Parcel Of Rogues

Robert Burns

Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame
Fareweel our ancient glory
Fareweel even to the Scottish name
Sae famed in martial story
Now Sark rins o’er the Solway sands
And Tweed rins to the ocean
To mark whare England’s province stands
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation

What force or guile could not subdue
Thro’ many warlike ages
Is wrought now by cowards few
For hireling traitor’s wages
The English steel we could disdain
Secure in valor’s station
But English gold has been our bane
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation

O would ‘ere I had seen the day
That treason thus could sell us
My auld grey head had lain in clay
Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace
But pith and power thill my last hour
I’ll mak this declaration
We’re bought and sold for English gold
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation

Written by Robert Burns as a protest against the Act of Union, 1707, which joined the parliaments of England and Scotland. Although initially against the Act, the Scottish parliament soon agreed when offered a large pension each by the English government. The people had no say, and thus were ‘bought and sold for English gold’. They are still paying the price.