HAWKE Hawke was admiral in command of the fleet_blockading Brest during the Seven Years' War. When the French fleet came out he drove it towards Quiberon. Shoals and quicksands made it dangerous to attack; but Hawke refused to listen to the warning of his pilot and gave battle. The result was a great victory for England which staved off all risk of a French invasion. IN seventeen hundred and fifty-nine, When Hawke came swooping from the West, The French King's Admiral with twenty of the line Was sailing forth to sack us, out of Brest. The ports of France were crowded, the quays of France a-hum 5 With thirty thousand soldiers marching to the drum, For bragging time was over and fighting time was come When Hawke came swooping from the West. ΙΟ 'Twas long past noon of a wild November day When Hawke came swooping from the West. 15 The Frenchmen turned like a covey down the wind pinned, And the shallows and the storm took the rest. 20 The guns that should have conquered us they rusted on the shore, The men that would have mastered us they drummed and marched no more, For England was England, and a mighty brood she bore When Hawke came swooping from the West. H. NEWBOLT. A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA PARTY (1773) Boston in Massachusetts was always strongly Puritan in tone, and generally at variance with the Home government. It took the lead in resisting the taxation imposed upon the Colonies after the Seven Years' War. In 1773 the inhabitants of Boston destroyed a cargo of tea worth £18,0co sooner than pay the duty. As a punishment, Lord North in 1774 carried through the Boston Port Bill, which declared it illegal to load or unload any ship at Boston. This meant ruin to the town; intense indignation arose throughout America and war became inevitable. No! ne'er was mingled such a draught As freemen brewed and tyrants quaffed It made the nerves of Britain shake, Amid the roar of cannon, The Western war-cloud's crimson stained 5 ΙΟ Full many a six-foot grenadier An evening party,-only that, No formal invitation, No gold-laced coat, no stiff cravat, No feast in contemplation, No silk-robed dames, no fiddling band, A tribe of red men, axe in hand,- How fast the stragglers join the throng, The lively barber skips along And leaves a chin half-lathered ; The smith has flung his hammer down,- The truant tapster at the Crown The cooper's boys have dropped the adze, 15 20 25 30 35 Up run the tarry ship-yard lads,— Out from the Millpond's purlieus gush 40 The streams of white-faced millers, And down their slippery alleys rush The ropewalk lends its prentice crew,- Ay, boys, you'll soon have work to do 45 "King Hancock", Adams, and their gang, On-on to where the tea-ships ride! 50 55 60 The waves that wrought a century's wreck 66 The waters in the rebel bay Have kept the tea-leaf savour; 70 Our old North-Enders in their spray And Freedom's teacup still o'erflows 75 To cheat of slumber all her foes And cheer the wakening nations! O. W. HOLMES. 45. rope walk. A long alley where rope yarn is made. 46. Tories. Here used for the Colonists who remained loyal to English rule. 49. King Hancock. John Hancock organized the party of Bostonians who, disguised as a tribe of Mohawk Indians, threw the tea overboard. Adams. Samuel Adams, a great orator, and leader in the separation of the thirteen States from England. 55. the Dartmouth. One of the East India Company's ships, whose cargo was ruined. 66. Whig. Here applied to the Colonists who resisted the Home government. (See Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. III, ch. xxxiv.) 72. Hyson. Green tea from China. THE SHAN VAN VOCHT (1798) Since 1782 Ireland had possessed an independent Parliament, which, however, represented only the Protestant minority. In 1791 the discontent due chiefly to the repression of the Roman Catholics and the miserable poverty of the peasantry led to the formation of a society called the United Irishmen. Its proposed object was parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation, but the influence of the French Revolution caused many of the members to aim at complete independence from England. The English government had no settled policy, and in 1798 civil war broke out. The miserably equipped army of the Irish was, however, easily defeated at Vinegar Hill, and the rising was soon suppressed. The 'Shan Van Vocht' (The Poor Old Woman, i.e. Ireland) was a popular street-song of the time. OH! the French are on the sea, Says the Shan Van Vocht; Says the Shan Van Vocht; Oh! the French are in the Bay, Says the Shan Van Vocht. Oh! the French are in the Bay, Says the Shan Van Vocht. And where will they have their camp? Where will they have their camp? 5 15 |