Mercer Chronicle

THE MERCER CHRONICLE. 21
He will support Queen, Lords, with Commons too,
Nor think those rulers who hut cohble his shoe !
And if the shoe, still more they'll botch the State,
Which blindly gulphs all " Little John " may prate !
Law to support is then the soldier's right ;
For justice, aye, for equity he'll fight.
The Quartermaster from the peer he knows,
The last minds discipline ; the first his clothes !
The first new-born is jealous of his rank ;
And snubs the private ; while he turns his flank ;
For in his rise he does take too much note, B6
Which cringing to his chief he does devote !
particular case of an ingenious and clever artificer about to leave the
service of his master because of his tyranny ; and be asserts in his circle
the existence of many such cases ! therefore why sbould Conservatives
be afraid of the ballot ? which fear is instilled by certain magnates who
think they can rule the masses 1 !
As to the Earl of Cardigan again, the reputed disciplinarian, the men
loved Mm, as I know from evidence. " Indeed, sir," said one of that corps
commanded by Lord Cardigan, to me, in mufti, whom he did not knew,
" his lordship could drill the regiment on a plate," meaning on tbe
smallest possible space, wbich proceeding we know requires skill ; but
his discipline affected, as it should, all alike. On parade and where
discipline is concerned, no difference of social rank should be allowed ;
the difference of a day in the army makes a man to command. Such
discipline, bowever, will not suit the son of the parvenu, the son of a
brewer, or of the oil merchant ; it is all well enough for the "non-com.'s"
(such is their way of naming the non-commissioned officers), and the
men ; but they themselves, the elite of the monied aristocracy, they are
all gentlemen ; they are not to be so treated ! We know the son of a
brewer, who did his best to upset the discipline of a regiment : we know
also through similar influence of the honest native of Persia, though
poor, being branded as a " calumniator," in the pages of such a calm
body as the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, the Rev. Robert
Brook Aspland being secretary, and that too falsely asserted, " on the
best testimony" ! when it was known to the secretary at least, that one
other party, in decency, ought to have been asked, if only to prevent his
committee being seriously compromised !
66 True in all cases, whether in the rise of some private soldiers or of
some Fvadicals. Possibly Littlejohn is a brother of "The Costermonger "
in Hyde Park, so approved of by him of " Lincoln's Inn ! ! ! "