The Song of the Exile--A Canadian Epic | Page 4

Christian creed
That bloodshed is a sin--until that hour
Has come,
all Europe's treasuries must bleed,
That naval armaments may grimly
stand,
And military menace every land.
XXXV.
Then, England, since an universal peace,
A peace eternal, has not
been proclaimed,
Thy military might must still increase,
Thy naval
glory must not be defamed.
But only when thine honour shall demand,

Or injured right, upraise thy martial hand.
XXXVI.
Be Christian first and last, and be not slow
To propagate the cause of
arbitration.
Let peaceful compacts, bloodless victories, grow
Till
hideous war, with ruthless devastation,
Destroy no more the beauty of
thy land,
Nor raise against thy homes its bloodstained hand.
XXXVII.
Be Christian first and last, for thus alone
Shalt thou attain to might
unfaltering.
No nation in the past has ever known
The lasting power
which faith alone can bring.
Though each in turn has gained a
glorious name,
Not one has risen to eternal fame.
XXXVIII.
The Roman Cæsars, with increasing pride,
"Outstretched their hands
and grasped a hemisphere."
Their glory swelled with ever-flowing
tide,
And nations bowed to them in trembling fear.
Their eagles
flew, and lofty was their flight,
Yet only Cæsar's empire met their
sight.
XXXIX.

But now the Roman Empire is no more;
No longer Roman eagles
sweep the sky.
The pampered luxury of Rome soon bore
Its wonted
fruit--gross immorality;
And weakened thus, and by internal strife,

Great Cæsar's Empire yielded up its life.
XL.
And classic Greece, which, in a former age,
Bore mighty warriors
without compeer,
Knew not the land whose war-compelling gage

Could not be taken up without a fear.
But now her power is so
completely broke,
She almost yields her to an Asian yoke.
XLI.
And France, in later days, has girded on
A might magnificent; and
none could stay
The pow'r of her adored Napoleon,
Before whose
hosts, in ill-concealed dismay,
The nations fled. Then France her flag
unfurled,
And waved it proudly over half a world.
XLII.
But not in England. And when Bonaparte
Would lay the British
nation at his feet,
Her legions tore his mighty hosts apart,
And
snatched the Conqueror from his lofty seat.
Then France's glory faded
fast away,
Till not a nation owned her sovereign sway.
XLIII.
And thus have mighty nations ever perished,
Or lost the greater
portion of their might,
When, as their sole upholder, they have
cherished
The reeking sword, in disregard of right.
Then, England,
take thou warning by their fate,
And keep thy Christian faith
inviolate.
XLIV.

America's Republic stands alone.
But once for bloody glory did she
raise
Her martial hand; and Canada was thrown
Into a state of
war.[A] But all essays
To sever her allegiance from her King

Proved vain--her faith remained unfaltering.
XLV.
But once America unrighteously
Led forth her armies. Only to defend

Her people's honour and integrity
Has she, since then, allowed
them to contend
In bitter warfare. And the peaceful arts
Engage
more readily her people's hearts.
XLVI.
A noble nation striving peacefully
To gain the highest pinnacle of
honour,
Without a peer in ingenuity;
Well mayest thou, great
England, look upon her
As worthier far to be thy firm ally
Than any
European monarchy.
XLVII.
Send forth thy Prince's son, and let him find
In broad America a
worthy bride.
Thus let the ties of blood together bind
The
Anglo-Saxon race on either side
The great Atlantic. Keep thy princes
free
From royal Europe's mad heredity.
XLVIII.
Far better were it they should choose their brides
From some
American pure family,
Than wed their cousins, in whose blood,
besides
The fell disease which immorality
Of ancestors has planted
there, there run
Weaknesses caused by kindred's union.
XLIX.
The scurvy-stricken family whose head
Rules all the Russias'

limitless domain;
The progeny of Ludwig, lately dead
By his own
hand; the Hohenzollern vain
And proud, and yet diseased; or
Austria's queen
Whose hidden madness still is plainly seen:
L.
Shall we defile our royal English blood
By marriage with such
families as these?
Shall English kings inherit all this flood
Of
imbecility and dread disease?
Must all the purity of Guelph be so

Impaired and ruined by this noisome flow?
LI.
Nay, rather let us throw aside that form,
(That well had been
abolished in the past),
Which bids our royal princes to conform
To
rules as rigid as the Indian caste
Distinctions, nor a single Prince
allows
To marry other than a royal spouse.
LII.
And let our England's royal House be bound
By wedlock to America.
Perchance
This bond may, in a future day, be found
The first of
many, which shall so enhance
Our mutual love that, by God's kindly
grace,
On History's page this name shall have a place:
"THE
EMPIRE OF THE ANGLO-SAXON RACE."
LIII.
Great England! Land of liberty and peace,
With fond regret I leave
thy hallowed shore;
But, in my exile, I can never cease
To love the
Land that I may see no more.
All foreign countries are alike to me;

My heart's affection is bound up in thee.
Blue, boundless and free, the deep-flowing sea
Environs on every
side
The ship, which the gale, well-filling each sail,
Impels through
the rolling tide.

Around, far and near, bright, foaming and clear,
The billows
tumultuous roll;
And their message to me is, "Free, wildly free!

"Free ever from man's control!"
As round me they throng, I hear their wild song,
And