_Wizard_―― Yet weep for the year. Trade’s bad, sir, whatever your chemicals meant; And outside of Ireland, folks will not pay rent. Home interests were shelved, though oft Ministers met―― And look how the country has got into debt! They’ve finished, their blunders are done in the House; The Session was lost, just because they’d no _nous_, And where are those bothering Irishmen――where? Making trouble afresh, which may you have to bear! Yet, no! for departure from office is near; Peace, retrenchment, reform―― _Chief_―― You be――! Well, I don’t fear. For though weighted by taxes and harassed by foes, Still England, while life in each British breast glows, Shall, queen among nations in ages to come, Exult in libertas―― _Wizard_―― But _not_ imperium. RAD ―――― In March, 1882, “The Weekly Dispatch” had a Competition for Parodies of the first eighteen lines of “Lochiel’s Warning,” having reference to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on the Irish Land Act. The first prize was awarded to Mr. Jesse H. Wheeler, for the following:―― Old women! old women! prepare for the day When the Commons shall rule with an unopposed sway; For a dream of the future behold we to-night, While the hosts of Will Gladstone are massed for the fight. They guide us, they lead e’en their country and Queen―― Accursed be the puppets that trespass between! Poor Salisbury’s bunkum and muddling are vain, And the “shut up committee” is baffled, ’tis plain. For hark! that harangue, and those deep telling words―― What voice of the people defies the great Lords? ’Tis thine, William Gladstone, whose hearers await That scathing rebuff on the meddlers of State, A calm comes at finish, no challenge is there, But a silence prevails, then a sigh of despair. Shout, people! the Lords in humility bend; Oh, shout! this submission foreshadows the end. For this triumphant army the Lords can’t withstand, The Lords――whose foundations fast sink in the sand. ―――― The following Parody was also printed:――