So Dr. FRIDTJOF NANSEN'S off! Cynics will chuckle, and pessimists scoff. What a noodle, that Norroway chap, Who'd drift to the Pole to--complete our map! Year after year in the broad-beam'd _Fram_, Far from Society's "Real Jam," Away from the fjords, and Five o'Clock Tea, Amidst the ice of the Kara Sea; Certain of darkness, discomfort, and frost, With an excellent prospect of getting lost, Crunched in the ice-pack, frozen, or starved, Whilst Mansion-House Banquets are being carved; Over the snow like pale ghosts flitting, Missing the sweets of an All-Night Sitting! Alone in a canvas-bottom'd bunk, When gossip is gabbled, and toasts are drunk, Where Good Society's geese gregarious, Hiss malignant, or cackle hilarious! Well, who knows? Those Arctic snows May bore _men_ less than our Social Shows; And utter aridity starve the soul More in the House than the Northern Pole! Here's to NANSEN! Here's to his crew! We know they'll venture what men may do. Good luck and good cheer be Heaven's gift To the _Fram_ and her men on that long, long drift! And if they win through the Polar pack, May _Punch_ be foremost to welcome them back. * * * * * ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT. EXTRACTED FROM THE DIARY OF TOBY, M.P. _House of Commons, Monday, July 3._--The fat in the fire again. Who put it there? "I," said JOEY C., "with my ready ladle; I swooped it in." So he did, lighting up with sudden flame embers that seemed quite dead. At end of speech on WOLMER'S Amendment, seeing JOHN DILLON sitting opposite, asked him what about few remarks made at Castlerea, in which he had threatened, when Irishmen came to their own on College Green, they would have police, sheriffs, and bailiffs, under their control, and would "remember" their enemies? DILLON, amid scene of tumultuous excitement, admitted that phrase not in itself defensible, but pleaded that words had been spoken amid great provocation. The massacre at Mitchelstown had taken place just before; its memories were hot within him, and, out of the indignation of his heart, his tongue had spoken.