Robert Burns

Lines Written on a Window, at the King’s Arms Tavern, Dumfries

YE men of wit and wealth, why all this sneering
‘Gainst poor Excisemen! give the cause a hearing;
What are your landlords’ rent-rolls? taxing ledgers:
What premiers, what? even Monarchs’ mighty gaugers:
Nay, what are priests, those seeming godly wise men?
What are they, pray, but spiritual Excisemen?