i 
 
 A POLITICAL ODE 
 
 BY 
 
 LORD BYRON 
 
 1812. 
 
[One hundred copies privately printed^ 
 
 490E3G 
 
 DUKE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 'Treasure 'Room 
 
A POLITICAL 
 
 ODE 
 
 BY 
 
 LORD BYRON 
 
 HITHERTO UNKNOWN AS HIS PRODUCTION. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 JOHN PEARSON 46 PALL MALL. 
 
 1880. 
 
NOTE 
 
 THE following autograph letter has come into my 
 possession. It seemed to me well worth while to trace out 
 the poem to which it refers, after much difficulty I was 
 able to discover it in the Morning Chronicle of Monday, 
 March 2, 1812. 
 
 The Poet's celebrated Maiden Speech on " The Frame- 
 work Bill " was delivered in the House of Lords, 
 Thursday, Feb. 27, 181 2. 
 
 Some regret may be felt that the ode is not of 
 more general interest, but the daily increasing value of 
 any scrap of Byron's writing is my only excuse for 
 printing it. 
 
 JOHN PEARSON. 
 
 46 Pall Mall. 
 
AN ODE 
 
 TO THE FRAMERS OF THE FRAME BILL. 
 
 Oh well done Lord E — n ! and better Lord R — r ! 
 
 Britannia must prosper with councils like yours ; 
 
 HAWKESBURY, HARROWBY, help you to guide her, 
 
 Whose remedy only must kill ere it cures : 
 
 Those villains ; the Weavers, are all grown refractory, 
 
 Asking some succour for Charity's sake — 
 
 So hang them in clusters round each Manufactory, 
 
 That will at once put an end to mistake* 
 
 The rascals, perhaps, may betake them to robbing, 
 The dogs to be sure have got nothing to eat — 
 So if we can hang them for breaking a bobbin, 
 'Twill save all the Government's money and meat : 
 Men are more easily made than machinery — 
 Stockings fetch better prices than lives — 
 Gibbets on Sherwood will heighten the scenery, 
 Shewing how Commerce, how Liberty thrives. 
 
 * Lord E. on Thursday night, said the riots at Nottingham arose 
 from a " mistake?' 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 http://archive.org/details/politicalode01byro 
 
II 
 
 Justice is now in pursuit of the wretches, 
 
 Grenadiers, Volunteers, Bow-street Police, 
 
 Twenty-two Regiments, a score of Jack Ketches, 
 
 Three of the Quorum and two of the Peace ; 
 
 Some Lords, to be sure, would have summoned the Judges, 
 
 To take their opinion, but that they ne'er shall, 
 
 For Liverpool such a concession begrudges. 
 
 So now they're condemned by no Judges at all. 
 
 Some folks for certain have thought it was shocking, 
 When Famine appeals, and when Poverty groans ; 
 That life should be valued at less than a stocking, 
 And breaking of frames lead to breaking of bones. 
 If it should prove so, I trust, by this token, 
 (And who will refuse to partake in the hope ?) 
 That the frames of the fools may be first to be broken, 
 Who, when asked for a remedy, sent down a rope. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Yk