A patriotic Laureate may bid the Rifles form, And Citizens may look to them for safety in War's storm; But Secretaries, Dooks, and such at this delight to jeer, And to snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! A semi-swell he may be, but he may be a mere clerk, And he's an interloper, and to snub him is a lark. Sometimes he licks the Regulars, and so our duty's clear, 'Tis to snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! He hankers for an increase in his Capitation Grant, It's like his precious impudence, and have the lift he shan't. What, make it easier for him to run us close? No fear! We'll snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! He has a fad for Wimbledon, but that is just a whim, And as eviction's all the go, we'll try it upon _him_. _He's_ not an Irish tenant, so no one will interfere, When once more we snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! His targets and his tents and things are nuisances all round, As Jerry-Builders, Dooks, and other Toffs have lately found, Compared with bricks and mortar and big landlords he's small beer, So we'll snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! The Common's vastly handy, there's no doubt, to chaps in town, And crowds of Cockneys to the butts can quickly hurry down; But what are _all_ Town's Cockneys to one solitary Peer? No; let us snub, snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! Your Citizen who wants to play at soldiers need not look To have his little way as though he were a Royal Dook; With building-leases--sacred things!--he must not interfere, So let us snub, snub, snub, snub, snub the British Volunteer! If he _must_ shoot his annual shoot somewhere, why, let him go To Pirbright or to Salisbury Plain, or e'en to Jericho. But out from his loved Wimbledon he'll surely have to clear, A final snub, snub, snub, snub, snub to the British Volunteer! _Punch_ was not generous or just in representing the Duke of Cambridge as a mere obstructive; and the sequel has not verified his forecast. Wimbledon Common remains a great playground of the people, and the annual meetings of the National Rifle Association, held at Wimbledon from 1860 to 1888, have not suffered in prestige or value since the move to Bisley in 1890. References to the inadequate state of the national defences reach their highest frequency in 1888. We have the duel between Lord Randolph Churchill preaching retrenchment and Lord Charles Beresford advocating expenditure on an increased Navy. This is followed up by _Punch's_ "Alarmist Alphabet" dedicated to our naval and military experts, to whose warnings our rulers attach no particular importance:--