Cursed Trio! that have wasted tower and town and champaign fair,

Sweeping like the desolation of a plague-infected air; Leagued against all social order, dealing death and

scattering woe.

Up, my brothers! time is pressing! let us face the common foe!

Oh, forget the feuds that rent us, maddened, plundered, made us blind;

Fellow-workers! fellow-freemen! close alliance let us

bind.

Shall a foolish flag divide us, or a difference of name, Whilst a common danger threatens, and our safety is the same?

Every epoch brings us nearer, every new deviceof man Speeds the destined hour, unfolding more and more th' Almighty's plan.

Bars of iron firmly join us, and the interchange of skill, With the golden cord of Commerce, weaves a union firmer still.

Seas by cunning art unite us-mountain barriers pierce we through

Shall a bygone age defraud us of our hiership in the new?

Shall an old tradition bar us from a life of mutual

trust?

Shall we ne'er defy aggression by resolving to be just?

Must we ever spend our earnings on machinery to kill,* Guarding 'gainst imagined danger by inflicting certain ill?

What imports our faith, my brothers, in a God we fondly call

By the name of Father, saying that He ruleth over all,— That without His high permission e'en a sparrow cannot

fall,

Whilst in act we dare not trust Him? Oh, for once, with purpose true,

Let us league, and earth shall wonder at the deeds that we will do.

Yonder host shall flee before us-wasted realms shall

smile again,

Waving like a golden ocean with the undulating grain, And the peasant seeking labour never more shall ask in

vain.

Other troops shall fill your barracks, armed with shuttle and with loom,

And the buzz of school-boy voices rob the fortress of its

gloom.

Rival nations then no longer, but a league of federal

states,

All, as one, shall rise disburdened from intolerable

weights;

* The military expenditure of Europe amounts, according to Cobden, to £200,000,000 annually.

Interlinked, each aiding each, shall form but one great Commonweal;

Every wound that War hath left us, Peace, with heavenly art, shall heal.

Will ye leave the golden fruit untasted, hanging in its place,

Leave it for a riper future and a more enlightened race? Never be it said, my brothers, it was plucked, but not

by you,

That the twentieth age accomplished what the nineteenth could not do!

You that vanquished space !—a triumph greater still let time reveal;

Rise, and make the world your captive-LOVE IS R. B. F.

STRONGER FAR THAN STEEL.

IF I WERE A VOICE.

IF I were a voice, a persuasive voice,

That could travel the wide world through,
I would fly on the beams of the morning light,
And speak to men with a gentle might,

And tell them to be true.

I'd fly, I'd fly, o'er land and sea,
Where'er a human heart might be,

Telling a tale, or singing a song,

In praise of the right-in blame of the wrong.

If I were a voice, a consoling voice,
I'd fly on the wings of air,

The homes of sorrow and guilt I'd seek,
And calm and truthful words I'd speak,
To save them from despair.

I'd fly, I'd fly, o'er the crowded town,
And drop, like happy sunlight down,
Into the hearts of suff'ring men,
And teach them to rejoice again.

If I were a voice, a convincing voice,
I'd travel with the wind,
And whene'er I saw the nations torn
By warfare, jealousy, or scorn,
Or hatred of their kind,

I'd fly, I'd fly, on the thunder crash,
And into their blinded bosoms flash;
And all their evil thoughts subdued,
I'd teach them Christian brotherhood.

If I were a voice, a pervading voice,
I'd seek the kings of earth;

I'd find them alone on their beds at night,

And whisper words that should guide them right— Lessons of priceless worth:

I'd fly more swift than the swiftest bird,

And tell them things they never heard,

Truths which the ages for aye repeat,
Unknown to the statesmen at their feet.

If I were a voice, an immortal voice,
I'd speak in the people's ear,
And whenever they shouted" Liberty!"
Without deserving to be free,

I'd make their error clear.

I'd fly, I'd fly, on the wings of day,
Rebuking wrong on my world-wide way,
And making all the earth rejoice-
If I were a voice, an immortal voice.

CHARLES MACKAY.

A WORD OF APPEAL TO OUR AMERICAN

BRETHREN.

I LOOK'D across the waters, o'er the broad Atlantic's

wave,

Where toleration found a home, but tyranny a grave!

I look'd across the waters, for that coming flood of light, Which should cheer the nations onward, in battle for the right.