POLITICAL SQUIBS.

FRENCH AND ENGLISH SATIRICAL POETS CONTRASTED.

[The " Gerontocrucy," translated or rather imitated by the Standard, is one of the ekon.goon Nantes, for which BERANGER was prosecuted. The "Dream "is from the Times of yesterday ; and, if we mistake not, by the pen of the eminent poet with whom we lately compared BERANGER.] A DREAM OF HINDOSTAN. " risum teneafis t amid"

" The longer one lives, the more one learns," Said I, as off to sleep I went, Bemus'd with thinking of Tithe concerns, And reading a book, by the Bishop of Ferns, On the Irish Church Establishment.

But lo, in sleep not long I lay, When Fancy her usuel tricks began, And I found myself beWitch'd away To a goodly city in Hindostan,— A city, where he, who dares to dine On aught but rice, is deemed a sinner; Where sheep and kine are held divine, And, accordingly, never dress'd for dinner.

" But, how is this ?" I wondering cried, As I walked that city, fair and wide ; And saw, in every marble street, A row of beautiful butchers' shops.

" What means, for men who don't cat meat, This grand display of loins and chops ?" In vain I asked—'twas plain to see That nobody dared to answer me.

So on, from street to street I strode And you can't imagine how vastly odd The butchers look'd—a roseate crew, Inshrined in stalls, with nought to do ; While some on a. bench, half dozing sat, And the Sacred Cows were not more fat.

Still posed to think, what all this scene Of sinecure trade was meant to mean, " And pray," asked I, " by whom is paid " The expense of this strange masquerade ? "

" Th' expense !—oh, that is, of course, defray'd (Said one of these well-fed Hecatombers) By yonder rascally rice-consumers."

" What ! they, who never must eat —?" " No mattePa-- (And while he spoke his cheeks grew fatter) The rogues may munch their Paddy crop, But the rogues must still support our shop ; And, depend upon it, the way to treat I-lei-Aim/ stomachs that thus dissent, is to burden all who won't eat meat With a costly Meat Establishment."

On hearing these words so gravely said, With a volley of laughter loud I shook; And my slumber fled, and my dream was speil, nd I found I was lying snug in bed, With my nose in the bishop of Ferns's book. LES INFINIMENS PETITS, OU LA GERONTOCRATIE.

In sorcery my faith is great : A wizard showed me in a glass, A night or two ago, what Fate Would in our country bring to pass.

At the sad sight I stood aghast, When Paris to my eyes was shown,

As 'twill be when an age has passed—

And still the Barbons on the throne.

A dwarfish tribe had fill'd our place ; Our great-great-grandsons were so small That I could scarce their figures trace, A-squatting underneath the wall. France, but the shadow of the shade Of that great France I once had known,

Was now a little kingdom made—

But still the Barbons filled the throne.

What crowds of little tiny souls ! Here little Jesuits full of bile ; And little, little Priests in shoals, Carrying their little Gods the while. Beneath their blessings all had shrunk ; The oldest court the world has known Had to a little mass-house sunk 1-- But still the Barbons filled the throne.

All, all was little—temples, halls, Science, and art, and taste, and trade, And little towns, in little walls, By little famines empty made. Off to the frontier, safe no more, A little army, see, has gone,

With all their little drums before—

But still the Barbons filled the throne.

Such did the magic glass unfold—

At last, to close this sight of pain A giant heretic behold, Whom scarcely could a world contain : He comes, and puts this tribe so small, In spite of all their little moan,

Into his pockets, realm and all,—

But still the Barbons filled the throne.

* Greybeards. The pun is untranslateable.

f The petits aminaires of the original are schools in the hands of the Jesuits, and designed for the corruption of the French youth to Popery.—Standard.