Inscribed, with all Due Respect, to Dr. Etough, of Claydon

’Mr. Bell is a Christian man. I have all proper reverence for God's corbies; but for thecarnality that is in the Priesthood, I have as little respect as for the insolence of other men.’–(Galt's Laurie Todd.)

A bullying, brawling Champion of the Church,

Pert as a Parrot, screaming on his perch;

And, like that Parrot, mouthing out by rote,

The same “stale, flat, unprofitable” note;

A Tavern Orator, worse taught than fed,

With but one stock-idea in his head;

To him Religion, Reason, every thing—

The senseless, worn-out war-cry, “Church and King;”

Twist it and turn it howso’er you will,

This is the cuckoo-note he harps on still:

A railer at each Radical and Whig;

A sturdy stickler for his own Tithe Pig!

Without one liberal sentiment enshrined,

In the dull vacuum of his barren mind,

Or one bright ray of information brought

From the vast regions of expanded thought:

With a High Tory's party zeal— increased

By all the arrogance that marks the Priest;

With a true Bigot's blindness— and without

The sense to reason, self-distrust to doubt:

A pompous, superficial, empty prater;

A tedious, dull, dogmatic debater;

One who declares, upon his solemn word,

The “Voluntary System” is absurd:

He may well say so— for ‘twere hard to tell

Who would support him, did not law compel!

Episcopacy must be in the lurch,

Ere such a Doctor could disgrace the Church:

Who but must smile, if such an one there be?

Who but must laugh, were Dr. Etough he?