The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-01 00:00:00

MAY DAY ODE.
(From the Times.)
But yesterday a naked sod,
The dandies sncer< d from Rotten-row,
And cantered o'er it to and fro;
And see, 'tis done!
As though 'twere by a wizard's rod
A blazing arch of lucid glass
Leaps like a fountain from the grass
To meet the sun!
A quiet green but few days since
With cattle browsing in the shade,
And lo! long lines of bright arcade
In order raised;
A palace as for fairy Prince,
A rare pavilion, such as man
Saw never, since mankind began
And built and glezrd!

A peaceful place it was but now,
And lo! within its shining streets
A multitude of nations mews;
A countless throng,
I see beneath the crystal bow,
And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk,
Each with his native h ,ndiwork
Aud busy tongue.
I felt a thrill of love and awe
To mark the different garb of each,
The changing tongue, the va ions speech
Together blent.
A thrill, methinks, like Nis who saw
" All people dwelling upon earth
" Praising our God with solemn mirth
" And one consent."
High Sovereign in your Royal state!
Captains and Chiefs ar.d Councillors,
Before the lofty palace doors
Are open set,
Hush! ere you pass the shining gate;
Hush! ere the heaving curtain draws,
And let the Royal pageant pause
A moment yet.
People and Prince a silence keep!
Bow coronet and kingly crown,
Helmet and plume b )w lowly down;
The while the priest
Before the splendid portal step,
While still the wondrous banquet stays,
From Heaven supreme a blessing prays
Upon the feast!
Then onwards let the triumph march;
Then let the lowd artillery roll,
And trumpets ring and joy bells toll,
And pass the gate;
Pass underneath the shining arch
'Neath which the leafy elms are green—
Ascend unto your throne, 0 Qtr en,
And take your State!
Behold her in her Royal place:
A gentle lady—and the hand
That sways the sceptre of this land
How frail and weak!
Soft is the voice, and fair the face;
She breathes amen to prayer and h 3 ran,
No wonder that her eyes are dim,
And pale her check.
This moment round her empire's shores
The winds of Austral winter sweep,
And thousands lie in midnight sleep
At rest to-day.
0! awful is that crown of yours,
Queen of innumerable reams,
Sitting beneath the budding elms
Of English May !
A wondrous sceptre 'tis to bear,
Strange mystery of God which set
Upon her brow yon coronet,—
The foremost crown
Of all the world on one so fair!
That chose her to it from her birth,
And bade the sons of all the earth
To her bow down.
The representatives of man
Here from the far Antipodes
And from the subject Indian seas
Ist Congress meet;
From Afric and from Hindostan,
From Western continent and isle,
The envoys of her empire pile
Gifts at her feet.
Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides,
Loading the gallant decks which once
Roared a defiance to our guns
With peaceful store;
Symbol of peace, their vessel rides!*
O'er English waves float Star and Stripe,
And firm their friendly anchors gripe
The father shore!
From Rhine and Danube, Rhone and Seine,
As rivers from their sources gush
The swelling floods of nations rush,
And seaward pour:
From coast to coast in friendly chain,
With countless ships we bridge the straits
And angry Ocean separates
Europe no more.
From Mississippi and from Nile—
From Baltic, Ganges, Bosphorus,
In England's Ark assembled thus
Are friend and guest.
Lords down the mighty sunlit aisle,
And see the sumptuous banquet set,
The brotherhood of nations met
Around the feast!
Along the dszzling colonnade,
Far as the straining eye can gaze.
Gleam cross and fountain, bell, and vase,
In vistas br;ght.
And statues fair of nymph and maid,
And steeds, and pards, and Amazons,
Writhing and grappling in the bronze,
Iu endless fight.
To deck the glorious roof and dome,
To make the Queen a canopy,
The peaceful hosts of industry
Their standards bear.
Yon are the works of Brahmin loom;
On such a web of Persian thread
The desert Arab bows his head,
And cries his prayer.
Look yonder where the engines toil;
These England's arms of conquest are,
The trophies of her bloodless war:
Brave weapons these.
Victorious over wave and soil,
With these she sails, she weaves, she tills,
Pierces the everla-ting hills,
And spans the seas.
The engine roars upon its race,
The shuttle whirrs along the woof,
The people hum hos) floor to roof,
With Babel tongue.
The fountain in the basin plays,
The chanting organ echoes clear,
An awful chorus 'tis to hear,
A wondrous song!
Swell organ, swell your trumpet blast,
March, Queen and Royal pageant, march
By splended aisle and springing arch
Of this fair
And see! above the fabric vast,
God's, boundless Heaven is bending blue,
God's peaceful Sun is beaming through
And shining over all.
April 29. W. M. THACKERAY.

* The St. Lawrence.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MARLBOROUGH-.STREET.
A foreign person presented the following note to Mr.
Hardwick:—
" Monsieur le Magistrat, Pere des Malbeureux,—
Vous aurez la borate de pardouner I un infortue6 exile.
Ne pouvant rice avoir de la soc:6 6 6 ant sans travail, et
ne connaissant pas let langue de ee p ,ys, sans chemises
et autres Effets, je me trouve dans une affreuse position.
Ayant oui de votre bont6, je viens vous supplier d'avoir
pit.. 6 de moi En me secourant comma it vous plaira. Dieu
recompeneera votre chari 6 et la reconnoissance sera
eternelle.—Je suis, avec respect,
" JOZEF MIERZEIIIILLL"
Mr. HARDWICK put some questions to the applicant,
and elicited that he had taken refuge in France some
time ago; but. havin,4 got his passport vised for Lyons
about a fortnight ago, as soon as he reached Lyons, he
was placed in the custody of a gendarme, taken to Bou-
logne, and thence compelled to go to England. Being
without work or friends and in a state of utter destitu-
tion, he had written the above note in the hope of ob-
taining some temporary assistance.
Mr. HARDWICK requested the applicant to wait for a
short time, and then sent an officer to the Polish Society
with a message relative to the application.
M. Sulzcewski, the secretary,ma,de his appearance, and
having been informed of the treatm,nt the applicant had
sustained at the hands of the French authorities, said
this was an exceedingly common case. For some time
past it bad been the open practice of the French authori-
ties to clear their country of idle. profligate, or criminal
foreigners by sending them to England. He believed
that not fewer than 800 doubtful characters had been,
within a limited period, sent to this country. This prac-
tice would account for the appearance of the applicant
here, who, though with a passport to Lyons, was com-
pelled, when he got to that cub to leave it and to em-
bark at Boulogne for England. The French Govern-
ment had, doubtless, found out that the applicant was
without visible means of subsistence, and had in the cus-
tomary way provided means for getting him out of
France into England.
Mr. HanDwicx slid it was a monstrous system to
convert England into the Botany Bay of foreign countries.
The Secretary said the practice of sending foreigners
to England was not confined to France. The society bad
ascertained that Polish refugees had been sent from
Hamburgh and from Switzcil ni hither under the same
circumstances. With resp ct to the applicant, it was
certain ho had not bean sent from France merely from
political
causes, and as he had no papers with him, it
would be an almost useless task to apply to the French
Embassy for information.
Mr. HARDWICK considered something ought to be
done to step a system that added materially to the load
of pauperism and crime already imposed upon England.
He hardly knew what step to take in the present case.
If be relieved the applicant, it would only be encoura-
ging others to come to the court, and no real good
would bo done, as the applicant cou'd not exvoi g(t
employment here when every drpsrtment of industry
was overcrowded. If the applicant was allowed to con-
tinue in a state of starvation he might be driven to
crime; and thus .a magistrate hardly. knew what to do ;
under such circumstances. Something effectual, haw.