[1] The poem is a set of verses satirising Ninian Melville, at that time Member for Northumberland in the Parliament of New South Wales.

Immediately after publication the publisher, believing the political satire to be possibly libellous, recalled the edition after some 250 copies had been distributed.

I believe it appeared in a volume published by the late Henry Kendall, but as there was some threat of a libel action, it had to be withdrawn.

And then with dramatic action and suitable emphasis, he read: — House with high august traditions, Chamber where the voice of Lowe, And the lordly words of Wentworth sounded thirty years ago; Halls familiar to our fathers, where in days exalted rung All the tones and all the feelings which ennobled Bland and Lang.

We in ashes, we in sackcloth, sorrow for the insult cast By a crowd of bitter boobies, on the grandeur of the past.