SONG OF AN INTENDING ABSENTEE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 85, 21 October 1843, Page 340

SONG OF AN INTENDING ABSENTEE.

Oh hearts of old, and hands of old ! Oh names oft sung by British lyre ! Do ye claim vs — the dull, the cold ! — Who neither move for love or hire ? Time was, the common cause and weal — The outraged rights of brother man, Defied all risks of death or illj Aud straightway took the bolder plan. To act that out, through thick and thin — To do the deed, and shame the deil — This 'twas that used to make us men, But now — our men all shirk th' appeal ; And they must join the recreant cry, 'Gainst Civ'lization's onward march, • Of rights barbaric — tomahawk— The right to kill and be at large ! Say not we live on British ground, Say not we're sprung from British sires ; The white man now hears not a sound, But only — from the native — " Liars i" In vain you point to deeds you've done On other shores, in other days ; He marks but what he sees you do, And treats you as a bastard race ! The manly soul, the earnest heart, Of those that went to do and die — The themes of thought which these impart Are here, he finds, rank heresy ! For shallow heads and hollow hearts Pursue their wonted dilly-dally ; And we look on, or act their parts *In simply talking — shilly-shally ! ' As if no mortal blow were struck, ' . • #$> No fftlftf **' — Bj required redress, diti 4^*** And Nelson's best and bravest sons Were still her hope and happiness ! Away, then— join some bolder race — Desert both English land and men ; And when you would the law abase, Look back, and take a hint from therm! Nelson*, Oct. 12, 1843. V *

Wilkie's Nationality. — " Thomson ! ye maun be a Scotch Thomson, I'll warrant," said Wilkie to Henry Thomson, as they sat for the first time at an Academy dinner. " I'm of that ilk, sir," was his reply; my father was a Scotchman." " Wai he really?" Bjgpaimed Wilkie, grasping the other's hand quite brotherly ; " and my motherwas Irish !" " Ay, ay, was she really ? " and the hand relaxed its fervour ; " and I was born in England." Wilkie let go Thomson's hand altogether, turned his back on him, and indulged in bo further conversation. My freind Thomson, a wit as well as a painter, perhaps caricatured this conversation ; but I remember it was received as true to the spirit of Wilkie when it was first told.

Dr. Watts, whose Logic was the text-book at Oxford, would not have be«n eligible for the mas* tership of one of Sir James Graham* new schools ; Milton and Locke, who knew something of education, would be disqualified even as underlings. For corporations, and public offices, and the magistracy, the Test Act has been repealed ; for factory schools it is re-enacMaT. — W. J. Fox.