng, M.P. for Middlesex; and "Bobby" was Sir Robert Waithman (1764-1833), who represented the City of London in 1818, but lost his seat to Sir William Curtis in 1820. All these were advanced Liberals, and, as such, Parliamentary friends of Hobhouse.]
