This song was published in early 1777. The author is unknown.
Britannia sinks beneath her crimes, She dies - she dies - let empire rise, And freedom cheer the western skies.
When every art and menace fails, And Tory lies and Tory tales,
Are universally abhorr'd, They now pretend to fear the Lord.
Instead of virtue, a long face; Instead of piety, grimace;
Pretend strange revelation give, And intimation sent from Heaven.
To carry on the schemes of Bute, A speaking egg they substitute.
A strange phenomenon indeed, The stratagem must sure succeed;
And every mortal die with fear, When they the sad prediction hear.
The egg was laid without the tent, Ergo, it was from Heaven sent.
The egg was found within a barn, Ergo, from it, we surely learn,
When eggs can speak what fools indite, And hens can talk as well as write,
When crocodiles shed honest tears,And truth with hypocrites appears;
When every man becomes a knave, And feels the spirit of the slave;
And when veracity again, Shall in a Tory's bosom reign;
When vice is virtue, darkness light, And freemen are afraid to fight;
When they forget to play the men, And with the spirit of a hen,
Desert the just and sacred cause; And opening Heaven smiles applause
On such a bloody, barbarous foe, Then I'll be conquered by a Howe.
