Democracy?
Voters in rotten and pocket boroughs
Were bought and sold for beer, grace and favours,
The squire owned both hustings and sabres
Of the yeomanry; no voting errors
Then, with open ballots. The inducements
These days appear as misinformation,
Encouraging inchoate vexation,
Over stimulated by bombastic rants
Intended to raise the hackles and play
On prejudices of the disengaged,
And so the farce is promoted and staged,
The grand theatrics of democracy.
Should grace and favour of the public will
Falter, the state retains its sabres still.
D. A.