Prithee, pretty maiden――prithee tell me true, (Hey, but I’m doleful, willow willow waly!) Have you e’er a lover a dangling after you? Hey, willow waly O! I would fain discover If you have a lover? Hey, willow waly O! _Patience_―― Gentle Sir, my heart is frolicsome and free―― (Hey, but he’s doleful, willow willow waly!) Nobody I care for comes a courting me―― Hey, willow waly O! Nobody I care for Comes a courting――therefore, Hey, willow waly O! * * * * * When _The Times_ had some pretensions to the title of the leading English newspaper, it was known as “The Thunderer of Printing House Square,” but it has recently been re-christened _The Blunderer; or, the Political Weathercock_, a name which recalls the subsidiary titles Mr. Gilbert gives to all his operas. The silly misprints, and other errors, which are to be found daily in _The Times_ show the careless manner in which it is edited, whilst several disgraceful hoaxes practised upon it by the compositors on its staff, prove how unpopular the management must have been, and that a chronic state of mutiny existed in Printing House Square. One of these practical jokes was perpetrated on _The Times_ by an audacious compositor, who altered an advertisement which appeared on Tuesday, February 21, 1882, so that it read:――_On the 20th instant, at ―― Park Lane, W., the wife of_ ALBERT EDWARD, _of a son_.” Whilst a still worse hoax appeared in _The Times_ of Monday, June 12, 1882, in an advertisement of a book entitled _Every-Day Life in our Public Schools_, which title was amplified in a manner never contemplated by the editor. But the grossest case of all was that contained in the report of a speech delivered at Burton-on-Trent by Sir William Vernon Harcourt, then Home Secretary. This speech was reported at length in _The Times_ of Monday, January 23, 1882, and thousands of copies were sold before the infallible authorities found out that the pompous Sir W. V. Harcourt’s speech had been adorned, by their compositors, with flowers of speech of a very unclassical nature. Every effort was then made to call in the unsold copies, but the mischief was done, and for weeks _The Times_ was the laughing stock of London, and fabulous prices were given for copies containing the objectionable paragraph. DUET. _Mr. Gladstone, and Sir W. Vernon Harcourt._ _Mr. Gladstone_―― Prithee, Vernon Harcourt, prithee tell me true (Hey, but it’s shocking, willow, willow waly!) Did you speak the words attributed to you? Hey, willow, waly, oh! I should like to know, sir, How far did you go, sir? Hey, willow, waly, oh! _Sir W. Vernon Harcourt_――