BALLAD DIALOGUES, No. IL 1. "Why, Tom I hear you're

thinking of running from the mill, And of leading off the rest until all my works are still ? I wonder where you'll get your eighteen shillings wages, If silver does not drop from the mouths of your new sages?"

2."Yes, Sir, it's true I'm going, from no dislike to you, But only that all rich men are one bloodthirsty crew; They drive their carriage-wheels upon the workmen's bellies, And boil our children's bones to make transparent jellies."

3. "We]], Tom, that sounds atrocious; but I hardly think it's true : My coach-wheel turns your brain, and my kitchen makes you stew. But if you spend your money as suits yourself and Molly, Why shouldn't my wife have horses and I sometimes be jolly?"

4. " Ab, Sir, it's easy talking—but that 'ere money's mine; I earn it and spend it, and no one can repine. I'm for the Rights of Labour; but some, whose work is sport, Yet live in wealth and splendour, like you at Cotton Court.

5. "No, Tom; you're not for labour, nor any rights at all, But that of talking nonsense as loud as you can bawl: And all the right you brag of, that puts you in a fret, Is the right of taking wrongly whatever you can get."

6. "Ay, Sir, that's all the cant that is uttered by rich people, As dull and high and gaudy as the cock upon the steeple. From mouths of guns and pistols your arguments you rattle ; But, judged by Common Sense, I know who'd gain the battle."

"Well, Tom, I own in all men there is a common sense, That approves of what is honest, and that kicks through all pretence; And this decides most clearly, that on the Rights of Labour The rich man rests as safely as does his poorest neighbour."

8. a Good Sir' fine words cost little; but when I see the men Who are always shooting pheasants, and poachers now and then, Can you maintain the Rights of Labour are concerned In giving them the riches that it's clear they never earned?"

9. "Why, Tom, if, for a wonder, you left off drinking gin, And hoarded up five pounds—as you may if you begin— To whom would go the money, provided some fine morning You were hoisted in the air to give your friends a warning?"

10. "Well, Sir, in case one dies, the children get one's leavings— Unless you rich men take them among your other thievings: And there's my little Sam, the only one I have, I wish he might have something when I am in the grave."

11. "Yes, Tom, I know the urchin; there's not one in the town That looks as if he'd sooner get rid of half-a-crown. But pray, if Master Sam had inherited your pelf, Would Labour's Rights protect what he had not earned himself ? "

12. "Yes, Sir, of course: what's fairer than that the son should use When his father's in the grave the old man's left-off shoes? Ay, there's your rich men's justice, that an orphan must not gather The wild fruit from the brambles that shade his buried father!"

13. "Well, Tom, no doubt it's hard ; and so with you I think, From the well a father dug his children ought to drink: And so the Rights of Labour, our weavings and our spinning's, Are warrant that a son should enjoy his parent's winnings."

14. "Ay, Sir, but Wealth's oppressions and artificial laws In Nature's finest muslin for ever find out flaws. It is only wrong like this that could shamelessly despoil A man', own flesh and blood of the produce of his toil.'

15. "Well, Tom, that's just my notion ; and so you see, my friend, That Common Sense has brought our difference to an end. It was my father's labour that earned me all my riches ; And yet you think your leg has a right to halt' his breeches !"

16. "So, Sir—I own at first that makes me scratch my head ; And yet, when I consider, there's as good as nothing said : For where would be the worth of all your father's gettings, But for us working-men, that enrich you by our sweatings ? "

17. "Yes, Tom, it's true my mill, its engine, and its jennies, Require the toil of others, or my pounds would turn to pennies : But if the beans want bacon so the bacon wants the beans ; And if machines need workmen, so the workmen need machines."

18. Well, Sir, that's very true ; but if the mills were ours, Somehow I think our nettles would soon be turned to flowers. For each of you, the laughers, there are full five hundred groaners, Who know they want the mills, but see no need of owners."

19. "Ay, Tom, that's Rights of Labour, from your new teachers learned, To rob my father's son of what his labour earned : And though 1 much lament what the working-men endure, Yet he's the Friend to Labour who makes its gain secure."