“The happiest states must yield to thee,
When free from dire corruption’s thrall;
Of land and sea thou’lt Emp’ror be,
And ride triumphant round the ball:
Britannia, unite! Britannia must prevail,
Her powerful hand must guide the scale.”
There is still another parody, also once very famous, contained in the book referred to. The first verse is as follows,—
“When our great Prince, with his choice band,
Arriv’d from o’er the azure main,
Heav’n smil’d with pleasure, with pleasure on the land,
And guardian angels sung this strain:
Go, brave hero; brave hero, boldly go,
And wrest thy scepter from thy foe.”
In letting the parodies die, and in retaining the original song, succeeding generations have manifestly ensured the survival of the fittest. There has perhaps been no time since the Revolutionary War when Americans have listened to Rule Britannia with as sympathetic ears as since the beginning of our war with Spain. The almost universal sympathy expressed for us by all classes in England has served to bring the two nations closer together than a hundred years of ordinary intercourse. Whether or no it brings about the Anglo-American alliance so widely discussed, it has made Rule Britannia a grateful song to patriotic Americans.
OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD VON BISMARCK-SCHÖNHAUSEN