Page:The Spirit of the Nation.djvu/113

Rh III.

The poor laws, to add to our griefs, are saddled upon us, poor asses,

With commissioners added, the thieves, to reverse ev'ry vote the board passes;

And yet, though the taxes we pay, the paupers in hordes still infest us,

They'll not go to the workhouse, they say, they'd just as soon enter a pesthouse,

No wonder we've shocking bad times.

IV.

Some say that provisions are cheap—so they are; but when none we can buy,

Pigs, poultry, and oxen, and sheep, are as far from our reach as when high;

Where all this will end I can't say, so I may as well wind up my rhymes;

But this I'll observe, by the way, that I ne'er saw such shocking bad times,

I ne'er saw such shocking bad times.

A.D. 1643.

I.

Serf! with thy fetters o'erladen,

Why crouch you in dastardly woe?

Why weep o'er thy chains like a maiden,

Nor strike for thy manhood a blow?

Not thus would our fathers bemoan us—

When Tyranny raised the lash, then

They practised the "Lex Talionis"

Of Feidlim, and lash'd it again.