My sweet rosy Nan is a true British wife,
And loves her dear Jack, as she loves her own life;
Yet she girds on my sword, and smiles while I glow,
To meet the proud French, and to lay their heads low,
And chants ’tween each buss, while the notes loudly ring,
My Jack, art thou ready?
Steady, boy, steady,
Go fight for thy Liberty, Laws, and thy King.
And Ned, my brave Lad, with a true British heart,
Has forsaken his plough, has forsaken his cart;
E’en Dolly has quitted, to dig in a trench,
All, all, for the sake of a cut at the French;
While he sings all day long, let the notes loudly ring,
I’m ready, I’m ready!
Steady, boy, steady,
To fight for my Liberty, Laws, and my King.
Away then, my boys! haste away to the shore,
Our foes, the base French, boast they’re straight coming o’er,
To murder, and plunder, and ravish, and burn—
They may come,—but, by Jove, they shall never return;
For around all our shores, hark! the notes loudly ring,
United, we’re ready,
Steady, boys, steady,
To fight for our Liberty, Laws, and our King.
‘The Final Pacification of Europe’ (artist unknown, June 1803) shews that this desirable thing could only be accomplished by the death of Napoleon—so he is represented as being suspended from a gallows, whilst postboys, duly equipped with horns, and dressed in their different national garbs, are shouting, ‘Good News for Russia, Prussia, Old England, Germany, and Switzerland.’ Holland is excessively joyful: Mynheer calling out, ‘Good news for Holland, ti-lol-de-riddle-lol.’
A very amusing caricature is ‘Green Spectacles, or Consular Goggles’ (artist unknown, June 1803), where Napoleon is represented as sitting on a rock called Usurped Power, and wearing an enormous pair of green goggles labelled ‘Green eyed Jealousy,’ through which he darts envious glances at Great Britain, West Indies, East Indies, Malta, and Egypt.
CHAPTER XXIX.
PATRIOTIC HANDBILLS, ETC.