Black Beetles in Amber

The rascally-assessment!

FEEGOBBLE:

The murderous assessment!

NOZZLE:

        The glorious assessment
          That makes my mare to go!

FEEGOBBLE:

But, Nozzle, you, I think, were on the point
Of making a remark about some rights—
Some certain vested rights you have acquired
By long immunity; for still the law
Holds that if one do evil undisturbed
His right to do so ripens with the years;
And one may be a villain long enough
To make himself an honest gentleman.
ALL (singing):
        Hail, holy law,
        The soul with awe
          Bows to thy dispensation.

NOZZLE:

It breaks my jaw!

RINGDIVVY:

It qualms my maw!

FEEGOBBLE:

        It feeds my jaw,
        It crams my maw,
          It is my soul's salvation!

NOZZLE:

Why, yes, I've floated mountains to the sea
For lo! these many years; though some, they say,
Do strand themselves along the bottom lands
And cover up a village here and there,
And here and there a ranch. 'Tis said, indeed,
The granger with his female and his young
Do not infrequently go to the dickens
By premature burial in slickens.
ALL (singing):
        Could slickens forever
        Choke up the river,
        And slime's endeavor
          Be tried on grain,
        How small the measure
        Of granger's treasure,
          How keen his pain!

RINGDIVVY:

'A consummation devoutly to be wished!'
These rascal grangers would long since have been
Submerged in slimes, to the last man of them,
But for the fact that all their wicked tribes
Affect our legislation with their bribes.
ALL (singing):
        O bribery's great—
        'Tis a pillar of State,
          And the people they are free.

FEEGOBBLE:

It smashes my slate!

NOZZLE:

It is thievery straight!