A Dealer, bewitched by gain-promising dreams <br />Settled down near my Station, to trade with my Teams, <br />And to sell to, my men too! from whom, through the nose, <br />Until then, I had screw'd just what prices I chose; <br />And for this, to be sure, I so hated the man, <br />That I swore ne'er to rest till I'd settled some plan <br />Whereby in the Lockup to cleverly cram him! <br />And so to my Super the matter I put, <br />Who thereupon 'found' a sheep's head near his hut, <br />And the 'how came it there?' was sufficient to damn him, <br />The Beak before who I then lugg'd him, as you <br />May suppose, being neck-deep in Squattery too. <br /> <br />'Twas a beautiful Hearing, as noted at large <br />By the Clerk (who was bonuss'd)-sheep-stealing the charge; <br />'Twould make your hearts laugh in the Records to see <br />How we bullied him out of his wits! -I say we, <br />Because while on this side against him 1 banged, <br />On the other the Beak said he ought to be hanged, <br />For a gallows-grained, scandalous son of transgression! <br />And committing him then-the case being so plain, <br />We sent him three hundred miles 'down on the chain' <br />To his Trial-and eke to his 'acquittal', at Session! <br />For what care we Squatters for Law on a push? <br />And for Justice! what has she to do with the Bush?<br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bush-justice/
