Address to the Great

To the Editor of the Lewes Journal,

Sir,

If you give the following a Place in your useful Paper, you’ll oblige your constant Reader and Customer,

Senius.
1 If I by Pen, or Counsel could
2 Contribute ought unto
3 The Nation’s good, I gladly would
4 A Work like that pursue:
5 But what, alas! will it avail,
6 What I can do or say,
7 My wish’d for End must surely fail,
8 While int’rest bears the Sway.
9 While Men of Rank, and Incomes great,
10 Have int’rest so in View;
11 Who have in yonder House a Seat,
12 Like Slaves, want Wages too.
13 Oh! Cruelty, beyond Compare!
14 That from th’ poor Man’s Labour
15 One Half must go (tho’ nought to spare)
16 To th’ rich ’Squire his Neighbour.
17 ’Twas once a Law the rich should keep,
18 Support, maintain the Poor:
19 Blush now ye great! consider, weep!
20 And don’t increase your Store
21 By aught forc’d from the lower Sort,
22 But vote some Taxes down,
23 Which may bring Credit to the court,
24 And Safety to the Crown.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): Address to the Great
Author: Thomas Paine
Themes:
Genres: address
Headnote: Sussex Weekly Advertiser, 20 April 1772

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Source edition

Cleary, Scott M., ed. Claeys, Gregory, gen. ed. Thomas Paine Collected Writings. Vol. II. Part 2: Poetry. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2026. 5 Volumes.

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