Butcher boys shouted without, Within was writing for thee, Shadows of three live men Talked as they walked into me. Shadows of three live men, and you were one of the three. Butcher boys sang in the streets, The bobby was far away, Butcher boys shouted and sang In their usual maddening way.-- Still in the Schools quite courteous you were torturing men all the day. Two dead men have I known, Examiners settled by me. Two dead men have I scored, Now I will settle with thee. Three dead men must I score, and thou art the last of the three. REGNOLD GREENLEAF. (_The Shotovor Papers_, 1874). Since the year 1845 Alfred Tennyson has been in the receipt of a civil list pension of £200 a year, so that, in round figures, he has received about £8,000 of the public money, besides drawing the annual salary of £100 since his appointment as Poet Laureate, November, 1850. The sale of his works has also, of course, been greatly increased, owing to his official title, and the present fortunate holder of the laurels enjoys a fortune much in excess of that of any of his predecessors in office. From the days of Ben Jonson downwards Poets Laureate have been paid to sing the praises of the Royal Family; of these Laureates, Jonson, Dryden, Southey, and Wordsworth were true poets, but the others in the line of succession were mere rhymesters, whose very names are now all but forgotten. Eusden, Cibber, and Pye were unremitting in their production of New Year, and Birth-day Odes, Southey did little in this way, and Wordsworth would not stoop to compose any official poems whatever, although he wore the laurels for seven years. It was reserved for Alfred Tennyson to revive the custom, and he has composed numerous adulatory poems on events in the domestic history of our Royal Family. The smallest praise that can be bestowed on Tennyson's official poems is that they are immeasurably superior to any produced by former Laureates; and although the events recorded have but a passing interest, the poems will probably long retain their popularity. The death of the princess Charlotte in 1817 was, no doubt, considered at the time as a greater public loss than was the death of Prince Albert in 1861; yet who now reads Southey's poem in her praise? Whereas the beauty of Tennyson's _Dedication_ of the Idyls of the King will cause it to be remembered long after people have forgotten the Prince to whom it was inscribed. The Dedication commences thus:-- "THESE to his Memory--since he held them dear, Perhaps as finding there unconsciously Some image of himself--I dedicate, I dedicate,--I consecrate with tears-- These Idyls. "And, indeed, He seems to me Scarce other than my own ideal knight."