The Reform Demonstration — In Hyde Park, May 6th, 1867
Good people come listen, I’ll tell of a lark,
That happened on Monday, the 6th, in Hyde Park,
For brave Edmund Beales and his friends they did start,
To meet the working men there.
They reached there at six o’clock, gallant and right,
And when in so boldly did shout,
We’re here my brave boys, and we’ll show them this night
We’ll speak, and they shan’t turn us out.
So remember, my boys, ’twas a glorious sight,
In Hyde Park, on the 6th, it was right against might,
With Beales for our leader, we beat them that night,
At last working men they are free.
Now Dickey M—— to his friend Walley said,
If you go to Hyde Park pray mind your poor head,
And I’m sure I expect to be taken home dead,
And for me it will not be a lark.
Now don’t go says Walley, to you I declare,
Against us you know they’ve a spite,
The people mean business, so I shan’t go there,
Not in Hyde Park, on that Monday night.
In busses the Poleaxes hurried along,
And when they arrived they were five thousand strong,
But during the night you couldn’t see one,
Interfere with our friends in Hyde Park.
I heard that one said to his mate, “Bill, I say,
If they have a row, I’ll be off quick,
For I got in a bother the last reform day,
And they measured my head with a brick.”
Now Government frightened on Monday they were,
Some constables special in then they did swear,
Their staffs they did hide, when in the Park there,
They thought that they would have to fight.
One went home enraged, says he, “I’ll have a row—
Since to Hyde Park I’ve been on the march,
I am almost a boiling—we have been I vow,
Like dummies stuck on the Marble Arch.”
So the Franchise for ever, we’ve beat them, hurra!
Long life to brave Beales, and Reformers, I say,
United let’s be, and we’ll yet gain the day,
And always remember Hyde Park.
We do not want SPECIAL duty to be done,
Our rights! it is all that we ask,
To meet with each other when labour is done,
And speak out our minds in the Park.