Lyr Add: The Throne and the Altar

Subject: Lyr Add: THE THRONE AND THE ALTAR
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 12:53 PM

THE THRONE AND THE ALTAR.
Air—"The Burial of Sir John Moore."

Round our fair British Isles leap the surge and the wave
To guard us kind heaven decreed them,
Controll'd by no power which nought can enslave,
Like the waves, we're the true sons of Freedom.
Here dark superstition cannot cast her stings,
Nor show forth her faggot or halter,
But the spirit of freedom sheds light from her wings,
Surrounding the Throne and the Altar.

For famed Magna Charta our nobles have bled—
The shackles of slavery tearing;
And in glory unfading they pass'd to the dead,
The temple of liberty rearing.
And there sits enthron'd Victoria our Queen,
No power on earth dare assault her;
For the wisdom of ages for ever has been
Surrounding the Throne and the Altar.

For our Protestant Faith to the axe were consigned
The martyrs, all virtuous and hoary,
And in blood their pure spirits to heaven resigned,
For the crowns which they now wear in glory.
Contempt on the sword that could slumber in rust—
Shame, shame on the heart that could falter;
Flash forth, if ye need must, ye swords of the just,
Surrounding the Throne and the Altar.


—The Orange Melodist, Original Orange Songs, With Occasional Verses and an Appendix, Containing Copious Explanatory Notes, Brother William Archer, Oldbrige lodge 597 (Dublin: Brother J. Kirkwood, Printer, 13, Upper Ormond-quay, 1852).