Heads UP!

I am discovering that English readers and other English friends have awakened to see the signs of the times. I wonder what the issue was that created this new awareness of what is really happening to the Church there.

It is clear that more English blog readers have come to understand that religious freedoms have and are eroding so fast that we are entering the era of Lord of the World.

Heads are out of the sand. Many Catholics now respond to the reality of the crises both in the Church and in the secular government of Great Britain. I sincerely pray for heroes and saints on that side of the pond.

Pray for England. Pray for America. I shall post later today.

From Universalis...Two Great Martyrs for Today

Philip Evans was born in Monmouth, 1645, and was educated at St Omer where he joined the Society of Jesus. After ordination he was sent to South Wales to work. Despite the official anti-Catholic policy he was left alone for some years by the local officials. In 1678 in the wake of the so-called ‘Popish Plot’ he was taken prisoner, £200 (then a huge sum of money) having been offered as a reward for his arrest. He refused to take the Oath of Allegiance and was kept in Cardiff Castle. He was not put on trial for several months because, it is said, no one could be found to testify against him.

  John Lloyd was a Welshman, born in Brecon about the year 1630. He studied for the priesthood in Valladolid, Spain and then returned to Wales where he ministered as a diocesan priest for over twenty years without any recorded problems. Following the ‘Popish Plot’ of Titus Oates, Lloyd was arrested in Glamorgan and charged with having said Mass at Llantilio, Penrhos, and Trievor. He was imprisoned at Cardiff Castle with Philip Evans. They were tried together and were both condemned for their priesthood. They were hanged, drawn, and quartered together on 22 July, 1679 on Gallows Field in Cardiff. Philip Evans spoke at some length to the crowd in both English and Welsh. In the course of his speech he said: “I die for God and religion’s sake; and I think myself so happy that if I had many lives I would willingly give them all for so great a cause.” His companion John Lloyd said very little: “I never was a good speaker in my life”, but that he died in “the true Catholic and Apostolic faith”

Repost for Good Friday

Thursday, 11 April 2013

NO MORE HIDING PLACES?: On Being a Recusant Catholic or Conscientious Christian from Another Denomination in 2013

Posted by Supertradmum

Where are the hiding places? 

LifeSiteNews in the article I just noted in the last post, also refers to two other cases where those who have had religious convictions against gay marriage have been persecuted. Fines are persecutions. Ask the descendants of the once wealthy Recusant families in England. 

However many families, including the Mores, the Ropers, the Throckmortons, the Selbys, the Bounts, the Arundels (for centuries), and perhaps even the Shakespeares were fined over and over and over. From 1581, one sees this in the annals. Many families fled to France. Some were torn to pieces as sides were taken, such as in the Throckmorton Family. Some came to the States and Canada, such as the family noted below in the note. There are few, if any, hiding places NOW.

Recusancy. After 1581, recusancy became an indictable offence, so recusants often appear in quarter sessions records and the fines levied were recorded in the pipe rolls. After 1592 a separate series of rolls, the recusant rolls was created for this purpose which continues until 1691. The pipe rolls also contain the accounts of fines and forfeitures of lands collected under the recusancy acts. Pipe and recusancy rolls are available for viewing at TNA. In 1581, the fine for missing an Anglican service was raised to twenty pounds per month. Also, in that year, a treasonable offence resulting in death was committed by anyone converting to Catholicism or attempting to convert others to the religion. In addition, a fine of 100 marks and a year in prison was imposed on those hearing mass. The details of criminal proceeding and fines levied should be contained within quarter session records. An Act of 1581 also forbade the Catholic education of children. Notice the last sentence. Parents were no longer allowed to raise their children in the Catholic Faith. Are you paying attention? More on the flower fines from another angle. FromLifeSiteNews. There are more links. The combination of legalizing same-sex “marriage” and odious “anti-discrimination” laws have faithful Christians saying their freedom of religion is being violated. And the court cases are piling up. An appeals court in New Mexico found a Christian couple, Elaine and Jonathan Huguenin, guilty of “discrimination” for refusing to photograph a homosexual “wedding.” They were ordered to pay more than $6,600 in fines after denying their services. Canadian homosexual activists demanded “born again Christian” florist Kimberly Evans of New Brunswick be taken to court for refusing to sell flowers for a gay “wedding.” Victoria Childress of Des Moines also faced threats of legal action for refusing to bake a cake for a homosexual ceremony on the grounds that it violated her Christian faith. More on the Recusancy Laws can be found here. I have taken a few of the laws and copied these. 1592 The first separate recusant rolls were compiled consisting mainly of Catholics and lasted up to 1691 (previously recusancy was recorded in the pipe rolls). The rolls recorded the punishments and fines of those who refused to conform to the Anglican doctrine. Memoranda Rolls 1217-1835: includes records of seizure of recusants' lands. 1593 Catholics were obliged to obtain permission to travel beyond five miles from their homes and those absent from home for more than three months were to leave the country. Another Act of the same year ordered that people of the age of 16 who refused to attend an Anglican service were to be imprisoned. Catholics had to worship in isolated places 1606 The Oath of Allegiance was introduced, denying the authority of the Pope and those that refused to swear the oath were liable to be imprisoned. Convicted recusants were ordered to receive Anglican communion once a year or face a fine or seizure of their property. Recusants were also barred from office and professions including the military. Informers were paid £50 for revealing a priest saying mass or persons attending mass. All the restrictions applied to a Protestant who married a Catholic wife. 1625 Catholics forced to pay a double rate of taxation. Tax records can be found in Lay Subsidy Rolls and Catholics and other nonconformists should be recognisable as they paid a double rate. 1661 Clarendon Code 1661-1665. Four Acts passed designed to emasculate the power of nonconformists. Corporation Act. (1661). Catholics and other nonconformists were excluded from official posts unless they took the sacrament of holy communion at an Anglican service. 1662 Act of Conformity. The Act excluded Catholics from holding church office. 1662 Conventicle Act. Made meetings for Catholic and nonconformist worship illegal, even in private houses, where more than four outsiders were present 1665 The Five-Mile Act. Nonconformist and Catholic ministers were forbidden to live or visit within five miles of a town or any other place where they had preached. 1672 Declaration of Indulgence. The Penal Laws against Catholics were relaxed. 1673 Test Act. The strength of anti-Catholic feeling led parliament to order the enforcement of the recusancy laws and pass the Test Act in retaliation against the Declaration of Indulgence. The Act required all those taking up an official post, civil or military, to take the oath and to submit a sacrament certificate that they had taken Anglican communion. Between 1689 and 1702, the requirement to take the oaths and test was extended to beneficed clergy, members of the universities, lawyers, schoolteachers and preachers. The declarations can be found in TNA. 1676 A proclamation ordered a survey of every recusant aged 16 and over. The names were handed to the local Justice of the Peace who called on those named to take the oath or be jailed. 1678 The Popish Plot. A fictitious plot made up by Titus Oates which alleged that Catholics were planning to assassinate King Charles II and bring the Catholic Duke of York to the throne. Estreats Rolls held at TNA hold information on fines imposed on Catholics following the alleged plot. The Estreats Rolls contain valuable genealogical information on those accused of recusancy in the local courts. They will include the recusant's name, parish, rank or occupation and the fine levied. http://hutchinsonfamilyhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/hutchinson-family-were-catholic.html 1689 The Bill of Rights excluded Catholics from the royal succession. New oaths of supremacy and allegiance were passed and measures were introduced to restrict the freedom of movement of Catholics. The Toleration Act of 1689 eased some restrictions, but the specific acts under the Clarendon Code were not repealed until the 19th century. 1692 Following the double rate of taxation Catholics were forced to pay in 1625, Catholics were obliged to pay double land tax. Catholics and other nonconformist entries should be recognisable amongst the land tax records as they paid double the rate of others. 1699 Recusants were barred from purchasing or inheriting land and any Catholics found practicing their religion could be jailed for life. 1702 The Security of Succession Act. The Act introduced an oath whereby all officials had to deny the right of the son of the exiled James II to succeed to the throne. Some returns of Catholics taking oaths are held by TNA as well as certificates of those who refused to take the oath. 1714 Security of the Sovereign Act. TNA holds certificates of those who refused to take the oath. 1715 Catholics were blamed collectively for the Jacobite rebellion. As a result, everyone over the age of 18 was compelled to swear an Oath of Allegiance. Lists of those who refused to take the oath are normally available at county record offices. 1716 Catholics were required to enrol documents such as wills and conveyances that involved the transfer of property and details can be found in close rolls held by TNA. 1723 Following the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, Catholics refusing to take the oaths of loyalty were required to register their names and estates at quarter sessions or face the seizure of their property. The returns describe the estates in detail, giving precise locations and dimensions of lands. The Forfeited Estates Commission was responsible for overseeing the seizure of the estates and details can be found in the close rolls held at TNA. Resucant Thomas Throckmorton's Tomb

Mea Culpa, Nicholas Owen

I missed an important feast day last week as it fell on a Sunday.

St. Nicholas Owen is one of my personal patrons. He is the famous priest-hole maker of the English persecution of priests and he himself was horribly tortured to death.

"Staircase with a Priest Hole In Havrington Hall-Worcestershire-UK-1" by Quodvultdeus - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

I have chosen him as one of my many favorites for several reasons.

1. He is an English martyr.
2. He is a Jesuit
3. He was practical and used his talents for good.
4. He gave himself up to save trying to save Father Garnet.
5. He is not well-known.

I hope he forgives my oversight and intercedes for me, as I am in a bit of a "hiding place" myself.

St. Nicholas Owen, pray for me, pray for us.

A most difficult year coming to an end...

We all have what we can call the annus horribilis, the worst year, or one of the worst years of our lives.

Perhaps it was the year one lost a spouse to an unwanted divorce or to death,

Perhaps it was the year one lost a child to death.

Perhaps it was a year when one lost a job, a home, status.

Perhaps it was a year one had cancer and operations.

This past year has been one of the most difficult in my life as I did not see my son for fifteen months until this past short holiday. Not seeing one's child for any length of time, not knowing when one will see that child again, not being able to share birthdays, or special days must be one of the worst sufferings a mum can experience. One just carries suffering around in one's soul, quietly, until it carves out a place for God to come and stay. But, consolations do not necessarily come with God's Presence.

One gives one's children to God and then lets God take them wherever and whenever He chooses. We raise our children to be virtuous and mature adults and let them go do what God created them to do.

My son belongs to God, Mary and the Church, not me. But, I wish I could live in the same country as he does. Please continue to pray for that miracle, and that I do not lose confidence that God wants me in Auld Blighty. One walks in darkness while faith, hope and charity bring one to the fullness of God's plan.

Feast Day of Thomas a Becket

Tomorrow is the feast day of Thomas a Becket. Those of us in the modern world do not appreciate that his shrine was one of the largest and most popular pilgrimage destinations in Europe until Henry VIII ruined it.

The shrine appealed to all those who saw the tensions between Church and State as realities, and that Thomas represented the true hierarchy of Church over State.

The Church has the right and duty to not only educate those who work for the State, but to actually help form the basis for State government.

This simple fact has been lost by the Protestant emphasis on the separation of Church and State, a false teaching meant to diminish the authority of the Church in government, politics, the economy and society in general.

How common but how silly it is to think that man is only material, and without a soul. All laws and customs of a State must be built on this fact-that the goal of life is heaven, not earth.

Becket's life and death remind us that we need to make choices daily which include the realization that we are not dualistic beings, but persons with spiritual and physical needs. Becket reminds us that the Church is first and States are second in the hierarchy of truth, morals, virtues, and organization.

The City of God dwells within the City of Man, but sadly, too many people, including clerics, have wanted the Church to serve the State instead of having the State protect the Church.

That is the duty of a true State-to protect God's one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church from Her enemies. Becket points to the sad truth that too often the State persecutes the Church.

It is easy to see why the shrine at Canterbury was one of the first to be destroyed by the very king who took the Church and crushed it in order to make a new one, a false one, totally under the power of the State.

Becket's tomb and shrine would have been a constant reminder of Henry's sins and his taking authority away from the Pope and clergy.

So, the shrine, the tomb, the relics had to go.

Many years ago, I was at the Venerabile in Rome for this feast day. The Anglican cleric in charge of keeping the skull of Becket at the Anglican parish in Rome brought the glass casket to the seminary for all of us to venerate. I remember as if it were yesterday going up to the altar and looking at the skull with the mark of the broad sword, and kissing the glass case.

Honor Becket. His presence in the Church Victorious will be more and more a sign for us in the time to come.

Community AGAIN

As my regular readers know, I keep writing, "This is my last post on community",

Well, here is another  "last " one.

An interesting discussion with my seminarian son revealed that he thinks one of the biggest problems in Great Britain in the Catholic Church is individualistic faith. He thinks that one of the reasons why priests are so worn out and that the Church is not thriving has to do with individual people not seeing that the Church is community and needs to be built up into an extended family.

No one seems to be working on that problem in GB. Now, we all know the English characteristic of being very independent, which is a good thing, but this emphasis and reticence to do things together undermines Catholic community.

Many, many years ago, when I was still single and working as a "lay chaplain" with university students in England, I met with Americans who had come from Ann Arbor's great community to try and set up something similar in Chiswick. The efforts all failed. In discussions with those who came over to do this, I learned that the British just did not want Church-based communities.

There could be many reasons for this, including these facts. The first problem would be a recusant mentality left over from the horrible Henrician and Elizabethan persecutions. In other words, Catholics learned to hide, live low-key religious lives, and not draw attention to Catholicism.

A second reason would be the problem with immigrants not banding together as Catholics, as they did in the States. Irish Catholics and English Catholics still have very different models of Church in their souls and do not practice their religion in the same manner. This is more noticeable in some areas in the northern part of GB, and in the "deep south".

A third problem is the gross secular attitudes of many British Catholics. Their social lives have not centered on the Church, as in the States, where, especially in the South and Midwest, the Church was the center of all life, social and private. For some reason, social life in many Catholic areas either never includes Catholic social activities, or very few. The common Church fete is one thing which persists, and maybe a carol service at this time of year. but not the continued weekly getting together of various groups.

A fourth ingredient for failure would be that lay people in England rarely start anything on their own, waiting for a priest to begin projects. This is sad and an indication of a lack of the adult appropriation of the Faith.

A fifth problem is that families, strong Catholic ones, are usually the core of communal Catholic life. Where there are no or few such families, community most likely will not spring up.

I remember going to a Legion of Mary meeting in a huge London parish in 2012. Only six people showed up. I was surprised. This type of grouping seems not to attract the British. Even pro-life groups are small in comparison with the numbers of people in the parishes. The Guild of Titus Brandsma has a very difficult time meeting. Religion is not a priority in some areas of GB.

Maybe Americans are just "joiners" and the British are not so. But, community must happen in England if the Church is to survive. One is never a Catholic in a vacuum. This has never been part of the heritage of Catholicism, nor the way Christ set up His Church. He started with twelve men, and that expanded to 70 disciples and then more and more.

That a young seminarian can see the real need for community is a good start, as when he is a priest, he can work towards this goal. But, people in the pew must want community, must see the need for it.

The group I am friends with here in Malta has been, for four visits, the Magnificat group. This resource builds excellent community, albeit on a small level. In 2012, I wanted to start such a group when I was in England, but could not get any women, but one, interested. See the problem?

British Catholicism will remain weak and even disappear in some areas because of the lack of community. God did not intend for Christians to live in separated lifestyles, going to Mass on Sunday and then, going home and not interacting during the week in any way at all. This model is not one which has been traditional. And, with the death of Christendom, local communities are even more important.

My friends in England know the importance of community, but it takes more than one person, here or there, to create the links needed. Those in the Church are lacking a common vision, a common goal for community.

I can say for sure that false seers, false prophets and unorthodox charismatics in England have ruined broad-based community efforts in many, many places. When people are disobedient to Rome, there is no grace to work together. Sadly, in more than one place I have been for some time, there are too many people following New Age or even condemned seers.

God will not bless such groups and they usually end up either falling apart, leaving the Church entirely, or falling into serious sins.

However, those phenomena are not the only reason for the lack of community in GB. How interesting that my conversation in London, in 1987 and my conversation in Malta in 2014 concern the same, huge and desperate need for Catholic community in GB. Over 27 years, nothing has changed. Perhaps, the Church is GB is destined to be very, very, very, biblically small.

Writers on Writing

Now, I did teach some of G.K.Chesterton's essays when I taught at university a long time ago, but I never wanted to imitate his great and unique style. Writers have to cope with many issues when writing, and style is part of both training and temperament.

I want to share a short section from his book on Twelve Types. Many of you will know this book already. This section is about Robert Lewis Stevenson, who I consider a truly great writer.

Stevenson’s new biographer, however, cannot make any allowance for this deep-rooted poetry of mere sight and touch.  He is always imputing something to Stevenson as a crime which Stevenson really professed as an object.  He says of that glorious riot of horror, ‘The Destroying Angel,’ in ‘The Dynamiter,’ that it is ’highly fantastic and putting a strain on our credulity.’  This is rather like describing the travels of Baron Munchausen as ‘unconvincing.’  The whole story of ‘The Dynamiter’ is a kind of humorous nightmare, and even in that story ’The Destroying Angel’ is supposed to be an extravagant lie made up on the spur of the moment.  It is a dream within a dream, and to accuse it of improbability is like accusing the sky of being blue.  But Mr Baildon, whether from hasty reading or natural difference of taste, cannot in the least comprehend the rich and romantic irony of Stevenson’s London stories.  He actually says of that portentous monument of humour, Prince Florizel of Bohemia, that, ’though evidently admired by his creator, he is to me on the whole rather an irritating presence.’  From this we are almost driven to believe (though desperately and against our will) that Mr Baildon thinks that Prince Florizel is to be taken seriously, as if he were a man in real life.  For ourselves, Prince Florizel is almost our favourite character in fiction; but we willingly add the proviso that if we met him in real life we should kill him.

The fact is, that the whole mass of Stevenson’s spiritual and intellectual virtues have been partly frustrated by one additional virtue-that of artistic dexterity.  If he had chalked up his great message on a wall, like Walt Whitman, in large and straggling letters, it would have startled men like a blasphemy.  But he wrote his light-headed paradoxes in so flowing a copy-book hand that everyone supposed they must be copy-book sentiments.  He suffered from his versatility, not, as is loosely said, by not doing every department well enough, but by doing every department too well.  As child, cockney, pirate, or Puritan, his disguises were so good that most people could not see the same man under all.  It is an unjust fact that if a man can play the fiddle, give legal opinions, and black boots just tolerably, he is called an Admirable Crichton, but if he does all three thoroughly well, he is apt to be regarded, in the several departments, as a common fiddler, a common lawyer, and a common boot-black.  This is what has happened in the case of Stevenson.  If ‘Dr Jekyll,’ ’The Master of Ballantrae,’ ‘The Child’s Garden of Verses,’ and ‘Across the Plains’ had been each of them one shade less perfectly done than they were, everyone would have seen that they were all parts of the same message; but by succeeding in the proverbial miracle of being in five places at once, he has naturally convinced others that he was five different people.  But the real message of Stevenson was as simple as that of Mahomet, as moral as that of Dante, as confident as that of Whitman, and as practical as that of James Watt.

The conception which unites the whole varied work of Stevenson was that romance, or the vision of the possibilities of things, was far more important than mere occurrences:  that one was the soul of our life, the other the body, and that the soul was the precious thing.  The germ of all his stories lies in the idea that every landscape or scrap of scenery has a soul:  and that soul is a story.  Standing before a stunted orchard with a broken stone wall, we may know as a mere fact that no one has been through it but an elderly female cook.  But everything exists in the human soul:  that orchard grows in our own brain, and there it is the shrine and theatre of some strange chance between a girl and a ragged poet and a mad farmer.  Stevenson stands for the conception that ideas are the real incidents:  that our fancies are our adventures.  To think of a cow with wings is essentially to have met one.  And this is the reason for his wide diversities of narrative:  he had to make one story as rich as a ruby sunset, another as grey as a hoary monolith:  for the story was the soul, or rather the meaning, of the bodily vision.  It is quite inappropriate to judge ‘The Teller of Tales’ (as the Samoans called him) by the particular novels he wrote, as one would judge Mr George Moore by ‘Esther Waters.’  These novels were only the two or three of his soul’s adventures that he happened to tell.  But he died with a thousand stories in his heart.

Doctors of The Church for September: Gregory the Great

Gregory the Great is called "The Apostle to the English" as he sent the missionaries from the Benedictines, which began the great monastery at Canterbury.

Of course, this wonderful Doctor of the Church gives his name to Gregorian Chant.

What better tribute today than an English choir singing Gregorian Chant.

The Churches of St. Agatha

St. Agatha is one of my personal patrons for three reasons. The first one is that I am a breast-cancer survivor. The second reason is that she visited Malta and the third is that there is a sweet little North Yorkshire church named after her as well.

St. Agatha came from Sicily, but when persecution started, she took refuge in Rabat with some friends, where I was in October. The Crypt of St. Agatha remains one reason I need to go back to Malta. That Agatha prayed in Malta brings me closer to this young saint.

She left the small island and returned to Sicily only to be tortured and killed on February 5th, 251 in the persecution of Decius. It is a great mystery of evil that this young girl was so horribly tortured.

The catacombs in Rabat and the altar to St. Agatha date back at least to the 4th century. Sadly, I did not get to see her altar and catacombs, but I did see the famous St. Paul Catacombs.

Thanks to wikimedia

For a small virtual tour of the Catacombs of St. Agatha, check this out. http://stagathamalta.com/crypt.html  St. Agatha's Church may be seen here on the left.












Another place where Agatha is honored is in Yorkshire. In Easby, Richmondshire, one can see wall paintings in the Anglican Church from medieval times.

Thanks to wikimedia

The 12th century church is still used but the Abbey was destroyed by Henry VIII. Apparently, the little church is a popular venue for Anglican weddings. I am sure St. Agatha smiles at the good Christian brides who go there if they stop and think of her on their "big" day.

I love Yorkshire and the melancholy abbey ruins which dot the dales. God willing, I shall walk to St. Agatha's, Easby myself some day.

The Secret People by Chesterton

The Secret People

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget,
For we are the people of England, that never has spoken yet.
There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully,
There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we.
There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise.
There is hunger in our bellies, there is laughter in our eyes;
You laugh at us and love us, both mugs and eyes are wet:
Only you do not know us. For we have not spoken yet.

The fine French kings came over in a flutter of flags and dames.
We liked their smiles and battles, but we never could say their names.
The blood ran red to Bosworth and the high French lords went down;
There was naught but a naked people under a naked crown.
And the eyes of the King's Servants turned terribly every way,
And the gold of the King's Servants rose higher every day.
They burnt the homes of the shaven men, that had been quaint and kind,
Till there was no bed in a monk's house, nor food that man could find.
The inns of God where no man paid, that were the wall of the weak,
The King's Servants ate them all. And still we did not speak.

And the face of the King's Servants grew greater than the King:
He tricked them, and they trapped him, and stood round him in a ring.
The new grave lords closed round him, that had eaten the abbey's fruits,
And the men of the new religion, with their Bibles in their boots,
We saw their shoulders moving, to menace or discuss,
And some were pure and some were vile; but none took heed of us.
We saw the King as they killed him, and his face was proud and pale;
And a few men talked of freedom, while England talked of ale.

A war that we understood not came over the world and woke
Americans, Frenchmen, Irish; but we knew not the things they spoke.
They talked about rights and nature and peace and the people's reign:
And the squires, our masters, bade us fight; and never scorned us again.
Weak if we be for ever, could none condemn us then;
Men called us serfs and drudges; men knew that we were men.
In foam and flame at Trafalgar, on Albuera plains,
We did and died like lions, to keep ourselves in chains,
We lay in living ruins; firing and fearing not
The strange fierce face of the Frenchman who knew for what he fought,
And the man who seemed to be more than man we strained against and broke;
And we broke our own rights with him. And still we never spoke.

Our path of glory ended; we never heard guns again.
But the squire seemed struck in the saddle; he was foolish, as if in pain.
He leaned on a staggering lawyer, he clutched a cringing Jew,
He was stricken; it may be, after all, he was stricken at Waterloo.
Or perhaps the shades of the shaven men, whose spoil is in his house,
Come back in shining shapes at last to spoil his last carouse:
We only know the last sad squires ride slowly towards the sea,
And a new people takes the land: and still it is not we.

They have given us into the hands of the new unhappy lords,
Lords without anger and honour, who dare not carry their swords.
They fight by shuffling papers; they have bright dead alien eyes;
They look at our labour and laughter as a tired man looks at flies.
And the load of their loveless pity is worse than the ancient wrongs,
Their doors are shut in the evenings; and they know no songs.

We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.
It may be we shall rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,
Our wrath come after Russia's wrath and our wrath be the worst.
It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest
God's scorn for all men governing. It may be beer is best.
But we are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet.
Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.

G.K. CHESTERTON