BRITANNIA'S THANKSGIVING DAY DREAM. (From Punch.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 495, 1 May 1850, Page 3

BRITANNIA'S THANKSGIVING DAY DREAM. (From Punch.)

An awful Plague Trent through the land: it thinn'd the close pent town. [breezy a<vwn ; Swept the scant hamlet, crossed the stream and clombthe Unseen it breathed till poison seethed in the sweet summer Before its fa-e was terror, upon its track despair. [air; For three sad months Britannia mourned hei children night and day, [stay : For three sad months she strove in vain ths pestilence to Medicine, helpless groped & guessed, & tried all arts to save, But the dead carried with them their secret to th* grave. Sudden the dark hand ceased to smite: Britannia drew free breath, As passed away the shadow of the minister of death : And upon all her children a solemn charge she laid, That high and low should bow them down, because the p ague was stayed. Then in the night that followed on that thanksgiving day, Britannia saw a vision, at on her bed she lay : Of a great region stretched about, a crowded careful land, Wherein men plied all labours, of head, & heart, and hand. In it a city, high o'er which a golden temple shone, Wherein the great god Mammon was sitting on a throne, While millions round about hii feet, men, women, ola and young, ' Offered their hearts in homage, with various tone & tongue. HI matched that city's dwellings; low hovel, palace high; Saloons with stately pageants, huts where wretches slunk to die ; [bouring breath Well ordered streets, with tracts hard by wherein the laInhaled the subtle poison that makes life a lingering death. There for aught save Mammon-worihip there were few hearts to care, Opare; For aught but Mammon-service there were few h tnds to Still the pale glare* grew paler, the task-masters more stern, Few there of wise had time to ljve, of ignorant to learn. Death sat at the gaunt weaver's side, thewhil»he plied the loom; [bread and doom ; Death turn'd tke wasting grinder's wheel, as he earn'd his Death, by the wan shirtmaker, plied the fingers to the bone ; Death rock'd the infant's cradle, and with opium hush'd its moan. Nor in the City only did the Spectre hold his place ; [face : In the village and the hamlet, too, he showed his constant In the foul stye where sire and son. mother & maiden slept, Where the infant rouni its playground, the dunghill, crowed and crept. * At bed and board, in cup and can, in work time and in play In the street as in the dwelling, in the night as in the day, Sat Death in Life, a presence that none did seem to note, Until the grim Guest tudden rose and bared his arm and ■mote. Then was weeping in the hovel, and wailing in the hall, And over all the land was fear, stretchedlike a funeral pall ; And even Mammon's votaries paused in their absorbing prayer, [air. And looked up from their worship, with a daunted, doubting And turning in their trouble unto their God and Lord, They saw Death sit on Mammon's throne— 'twas Death that they adored. [shroud His bare jaws set in scornful smile, the Spectre from his Stretch'd forth his fleshless arm across the pale and palsied crowd. « Your day of thanks,' it said, <ii come, your day of thanks is o'er; " [ed before. 'Millions to-day have prayed their prayer, that never pray- • What reck I of your thankfulness, ye fools, or of your prayer ? [still are there ? * One plague hath passed from out your homes, how many •What can one day of prayer avail, if from the church ye go 'To your homes unswept, ungarnished, to your world of wealth and wo t [drain ; * Pray as you will, my stronghold 's still in every ditch and ' Though now my servants hide their heads, they will come forth again. ' Why shrink from Death, ye that build up his seat in every ■home? * How he thankful at hit going, ye that ever bid him come ? • What wonder he makes revel, when still ye spread his board? [hoard? ' Need he he chary of his plagues when still ye feed his 'lam a giant. Would ye learn to nip me in my growth ? < Bring light of Heaven and rain of Heaven to those that pine for both; [health; ' Build homes for toil, where toil may live in decency and 'Let ignorance and want hare tithe of knowledge and of wealth. • Show that the bond of brotherhood that linketh man with Jsf; n » , [world began; 'Will no lest bind, though never forged, since first the ' I~L ear 2 tbat linft ? Belfi «aness, that ye «° «°re have rued, ' And strive to find in common grief the seeds of common good.'