Address to Britons.

Address to Britons.

Britons! Who have felt the flame,
Which in all ages burns the same,
In bosoms tyrants ne’er can tame,
Nor subject to their wills!
To you my muse doth now appeal, 5
Who’ve in your breasts a heart to feel
When tyrants do the common weal
Perplex with various ills.
Who’s he will shrink from freedom’s cause
When tyrants do it sore oppose, 10
Contaminating all our laws
With hateful villany?
The wretch who a willing slave,
Unworthy is e’en of a grave,
Within the land he will not save 15
From hateful tyranny.
But those who battle for our right,
In freedom’s oft unequal fight,
Their history fills us with delight,
Till number’d with the dead. 20
But let us do what good we can
To our oppressed fellow man,
For life it is but a short span,
Then let us use it well.
And what can we much better do, 25
Than raise up those who’re sunken low,
With much oppression and with woe,
Which makes this earth a hell.
Then let us raise the cheering cry,
Reverberating to the sky, 30
The funeral dirge of slavery,
Most hallowed freedom’s name.

Curse me the man who loves to rule
Above his brother: also the fool
Who meanly will become the tool 35
Of tyrants, curse the same.
But bless and cheer where’er he goes,
The man who will become the tool
Which tyranny upon its foes
Doth always strive to lay.

Then let us like brave Emmett die,
Or Vincent-like in prison lie,
But ne’er succumb to tyranny,
Let come whatever may.

Thou, Liberty, shalt never die! 45
Thy “lion-heart and eagle-eye”
Will live for eternity,
When tyranny is o’er.

George Markham Tweddell
Stokesley ‘Georgius’
[Stokesley News and Cleveland Reporter No. 20, p. 171]

Tweddell mentions two Chartists in this poem -

Henry Vincent (10 May 1813 – 29 December 1878) was active in the formation of early Working Men's Associations in Britain, a popular Chartist leader, brilliant and gifted public orator, prospective but ultimately unsuccessful Victorian MP, and later an anti-slavery campaigner. Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Vincent





Robert Emmett - Chartist

"Robert Emmet (4 March 1778 – 20 September 1803) was an Irish nationalist and Republican, orator and

rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured, tried and executed for high treason.

Robert Emmet came from a wealthy Protestant family who sympathised with Irish Catholics, namely their lack of fair representation in Parliament. The Emmet family also sympathised with the American Revolution. From a very early age Robert Emmet’s political and social aspirations views were defined. As an orator, some of his last words were made in a speech on the eve of his execution" Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Emmet

And here
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=sHQOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA531&lpg=PA531&dq=Emmett+-+chartist&source=bl&ots=NHVpDecBPQ&sig=XLUUoHZqQKc-TNDjEB32oYPizns&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EuifUaiAGcek0QXG-IDoCw&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Emmett%20-%20chartist&f=false