DESOLATA.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 323, 25 December 1862, Page 4

DESOLATA.

AN APPEAL TO THE NATION ON THE DISTJRESS IN LANCASHIKE.

[From “Fraser’s Magazine.”]. Humbled she croucheth, wailrng in the dust,. Striving with bitter shame to- rise, again ; Shame on.thee, England; if, with all thy.wealth, ' The helpless and. the homeless cry in vain ! O God,, how l.ong—how long this; fearful cry, How long this, growing list of infant dead ? The bitterest pang a,mothers heart can know— Dear children clamouring in vain for bread. Think of it, happy mother, as thou clasp’st Thy fair-liair’d darliag to, thine own, glad. l breast; Think of those crying little,ones, who pine, Un-nourish’d fledgelings in a starving nest.', Thmk of it, fathers, in the dead, night-watch ; Think of it husbands, and your happy wives ; How Famine rides triumphant in lierpower, And Death stalks busy in those human.hives l Think of the baby-faces pinch’d and w.an ; Think of the full churchyard., where child-, hood sleeps ; Think of the silent hearths and desolate, Where Rachel mourning for-her children, weeps! • ■ »

Ah, think on thy soft couch of those sad homes ; The wailing infant on the wasted breast. Give ! of thy more than plenty— freely give,. And God, who giveth all, shall hold thee blest i • . Astley It Baldwin. .