"Liberty! dragg'd from the fetters of kings, Liberty! dug from the cell of the priest-- Rise to thy height upon zenith-borne wings! Spread to thy breadth from the west to the east! Slow, through the ages, unbound limb by limb, Thou hast been rescued from tyranny's maw, Only glad service still yielding to Him Who ruleth in love by the sceptre of law!
"Nations have torn thee by fierce civil strife From the usurpers who trod them to mud; Saints at the stake gave up agonised life That superstitions be drown'd in hot blood! Theirs was the battle--the conquest is ours-- Free souls and bodies the death-wrestled prize Won from bad kingcraft, despoiled of its powers, Wrench'd from false priestcraft in spite of its lies!
"God made the freeman, but man made the slave, Forcing his brother the shackle to wear; But all those fetters are loosed in the grave, King, priest, and serf meeting equally there; Here, too, and now, in these swift latter days, Freedom all round is humanity's right; Thought, speech, and action, enfranchised all ways, Eager for service in Liberty's might."
That may be truly labelled Liberal: the next, in honour of Beaconsfield, may be fairly ticketed Tory:
"Great Achiever, first in place England's son of Israel's race! Man whom none could make afraid, Self-reliant and self-made,-- Potent both by tongue and pen In the hearts and mouths of men, Wielder in each anxious hour Of the mighty people's power, Wise to scheme, and bold to do, Who can this be,--history, who?
"Heaper of a new renown Even on Victoria's crown, Mightiest friend of blessed peace By commanding wars to cease, Paralysing faction still, Swift in act and strong of will, Forcing every foe to cower Under Britain's patient power, Like himself, firm, frank, and true, Who can this be,--justice, who?"
For other of my politicals, take this common-sense essay from my pen, hitherto unpublished:--
In a nation self-governed through its own representatives, it seems reasonable to admit that each citizen should have a vote; each citizen, we say, simply as such; whether male or female, labourer, pauper, civil, military, naval, or official, every one not convicted of crime nor an attested lunatic, of full age, of sufficient capacity (evidenced by being able to read and write), celibate or married, rich or poor,--every person in our commonwealth should equitably, it may well be conceded, have his or her single vote in the government of the country. Poverty is no crime, therefore the Workhouse should not disfranchise; sex is no just disqualification, therefore the woman should have her vote as freely as the man, for surely marriage ought not to suffer derogation and disgrace by denial of the common right of citizenship as its penalty; the soldier, sailor, policeman, government-official, and any other class which may now be deprived of their birthright by law or custom, should certainly be admitted to the poll like other patriotic citizens; in short, manhood suffrage, it may be theoretically argued, is just and wise--manhood of course including womanhood, as suggested above; for even a wife either sides with her husband or controls him in common cases; and in the less usual instances where he rules, there need be no more tyranny about political matters than about domesticities, and so the home would scarcely be any the worse even for partisan zeal.