The duty of presenting to the British government the Declaration of Rights prepared by the Congress devolved upon Benjamin Franklin, who was in England at the time. Lord Dartmouth received the document, but permission was refused Franklin to present the case for the Continental Congress, and to defend it, before the House of Commons. THE MOTHER COUNTRY [1775] We have an old mother that peevish is grown; She snubs us like children that scarce walk alone; She forgets we're grown up and have sense of our own; Which nobody can deny, deny, Which nobody can deny. If we don't obey orders, whatever the case, She frowns, and she chides, and she loses all pati- Ence, and sometimes she hits us a slap in the face; Which nobody, etc. Her orders so odd are, we often suspect That age has impaired her sound intellect; But still an old mother should have due respect; Which nobody, etc. Let's bear with her humors as well as we can; But why should we bear the abuse of her man? When servants make mischief, they earn the rattan; Which nobody, etc. Know, too, ye bad neighbors, who aim to divide The sons from the mother, that still she's our pride; And if ye attack her, we're all of her side; Which nobody, etc. We'll join in her lawsuits, to baffle all those Who, to get what she has, will be often her foes; For we know it must all be our own, when she goes; Which nobody can deny, deny, Which nobody can deny. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Very few Englishmen believed that the Americans would fight. Lord Sandwich said that they were a lot of undisciplined cowards, who would take to their heels at the first sound of a cannon, and that it would be easy to frighten them into submission. The "Pennsylvania Song" was evidently written to answer this assertion. PENNSYLVANIA SONG We are the troop that ne'er will stoop To wretched slavery, Nor shall our seed, by our base deed, Despisèd vassals be; Freedom we will bequeath to them, Or we will bravely die; Our greatest foe, ere long shall know, How much did Sandwich lie. And all the world shall know, Americans are free; Nor slaves nor cowards we will prove, Great Britain soon shall see. We'll not give up our birthright, Our foes shall find us men; As good as they, in any shape, The British troops shall ken. Huzza! brave boys, we'll beat them On any hostile plain; For Freedom, wives, and children dear, The battle we'll maintain. And all the world, etc. What! can those British tyrants think, Our fathers cross'd the main, And savage foes, and dangers met, To be enslav'd by them? If so, they are mistaken, For we will rather die; And since they have become our foes, Their forces we defy. And all the world, etc.