But you, O veteran of a thousand fights, Whose toil had long attained its perfect end-- Death calls you not as one that claims his rights, But gently as a friend. For though that matchless energy of mind Was firm to front the menace of decay, Your bodily strength on such a loss declined As only Death could stay. So then with you 'tis well, who after pain, After long pain, have reached your rest at last; But we--ah, when shall England mould again This type of splendour past? Noble in triumph, noble in defeat, Leader of hopes that others held forlorn, Strong in the faith that looks afar to meet The flush of Freedom's morn. * * * * * And now, with all your armour laid aside, Swift eloquence your sword, and, for your shield, The indomitable courage that defied The fortune of the field-- As in the noontide of your high command, So in the final hour when darkness fell, Submissive still to that untiring Hand That orders all things well-- We bear you to your resting-place apart Between the ranks where ancient foe and friend, Kin by a common sorrow at the heart Silent together bend. A new leader of the Liberal Party emerged in 1899 in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. Sir William Harcourt is shown wishing his successor joy--rather ironically--and Mr. Balfour, in the cartoon of "The Wrestlers," acknowledges the strength of his opponent after their first round. "C.-B.'s" promotion to leadership coincided with the discussion of the Tsar's disarmament proposals, which the Liberal leader was destined to revive later on, and in May, representatives of Great Britain attended the Hague Conference convened on the Tsar's initiative. The enthusiasm which _Punch_ had displayed a generation earlier over the Paris Conference had now evaporated, and his contributions to the subject are marked by farcical scepticism. The Tsar and the Kaiser are shown in one picture holding, at some uncertain date in the future, an imaginary review of what remains of the Russian Army, the soldiers resembling Stigginses armed with umbrellas. _Punch's_ twelve suggestions are a _reductio ad absurdum_ of the Tsar's idea, the first being a proposal to postpone the coming into operation of the new rules for 1,000 years. The list of "Some Probable Agenda" for the Hague Conference, published when it was already sitting, is pure burlesque. For example: "Declarations of war shall in future be abolished as being calculated to wound the feelings of opponents." In the same number there is a large picture of Imperial Bruin drinking to Peace, coupling the toast with the name of Victoria, Empress of India (the Queen had just celebrated her eightieth birthday), with a batch of papers, labelled "Further demands in China," behind his back.