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On the Signs of the Times

[by Bernard Barton]

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A POSTSCRIPT;

FOR OUR OWN ISLAND QUEEN!

Though Europe's teeming Continent,
In Signs so ominous, present
Danger beyond dissembling;
Thank Heaven! our happier little Isle,
With cause for anxious thought, the while,
May still “rejoice with trembling.”

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Victoria, thron'd in heads and hearts
To which true Loyalty imparts
A feeling of Devotion,
May safely, truthfully confide
In hearts and heads, so proved, and tried,
With grateful, proud emotion.
Throughout Her Realm, each Sabbath Day,
When Britons meet to praise, and pray,
From Faith not prone to falter
For Her ascends the Voice of Prayer;
And, oftener still, She claims Her share,
Round many a Household Altar!
What more could England's Queen desire,
To be—as by “a wall of fire”
Protected, and defended,
Than when Her Country thus delights
To mix her with its holiest rites?
And deem—what fondly it unites
Identified! and blended!