_The HOME SECRETARY_ discovered, looking weary and worn. He throws himself back in his uneasy chair, and soliloquises_―― To be, or not to be, that is the question;―― Whether ’tis better for awhile to suffer The harmless follies of the Corporation; Or to bring on myself a sea of troubles, Much easier raised than ended? To pass my Bill,―― No more: and by a Bill, to say we end The headache, and the thousand natural worries That place is heir to. ’Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d? To pass my Bill;―― To pass! perchance to fail;――ay, there’s the rub! And in that fierce debate what Cads will come, When they have shuffled much in that turmoil, And give me their paws! There’s the respect That makes calamity of my bored life; For who would bear the patronage of FIRTH, The oppressive candour of that proud man BEALE, The pangs of chaffing DILKE, SELBORNE’S delay, The insolence of CHAMBERLAIN, and the spurns My patient merit of the PREMIER takes, When he himself might peace and quiet make By mere inaction? Who would boredom bear, To groan and sweat under official life, But that the thought of doing something great―― That undiscovered thing, that seldom comes To poor Home Secretaries――urges me on, Though I would rather bear the ills we have, Than fly to others that I know not of? Thus, too, sharp Londoners, poor cowards all, May think――if so, I pall in resolution. My enterprise, though of great pith and moment, Which none regard, and which seems all awry, Loses the name of action. ――――:o:―――― “Messrs. Chatto and Windus――Heaven bless them for their generosity!――sent me the other day a copy of Mark Twain’s new book, ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ The book is an extremely funny book; but, for all that, I couldn’t make out why it was sent to me until I came upon an entirely new reading of Hamlet’s soliliquy. Messrs. C. and W. evidently wish me to say, and I do so with great pleasure, that Mr. Mark Twain’s new reading is at least as original, and very much more entertaining, than the new readings with which we are nowadays so constantly inundated. Let readers judge for themselves:”