When lawyers little had to do--
Their briefs were few, their fees were brief,
And brief had been their Sunday beef,
Had they nought else to fill their maw
Than the proceeds of briefless law;
For litigation had not then
Curst Bytown's early race of men!
And Robert Drummond, Engineer,
Who built across the "_Grande Chaudiere_"
The old "Swing Bridge," which many a day
Amid the "Kettle's" curling spray,
From side to side did gently sway.
The adamantine iron tether
Which chained two provinces together,
Ere legislation's fiat came
With moral might to do the same.
Well's and McCrea of lumbering note,
Who had on many a stream afloat
Vast rafts of red pine timber, when
White pine was little thought of; then
Oak, elm, cedar and red pine
And staves, together did combine,
With now and then a mast or spar,
To make up what would go at par,
At Stadacona--old Quebec--
Where brave Montgomery got a check
In a most bootless, foolish strife,
Which cost him his undaunted life--
Where Arnold got a broken thigh,
Ere at West Point his treachery