This is the oldest dated copy I can find. Note: there are some differences, compared to the version attributed to Blanchard & Russell: the lack of repeats; one additional verse, and one less; and a couple of words.

From Puppet Show, No. 10, London: May 20, 1848, page 84:


THE WARNING-BELL.
[no author is given]

I.
The world is on the move,
Look about!
There is much we may improve,
Never doubt;
And for all who understand,
A Warning-Bell at hand
May be heard throughout the land,
Ringing out.

II.
The shadows that are found
We may scorn,
In the sunny rays around
They are born;
And as dawn succeeds to night,
So the rays of Freedom’s light
Turn the darkness of our sight
Into morn!

III.
Though gloomy hearts despond
At the sky,
There’s a sun to shine beyond
By-and-bye.
Ere the vessel that we urge
Shall beneath the surface merge,
A beacon on the verge
Shall be nigh.

IV.
Step by step the longest march
Can be done;
Single stones will form an arch,
One by one;
And with union what we will
Can be all accomplished still—
Drops of water turn a mill—
Singly, none!

V.
Brag and bluster float as froth
O’er the wave;
Gory treason, worse than both,
Fools may rave;
But the honest hands that link
With the solemn heads that think,
And for pikes use—pen and ink.
Are the brave!

VI.
Let us onward then for Right,
Nothing more;
And let Justice be the might
We adore.
Build no hopes upon the sand,
For a People hand-in-hand
Can make this a better land
Than before.