As to the Polar star they turn
Who brave a pathless sea:
So the oppressed in secret yearn,
Dear native land, for thee!
How many loving memories throng
Round Britain's stormy coast!
Renowned in story and in song,
Her glory is our boast.
With loyal hearts we still abide
Beneath her sheltering wing,—
While with true patriot love and pride,
To Canada we cling.
We wear no haughty tyrant's chain,—
We bend no servile knee,
When to the Mistress of the main
We pledge our fealty.
She binds us with the cords of love,—
All others we disown;
The rights we owe to God above,
We yield to him alone.
May He our future course direct
By his unerring hand;
Our laws and liberties protect,
And bless our native land.
THE APPEAL.
[It will be remembered that 1861 closed with an alarming prospect of war between England and the United States, growing partly out of the arrest of Mason and Slidell on board the British steamship Trent. Of course had war been declared Canada would have been involved. On Christmas of that year therefore Miss JOHNSON wrote this appeal, which was published in a Canadian paper.]
To prayer! to prayer! O ye who love
Your country's peace, your country's weal,
To Him who rules supreme above,
In this dark hour of peril kneel.
To prayer! to prayer! before the cry
"To arms!" shall make your spirit quake,—
And ere ye dream of danger nigh
The dark portentous war-cloud break.
So long hath Peace o'er hill and vale
Waved her white banner to the breeze,
We thought her smiles would never fail,
And only heard from o'er the seas
The murmur of an angry host,
The clang of arms, the cannon's roar,—
How false our hope! how vain our boast!
War threatens our beloved shore.