"I shall move a special motion, Touching this o'erlooked affair: El-Dorado would be nothing To the wealth that waits us there. Let us get a fair protection For our native Indian niggers, And, I think, the Rochdale mill-book Would display some startling figures! XXV. "Ha! I've got another notion! Things are rather dull at home, And I feel no fixed objection, In my country's cause to roam. It is needful that some cautious Hand should undertake the task, Hum--there _must_ be a commission-- Well--I've only got to ask. XXVI. "They'll be rather glad to spare me, In their present precious fix: Charley Wood is somewhat shakey With his recent dodge on bricks. Palmerston's in hottest water, What with France, and what with Greece; As for little Juggling Johnny He'll pay anything for peace. XXVII. "Faith, I'll do it! were it only As a most conclusive trick, And a hint unto our fellows That I'm quite as good as Dick. Hang him! since he's made orations, In a sort of mongrel French, One would think he's almost equal To Lord Campbell on the bench. XXVIII. "Time it is our course were severed; I'm for broad distinctions now. Since my mills are fairly stoppaged, At another shrine I bow. Send me only out to India On this patriotic scheme, And I'll show them how protection Is a fact, and not a dream." THE GREAT PROTECTION MEETING IN LONDON. We have considered it our duty to record in a permanent form the proceedings of the most important meeting which has been held in Britain, since Sir Robert Peel deliberately renounced that policy of which he was once the plighted champion. Not many months have elapsed since the Free-traders were wont to aver, with undaunted effrontery, that all idea of a return to the principles of Protection to native industry was eradicated from the minds of the British public; that, saving some elderly peers and a few bigoted enthusiasts like ourselves, no sane man would attempt to overturn a system which placed the untaxed foreigner on a level with the home-producer; and that cheapness, superinduced by exorbitant competition, was in reality the greatest blessing which could be vouchsafed to an industrious people. The great measure of the age, originally propounded as an experiment, was eagerly assumed as a fact; and we were told, for the first time in British history, that legislation, however faulty it might prove, was to be regarded as a thing irrevocable.