A New Song a New Song on the Times
Come old and young and rich and poor,
And listen to our song,
I’ll give to you some good advice,
And will not keep you long:
If you have one shilling to spend,
Go down to Mr Ward,
And there you’ll get three pounds of beef,
That’s just come from abroad.
CHORUS.
So there never was such doings in Old England before.
Now beef has come to fourpence a pound,
It’s a pity you should want,
Folks talk about America!
But don’t you Emigrate.
But stop at home in England,
If you’ve any work at all,
For provisions will be cheap,
If wages be but small.
The Butchers now they may give o’er,
Selling their stinking meat,
For there’s many a hundred weight been sold
That never was fit to eat;
And now when you do walk the street,
If you should happen to turn your eye,
It’s how-do-you-do? good morning, man,
As you are passing by.
There were hundreds in this country
O! ’tis true what I do tell,
That could not get a pound of meat,
Or hardly get a smell;
But since the Tariff Bill is pass’d,
Many hundreds will be fed,
With plenty of good pork and beef,
And likewise good cheap bread.
Now beef and mutton has come down,
And so is pork and flour too,
Which is what this country wanted,
A many years ago;
The cutlers now may go to work,
And grind away like bricks,
For now we’ll carve with knives and forks,
Instead of porridge sticks.
The farmers do not like those laws,
From what I’ve heard them say,
Because the corn will be so cheap,
And so will straw and hay,
If you buy a pennyworth of eggs,
You will get three or four,
And as for churning butter,
Why they say they’ll soon give o’er.
So to conclude and make an end,
And finish up my lines,
The poor will find in England
A difference in the times,
For work it will be plentiful.
And provisions will be low,
And that is what a poor man wants,
Wherever he does go.