The Mill-hand's Petition.
We take extracts from a song by some “W.C.,” printed as a street broadside at Ashton-Under-Lyne, and sung in most towns of South Lancashire:-
We have come to ask for assistance;
At home we've been starving too long;
An' our children are wanting subsistence;
Kindly aid us to help them along.
CHORUS.
For humanity is calling;
Don't let the call be in vain;
But help us; we're needy and falling;
And God will return it again.
War's clamour and civil commotion
Has stagnation brought in its train;
And stoppage brings with it starvation,
So help us some bread to obtain.
The American war is still lasting;
Like a terrible nightmare it leans
On the breast of a country, now fasting
For cotton, for work, and for means.
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