Printed handbill street ballad entitled 'The Sunderland Political Anthem. With its moral phase.'

On one side of a piece of wove paper roughly 28 x 23 cm. On aged, creased and spotted paper. A poem, arranged in double column, consisting of fourteen seven-line stanzas intended to be sung to the tune of the British national anthem. The first stanza reads 'Misanthrops a la-mode, | Up, up, and chose the road, | To happiness. | Out of the three men choose | Two men that won't abuse, | Although they may refuse, | Some things we want.' The position of the ballad is clearly stated: 'Candlish has been our Mayor, | Hartley has graced the Chair, | Make them M.P.'s'. Of the other candidate: 'Fenwick has been M.P, | Quite a nonentity, | What has he done? | In our Docks not one share, | Nor a ship to go there, | For such men we do not care | To give support.' And further on: 'Fenwick's verbosity, | Snail pace velocity, | Won't suit this age. | Fenwick you are at fault, | Dearly you love the malt, | [...]'. In the event Candlish was defeated by the other two candidates. A scarce piece of nineteenth-century political ephemera. No copy on COPAC or the web.