 | Half-a-dozen ballads for Australian emigrants |  |
THE CONVICT AND THE PAUPER.
A BALLAD FOR HOME GOVERNORS.
O give no more to flagrant Wrong
The chances you refuse to Right,
Nor let a boon to Vice belong
Wherein the virtuous would delight;
Man's nature loves the new and strange,
With Sinbad's luck and Crusoe's trip,—
While stagnant misery pines for change,
And longs to get on board o' ship.
The chances you refuse to Right,
Nor let a boon to Vice belong
Wherein the virtuous would delight;
Man's nature loves the new and strange,
With Sinbad's luck and Crusoe's trip,—
While stagnant misery pines for change,
And longs to get on board o' ship.
Why should we add to reckless Sin
This new temptation to do worse,—
That, once transported, he may win
A blessing—not a guilty curse?
Alas! how little wisdom serves
To govern men, or rule a land,
When hope of condemnation nerves
The burglar's or the murderer's hand!
This new temptation to do worse,—
That, once transported, he may win
A blessing—not a guilty curse?
To govern men, or rule a land,
When hope of condemnation nerves
The burglar's or the murderer's hand!
Your convict's unrepented crime,
That well deserved the hangman's rope,
Is punished—in a brilliant clime,
With all things new to new-born hope!
While yonder honest parish slave,
Harass'd by poverty's sharp goads,
Can only hope—a pauper's grave,
And work meanwhile upon the roads!
That well deserved the hangman's rope,
Is punished—in a brilliant clime,
With all things new to new-born hope!
While yonder honest parish slave,
Harass'd by poverty's sharp goads,
Can only hope—a pauper's grave,
And work meanwhile upon the roads!
Go to! send forth with costly care
Such foolish cargoes now no more;
But let true worth your lottery share
Of prizes on some richer shore:
Help not, as now, those Belial bands
Adventurous and free to roam
O'er wide Australia's happy lands,—
But keep them to be slaves at home.
Such foolish cargoes now no more;
But let true worth your lottery share
Of prizes on some richer shore:
Help not, as now, those Belial bands
Adventurous and free to roam
O'er wide Australia's happy lands,—
But keep them to be slaves at home.
Fetter'd, and drill'd, and prison-drest,
Well-sentinell'd, and whipp'd to task,—
A living warning to the rest,—
This is the penalty we ask;
Home-shame for such; to moil in muck,
And change their place with honest men,
Whose only sin is,—little luck,
And living threescore years and ten!
Well-sentinell'd, and whipp'd to task,—
A living warning to the rest,—
This is the penalty we ask;
Home-shame for such; to moil in muck,
And change their place with honest men,
Whose only sin is,—little luck,
And living threescore years and ten!
| Half-a-dozen ballads for Australian emigrants | |