"'Justice' no more shall hale me up To answer this wild waste Of human life. _That_ bitter cup At least I shall not taste. Go, Sun, and say,--if e'er thy face Shine on another earthly race,-- On what an ill-paid clod Man laid Responsibility-- Because its Justice ruled awry, And Mammon was its god." * * * * * Poor Old England! These are hard times, and the oracles of the newspapers teem with thrifty suggestions. The last advice to the hard-pressed agriculturists is, to go in for cultivating mushrooms and blackberries. What a prospect for the country children! Fancy every mushroom-meadow tabooed to the early rural rambler, and all the blackberries strictly "preserved," in the sense of partridges, not of plum-jam. And what a fate for the land of the oak, the apple-tree, the wheat and the bearded barley, to come down, like tramps and village-urchins, to fungi and bramble-fruits! * * * * * POLITICAL ECONOMY.--Lord ROSEBERY, when next in power, will insist on the Government being "short-handed." * * * * * [Illustration: JUSTICE AT FAULT. MR. PUNCH. "YES--YOU'VE GOT ONE OF 'EM! BUT YOU OUGHT TO HAVE _BOTH!!_" "It is intolerable that a Railway Company should, for the sake of increasing its receipts, play fast and loose with the safety of great numbers of human beings. The block-system ought, in fact, to be made compulsory, and it should not be in the power of a Railway Company to suspend it."--_Morning Paper._] * * * * * CROSSING THE BAR. MR. PUNCH--MY VERY DEAR SIR, [Illustration: A Q.C., M.P.--the Long of it.] As on more than one occasion you have done me the honour of publishing some of my experiences, I feel that in you I am addressing a gentleman of keen intelligence, admirable judgment, and excellent sense. I am sure that you will not for a moment imagine that I am using language of exaggerated eulogy when I say that never in the course of what I may term my forensic life have I found an individual so eminently qualified to assume the highest duties inseparable from the Judicial Bench. Having this opinion of your merits, I cannot refrain from addressing you on a matter of the greatest possible importance to every member of the profession to which it is my pride to belong. [Illustration: Another Q.C., M.P.--the Short of it.]