Classic Poem

In ancient times, no matter where,
A nation lived of wise men,
Who lawyers fed with special care,
Bum-bailiffs and excisemen;

Who made good laws to guard a hare,
A partridge or a pheasant,
But left the poor to nature's care:
Say, was not this right pleasant?

Who shut up men within brick walls,
Because they were indebted;
Then let them out when hunger's calls
Had them to shadows fretted;

Who paid ten thousand fools and knaves,
And twenty thousand villains,
To make their fellow-subjects slaves,
And steal their pence and shillings;

Who cut each others' throats for fun,
On land and on the water,
While half the world looked weeping on,
And half was burst with laughter.

Who to this country would not run,
Where only freedom's got at?
Where birds escape the fatal gun,
And men alone are shot at.