YOUNG ENGLAND—what is then become of Old, "Young Of dear Old England? Think they she is dead, England' 1845 Dead to the very name? Presumption fed
On empty air! That name will keep its hold In the true filial bosom's inmost fold For ever. The Spirit of Alfred at the head Of all who for her rights watched, toiled and bled, Knows that this prophecy is not too bold. What-how! shall she submit in will and deed To Beardless Boys-an imitative race, The servum pecus of a Gallic breed?
Dear Mother! if thou must thy steps retrace, Go where at least meek Innocency dwells; Let Babes and Sucklings be thy oracles.
FEEL for the wrongs to universal ken Daily exposed, woe that unshrouded lies; And seek the Sufferer in his darkest den, Whether conducted to the spot by sighs And moanings, or he dwells (as if the wren Taught him concealment) hidden from all eyes In silence and the awful modesties
Of sorrow ;-feel for all, as brother Men! Rest not in hope want's icy chain to thaw By casual boons and formal charities; Learn to be just, just through impartial law; For as ye may, erect and equalise;
And, what ye cannot reach by statute, draw Each from his fountain of self-sacrifice!
Personal
service of Mankind 1842?
Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death
Suggested THIS Spot--at once unfolding sight so fair by the view of sea and land, with yon grey towers that still of Lancaster Rise Castle as if to lord it over airup Might soothe in human breasts the sense of ill, Or charm it out of memory; yea, might fill The heart with joy and gratitude to God For all his bounties upon man bestowed: Why bears it then the name of "Weeping Hill"? Thousands, as toward yon old Lancastrian Towers, A prison's crown, along this way they past For lingering durance or quick death with shame, From this bare eminence thereon have cast Their first look-blinded as tears fell in showers Shed on their chains; and hence that doleful name.
TENDERLY do we feel by Nature's law
For worst offenders: though the heart will heave pathy where With indignation, deeply moved we grieve, In after thought, for Him who stood in awe Neither of God nor man, and only saw, Lost wretch, a horrible device enthroned On proud temptations, till the victim groaned Under the steel his hand had dared to draw But O, restrain compassion, if its course, As oft befalls, prevent or turn aside
Judgments and aims and acts whose higher source Is sympathy with the unforewarned, who died Blameless-with them that shuddered o'er his grave, And all who from the law firm safety crave.
THE ROman Consul doomed his sons to die
Who had betrayed their country. The stern word Feeling must
Afforded (may it through all time afford)
A theme for praise and admiration high. Upon the surface of humanity
He rested not; its depths his mind explored; He felt; but his parental bosom's lord Was Duty,-Duty calmed his agony. And some, we know, when they by wilful act A single human life have wrongly taken, Pass sentence on themselves, confess the fact, And, to atone for it, with soul unshaken Kneel at the feet of Justice, and, for faith Broken with all mankind, solicit death.
Death is not Is Death, when evil against good has fought the worst With such fell mastery that a man may dare thing By deeds the blackest purpose to lay bare, Is Death, for one to that condition brought, For him, or any one, the thing that ought To be most dreaded? Lawgivers, beware, Lest, capital pains remitting till ye spare The murderer, ye, by sanction to that thought Seemingly given, debase the general mind; Tempt the vague will tried standards to disown; Nor only palpable restraints unbind,
upon Honour's head disturb the crown, Whose absolute rule permits not to withstand In the weak love of life his least command.
The Legis- Nor to the object specially designed, lator must Howe'er momentous in itself it be, look to Good to promote or curb depravity, consequences Is the wise Legislator's view confined.
His Spirit, when most severe, is oft most kind; As all Authority in earth depends
On Love and Fear, their several powers he blends, Copying with awe the one Paternal mind. Uncaught by processes in show humane, He feels how far the act would derogate From even the humblest functions of the State; If she, self-shorn of Majesty, ordain That never more shall hang upon her breath The last alternative of Life or Death.
YE brood of Conscience-Spectres! that frequent Horror of The bad man's restless walk, and haunt his bed Fiends in your aspect, yet beneficent
In act, as hovering Angels when they spread
Crime and Belief in Retribution must not be
Their wings to guard the unconscious Innocent weakened Slow be the Statutes of the land to share A laxity that could not but impair
Your power to punish crime, and so prevent. And ye, Beliefs! coiled serpent-like about The adage on all tongues, "Murder will out," How shall your ancient warnings work for good In the full might they hitherto have shown, If for deliberate shedder of man's blood Survive not Judgment that requires his own?
The Law of Love must not be
BEFORE the world had past her time of youth While polity and discipline were weak, The precept eye for and tooth for tooth, Came forth-a light, though but as of daybreak, strained t Strong as could then be borne. A Master meek Proscribed the spirit fostered by that rule, Patience his law, long-suffering his school, And love the end, which all through peace must seek.
But lamentably do they err who strain His mandates, given rash impulse to control And keep vindictive thirstings from the soul, So far that, if consistent in their scheme, They must forbid the State to inflict a pain, Making of social order a mere dream.
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