Two Sonnets to Parliament (1849 / 1885) A Contrast.

Two Sonnets—A Contrast.
[The first originally titled: Sonnet to Parliament:
January, 1849]
I
And now for ever is the Old Year gone,

And all its deeds are history to me;
And of your acts, oh Parliament! Not one
Will further the great cause of Liberty!
How can you needless this mankind behold 5
Toiling for scantly what will life maintain?
Whilst tyrants from their labour pilfer gold,
And bid them gag them if they but complain!
Tax’d from the very cradle to the grave,
And hunger’d most when best they should be fed, 10
What wonder that, themselves from death to save,
Too oft by worthless leaders they are led?
Oh! Give the people food and education,
And England then will be a great and happy nation.
Weekly Times, January 7th, 1849.

II

Written at the close of the Autumn Parliamentary
Session of 1885

Not two score years have pass’d since we sung, 15
But in that time we have march’d bravely on,
And many a triumph Liberty has won,
Although Injustice has with ardour clung,
Long as it could, to its unrighteous sway.
Towards equal rights we have ta’en many a stride, 20
And education is spread far and wide,
Taxes on food and knowledge swept away,
And now we only need that men shall be
Calm, brave, and wise, in using all their power,
To gain our nation the ı esplendent[*] dower 25
Inseparable from true Liberty.
He whose unbridled passion e’er does wrong
In any State, does tyranny prolong.

George Markham Tweddell
pp. 7 & 8 [in Miscellaneous Sonnets]
[* sic]