The League of Labour

Long on the Mountain Summit
We fed the Watch-tire's tlame;
We hailed and beckoned from it
The help that never came!
We heard the distance humming;

With sounds o' the Battle-Drum:
We dreamed the Prince was coming,
And lo! the Prince has come, —
"lis our Enfranchised Neighbour
Who joins the League of Labour
To end our martyrdom.

"We brooded o'er the Story
That bade us Backward turn
To seek a By-gone Glory,
And made our spirits burn:
We tried to sing our Sorrow,
And wail our Woes, away;
We lived but for the Morrow
To free us from To-day.
Now Neighbour joins with Neighbour,
One in the League of Labour
To scare the Birds of Prey.

'Twas not in maiming Cattle,
Nor desolating Homes,
That we could win our battle
By which deliverance comes.
No Tocsin from the Steeple,
No Beacons through the land,
We need, when Honest people
Each other understand,
And Neighbour joins with Neighbour,
One in the League of Labour
As Brothers hand in hand.

" They hardly read a letter! "
So simple are our ends,
We know not any better
Than that we may be friends.

At the new Name of " Brother "
Old feuds grow fugitive!

We have not wronged each other,
We therefore can forgive.

So Neighbour stands by Neighbour,
One in the League of Labour;
One in the right to live.