“And I had done a hellish thing,
To work the seamen woe;
Thousands of living men through me
To certain death would go,
“So one averred, so all who heard—
The thought my bosom rives—
‘Ah! wretch,’ said they, ‘the Bill to slay
That saves the sailors’ lives—
The Bill that spares a nation’s shame—
Orphans and widowed wives.’”