Believe it or not, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, composing his oratorio
"Dona Nobis Pacem,"
included in the texts for his music
not only the Bible and Walt Whitman,
but the celebrated speech -- a quote from it, anyhow --
given by John Bright to Parliament
on 23 February, 1855.

For those ignorant of the speech, the subject was the Crimean War.
No doubt there are links to the speech,
in part or in whole, online.
This post will submit the quote most often excerpted,
including those few lines
set to music by Vaughan-Williams in "Dona Nobis Pacem."


... I cannot but notice,
in speaking to Gentlemen who sit on either side of this House,
or in speaking to any one I meet
between this House and any of those localities we frequent when this House is up --
I cannot, I say, but notice that
an uneasy feeling exists
as to the news which may arrive
by the very next mail from the East.

I do not suppose
that your troops are to be beaten in actual conflict with the foe,
or that they will be driven into the sea;
but I am certain that
many homes in England
in which there now exists
a fond hope that the distant one may return --
many such homes may be rendered desolate
when the next mail shall arrive.

The Angel of Death has been abroad throughout the land;
you may almost hear the beating of his wings.
There is no one,
as when the first-born were slain of old,
to sprinkle with blood
the lintel and the two side-posts of our doors,
that he may spare and pass on.
He takes his victims from the castle of the noble,
the mansion of the wealthy,
and the cottage of the poor and lowly,
and it is on behalf of all these classes
that I make this solemn appeal . . .


In "Dona Nobis Pacem,"
Vaughan-Williams assigns the bolded lines to a baritone soloist.