Kentucky Gazette

POETRY.

THE BLESSINGS OF ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

The following poem, written in Ireland, depicts the happiness of British subjects, and the pleasing hopes they may entertain of being, in the evening of life, enabled to enjoy the fruits of their labor and industry under the benign sway of the succession "best of princes."—Happy land of our fathers!!!

ADVERSITY'S COT
Tune—"Roslin Castle."

Since the minions of power, to keep the mortals still blind,
Forbid us to sing of the RIGHTS OF MANKIND,
From this time let us alter the theme of our songs,
And, as swine let's assemble to grunt out our wrongs.

In vain shall the placemen and pensioners join,
To say that each man sits beneath his own vine,
Ah! no, let them all hang their heads and be mute,
For were the tree good, it were known by its fruit.

Behold yon poor laborer, enfeebled and old,
With his limbs worn by toil, and contracted by cold,
While no cheering prospect enlivens his breast,
And all his past labors afford him no rest;
In his evening of life no kind sun sheds its ray,
No beam of content gilds the close of his day;
Ask him if he eats of these fruits? No! they're known
To the hirelings of power and placemen alone.

He will tell you his children are hungry and poor,
That his strength 'gins to fail, and his labors are o'er;
That in sorrow and pain he has travelled life's road,
And the work-house is now made his only abode.

Next view yonder matron: ah! why flow her tears?
Ask what it is bows to the grave her grey hairs?
She will tell you, with accents all frantic and wild,
That she mourns in despair for the loss of her child.

By the fruits of his toil she was clothed—she was fed;
His honest exertions procured her her bread,
But pressed away, he was enticed a slave,
And to Flanders was sent there to meet with a grave—
There the poor victim lies on the blood-moistened clay,
And the vultures and kites scream aloud for their prey;
Whilst his poor mangled limbs the dire banquet invite,
And no tear wets his corse but the dews of the night.

Is the sailor secure, when from some distant shore,
He returns to his wife and his children no more?
Say, can he praise the power which tears him from home,
And leaves the poor victim in sorrow to roam?

Maim'd and wounded return'd, see relief is denied,
By the hard-hearted sons of oppression and pride;
And thro' realms, which to save, he in battle has bled,
Behold him now wand'ring to ask for his bread!

See our taxes increase by that profligate plan,
Which has taught man to draw forth his sword against man;
Whilst from poverty's cot, the hard earnings of toil
Are torn, that the courtier may feed on the spoil.

And shall these abuses exist at this day
Shall all our past glories forever decay
Ah no! let's avert the approach of the storm
And unerring maintain the great cause of reform!

* Alluding to the infamous crimping system practised in Ireland.

Another piece of English policy was successfully practised in Ireland about the time of the effort for independence, which was this:
The magistrates received private orders to collect from among the peasantry and lower orders of the community, the finest men, who were seized, accused of treason by persons hired for the purpose, and then, as an act of mercy, received a choice of being hanged or sold to the king of Prussia, at so much per head, as military slaves. It is a notorious fact, that Bonaparte, in his peace with the king of Prussia, stipulated for the freedom of these men, and afterwards enrolled them in the French service, under the title of "the Irish legion."