Author: Peter Brown (1784-1863)

Publication: The Ten Pounder

Publisher: Peter Brown

Published: 11 August 1832

Place of publication: Lady Stair's Close, Edinburgh, Scotland

Publication type: Newspaper/Periodical

Featured individuals:
John Archibald Murray (1778-1859)

A full copy of this poem is available.

Further information:
https://books.google.co.uk/books/reader?id=gAwZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA12

This poem has a set tune, and its title is:
The Tight Little Island.

Archive/Library: Glasgow University Library
Classmark(s): Sp Coll Mu56-e.12
Pages(s): 12

The editor, and likely author, of this poem, Peter Brown, was a ‘ten pounder’: ‘one of those who have been called into political existence, as it were, by the great measure which has lately given a new character to public affairs’.  Despite this, he was against those calling for more reform.  The meaning of the poem is deliberately ambiguous but it does appear to be a satire on the Whig Reformers.  The poem also notes that those who fought for freedom and laws were actually fighting for 'starvation' - perhaps an indication that the author has become jaded with the Reform cause.