Page:The Spirit of the Nation.djvu/118

22 By all the savage acts that yet

Have followed England's track:

The pitchcap and the bayonet,

The gibbet and the rack.

And thus was passed the Union

By Pitt and Castlereagh;

Could Satan send for such an end

More worthy tools than they?

II.

How thrive we by the Union?

Look round our native land:

In ruined trade and wealth decayed

See slavery's surest brand;

Our glory as a nation gone—

Our substance drained away—

A wretched province trampled on,

Is all we've left to-day.

Then curse with me the Union,

That juggle foul and base,

The baneful root that bore such fruit

Of ruin and disgrace.

III.

And shall it last, this Union,

To grind and waste us so?

O'er hill and lea, from sea to sea,

All Ireland thunders, No!

Eight million necks are stiff to bow—

We know our might as men—

We conquered once before, and now

We'll conquer once again;

And rend the cursed Union,

And fling it to the wind—

And Ireland's laws in Ireland's cause

Alone our hearts shall bind!