Pasted to album leaf 10: broadside containing "The Protestant Song" (left column) and transcript of "Winchelsea's Address to the Protestants" (right column).

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AWAKE, O ye Protestants, Timely awake,
Our Holy, our Protestant Church is at stake,
The glorious Church which we can't too much prize,
Is Mark'd for destruction by wolves in disguise.

   United and free, let us Protestants be<,>
   Innovations disdaining, our Freedom maintaining,
   We'll stand a wall of fire round our Church and liberty.

   Where's Póó now and W..? link'd hand and hand
With Lib'rals and Rebels the scourge of the land,
The men who stood staunch to our protestant crown
Are with papists conspiring to pull the church down.

   And are Britons such fools ? <S>hall the slaves of the pope
Cram their heathenish creed down an Englishman's throat,
No arise, arise, High Church, sword in hand,
And smite down the locusts that darken the land<.>

   Remember the days of Queen Mary of old,
Our blood at the very remembrance runs cold,
When those who stood firm to the protestant faith
By papists were butchered, or burnt at a stake<.>

   Believe not the traitors, the infidel crew
When they tell you that papists are different now,
The difference is this, (it compared may be)
To a lion chain'd upóand a lion set free.

   In the reign of Queen Bess, as we very well know,
The Armada was sent out true Faith to o'erthrow.
With gibbets, priests<,> relics, chains, faggots, and beads,
To compel us by torture to give up our creed<.>

   But Providence baffled their murderous intents,
He stood by his church....to destruction they went
And now British Freemen and Protestant rise,
And shout Church and King till the sound reach<es> the skies<.>

   O never since King James, in affright fled his place
Did popery shew so unblushing a face,
Arise, arise, high church, sword in hand,
Cut the monster in pieces...she poisons the land.

   'Twas William a standard for Liberty rais'd,
With annual delight be his memory prais'd,
And may George the Fourth, our good protestant King,
Sing 'Lillbullero' till Windsor's halls ring<.>

   Now to Cumberland's name what attachments is due
To Eldon, Newcastle, and Winchelsea too,
Their sweet smelling names shall be free from decay,
When ten generations have passed away<.>

   Now pray Mr. O'Connell, and Gorman Malon<e>,
For God's sake let protestant Britons alone,
Your pains to convert and enslave you may spare,
For we count ourselves much better off as we are<.>

   Should Cóó in parliament show a rogue's face,
Send the papist to Newgateóhe's fit for the place,
And should P... or W... think it severe,
Send them off to Old Nick with a flea in their ear<.>

   While P...<,> papists, Lib'rals, and Arians<,> agree
With the rugged aóó  sages of Stinkomalee
To cry down the churchólet the protestants sing,
Confusion to poperyóGod save the King.

Fellow Countrymen, brother Protestants<,>

In the name of our country & our God I call upon you, without one moment<'>s delay, boldly to stand forward in defence of our Protestant Constitution & Religion of that Constitution which is the foundation of our long cherished libertiesóof that Religion which is the source of the many blessings which this nation has received from the hands of the Almighty Governor of the Universe.
   Let the voice of Protestantism be heard from one end of the Empire to the other. Let the sound of it echo from hill to hill and vale to vale. Let the tables of the Houses of Parliament, groan under the weight of your petitions, and let your prayers reach the foot of the throne, & tho' the great body of your degenerate <s>enators are prepared to sacrifice, at the shrine of treason and rebellion, that constitution for which our ancestors so nobly fought and died, yet I feel confident that our gracious Soverign<.> true to the sacred oath which he has taken upon the alters of our country to defend our Constitution and our religion from that church which is bent upon their destruction, will not turn a deaf ear to the prayers & supplications of his loyal protestant subjects.

         I have the honor to Be
                 With every respect
    Your humble and devoted servant,
        Winchelsea and Nottingham,
 London, Feb. 9, 1829.

Pitts Printer, Toy and Marble Warehouse, 6, Great St. Andrew Street, seven dials. Sold also by F. Challoner, 64. Leman Street. Whitchaple. 

Transcription, annotations and HTML coding by Brett Single.  Pointed brackets mark conjectural readings and emendations.

This ballad responds to the Emancipation Act (1829), which granted to Irish and British Roman Catholics freedoms previously extended only to Anglican Protestants.  The former Anglican Protestant ascendancy in Ireland found itself outnumbered and threatened by Roman Catholic majority.  A literary lashing-out at political events in Ireland, "The Protestant Song" defends the Anglican "High Church" against the imagined threat of a "Papist Conspiracy."  For further commentary see Brett Single, "Celtic History and Politics in The Ballads of Seven Dials."

As an entrepreneur Pitts printed ballads that expressed both sides of the Catholic Emancipation controversy: compare "A New Song on the Catholic Emancipation" (decorated with a matching woodcut).

Michael Hancher
Department of English, University of Minnesota
URL: <http://umn.edu/home/mh/protest.html>
Comments to: mh@umn.edu
Created 19 May 1997
Revised 28 June 1997