[From Manxiana, 1870]

THE COMPULSORY BILL.

Ye Arabs! take care, the Compulsory Bill ~
Will drive ye all to their school;
Tom, Harry, and Billy, and Jacky and Wiil.
Keys won't allow on the Isle a fool.

So, parents, beware, and send them in time,
Or ye'll find, to your cost, that the Keys
Won't longer allow education in crime,
And sin and Satanic disease.

If school has not got them to keep them from ill,
A schoolmaster soon they'll find
Soon tutor'd they'll be by Master the De'il,
Who will give them all work to his mind.

So, for dear children's sake, oh! send them away,
To our national schools all round,
They'll learn the three R's, and to think, and to pray,
Hear the Gospel's Catholic sound.

Our teacher is English, he has no quips or cranks,
Appointed he is by the Queen ;
Whose love for her children, Scotch, Irish, and Manx,
Is a proverb wherever she's been.