His manners are delightful, and the workings of his mind Have never shown the slightest trace of self-esteem behind; Nor has he had at any time a private axe to grind. For forty years and upwards he has graced the public scene Without becoming sterilized or stiffened by routine; He still retains his freshness and his brain is just as keen. His credit was not shipwrecked on the fatal Irish reef; He has always been a loyal and a sympathetic chief; And he has also written _The Foundations of Belief_. As leader of the Mission to our cousins and Allies, We learn with satisfaction, but without the least surprise, That he proved the very cynosure of Transatlantic eyes. For the special brand of statesman _plus_ aristocratic sage, Like the model king-philosopher described in PLATO’S page, Is uncommonly attractive in a democratic age. “BALFOUR Must Go!” was once the cry of those who deemed him slack, But now there’s not a single scribe of that unruly pack Who is not glad in every sense that BALFOUR has come back. _June 20, 1917._ THE SUBMERGED LEADER (_February, 1917_) What is Master WINSTON doing? What new paths is he pursuing? What strange broth can he be brewing? Is he painting, by commission, Portraits of the Coalition For the R.A. exhibition? Is he Jacky-obin or anti? Is he likely to “go Fanti,” Or becoming shrewd and canty? Is he in disguise at Kovel, Living in a moujik’s hovel, Penning a tremendous novel? Does he run a photo-play show? Or in _sæva indignatio_ Is he writing for HORATIO? Fired by the divine afflatus Does he weekly lacerate us, Like a Juvenal _renatus_? As the great financial purist, Will he smite the sinecurist Or emerge as a Futurist? Is he regularly sending HAIG and BEATTY screeds unending, Good advice with censure blending? Is he ploughing, is he hoeing? Is he planting beet, or going In for early ’tato-growing? Is he writing verse or prosing, Or intent upon disclosing Gifts for musical composing? Is he lecturing to flappers? Is he tunnelling with sappers? Has he joined the U-boat trappers? Or, to petrify recorders Of events within our borders, _Has he taken Holy Orders_? Is he well or ill or middling? Is he fighting, is he fiddling?— He can’t only be thumb-twiddling. These are merely dim surmises, But experience advises Us to look for weird surprises. * * * * * Thus we summed the situation When Sir HEDWORTH MEUX’ oration Brought about a transformation. Lo! the Blenheim Boanerges On a sudden re-emerges And, to calm the naval _gurges_, FISHER’S restoration urges. A MINISTERIAL WAIL [“The most trenchant critics of the Government since its formation have been Mr. PRINGLE and Mr. HOGGE.”—_British Weekly._]