O Cecil! O Cecil! beware of the day When the Commons shall meet thee in battle array; When the people’s stern will rushes on in its might, And the clans of the landlords are scattered in flight, Their standard shows ever “For kingdom and crown,” Hail! ye who shall trample the false device down, Proud sons of the people, as honest as plain, While _their_ selfish bosoms throb only for gain. But see! through the storm-clouds that gather afar, What falchion gleams like a meteor star? ’Tis thine, William Ewart; in dread they await The time when thy summons is heard at their gate. Already its prelude resounds in the air, And soon will be heard their last sigh of despair. Oh! Albion, long in captivity led, Soon, soon, will the term of thy thraldom be sped, And the standard of freedom shall gallantly wave Where rule by a class finds a dishonoured grave! JAMES ROBINSON. ――――:o:―――― The same original was again selected for a competition in the Weekly Dispatch, and the following prize poem was printed in that paper on September 14, 1884:―― O, Salisbury, Salisbury, beware of the day When the people shall meet thee in hostile array! For what can it end in excepting thy flight? Whilst thy Tory companions are scattered in fight, It is not a contest ’twixt people and crown, And woe to the lords who would trample them down! Brave Gladstone advances his arguments plain, And Tory mis-statements are routed and slain. And hark! ’mid the mutt’rings of those you would dare, What cry loud and earnest is borne on the air? ’Tis “Down with the Lords!” and, though Gladstone deplores, The people in anger will surge at your doors. Then take Gladstone’s warning, your error repair, Ere we wring our just rights from your fear and despair; Stay, Salisbury, then, ere the hour is too late, And you and your lords meet a merited fate! ALBERT OTLEY. ―――― GLADSTONE’S WARNING. (_Nothing to do with Lochiel’s Warning._)