A. GLADSTONE LEAGUE LEAFLET.

- [To TRH EDITOR Or TRH " &MC-P/3.08.1 SIR,-4 venture to send you a leaflet entitled "The Acres and the Hands," which was given to a number of the children belonging to Brinkworth Parish as they were leaving school .on Monday afternoon about 4 p.m. They had to pass the cottage which is used as the office of the Liberal candidate, and it was from this cottage, I understand, that this leaflet was put into their hands. I think it a peculiarly wrong thing to make children the vehicles for spreading this mischievous balderdash through the parish. The little ones, no doubt, will not understand the statements contained in these doggerel lines. But what are the elder children likely to think if they believe such lies as- " Yet thousands are toiling in poisonous gloom, And shackled with on bands" ?

'What foundation is there for the statement in the fourth stanza : "Ye shackle the poor man's limbs," &c.? And again '(in the fifth stanza) who are the people who "rob the earth of its fruit and flowers "? Certainly intentional misrepresenta- tion for the purpose of deceiving the ignorant could hardly go further than it has done in this leaflet.—I am, Sir, &c.,

ROBERT G. LIsINGSTONE

Gladstone Leaflet No. 21.

THE ACRES AND TUB HANDS.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, Saith God's most Holy Word ;

The water hath fish, and the land bath flesh, And the air bath many a bird ;

And the soil is teeming o'er all the earth, And the earth bath numberless lands ; Yet millions of hands want acres, While millions of acres want hands!

Sunlight, and breezes, and gladsome flowers, Are over the earth spread wide; And the good God gave these gifts to men— To men wile on earth abide ; Yet thousands are toiling in poisonous gloom, And shackled with iron bands, While millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands !

Never a foot bath the poor man here, To plant with a grain of corn ;

And never a plot, where his child may cull Fresh flowers in the dewy morn.

The soil lies fallow—the woods grow rank; Yet idle the poor man stands ;

For millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands !

'Tis writ that 'Ye shall not muzzle the ex That treadeth out the corn.'

73ut, behold ! ye shackle the poor man's limbs, That have all earth's burdens borne ; The land is the gift of a bounteous God, And to labour His Word commands,

Yet millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want hands!

Who bath ordained that the few shall hoard Their millions of useless gold ?

And rob the earth of its fruit and flowers, While profitless soil they hold ? Who bath ordained that a parchment scroll Shall fence round miles of land?

When millions of hands want acres, And millions of acres want bands!

'Tis a glaring lie on the face of day— This robbery of men's rights ; .Tia a lie, that the Word of the Lord disowns- 'Tis a curse that burns and blights !

And 'twill burn and blight, till the people rise, • And swear, while they break their bands,

That the hands shall henceforth have acres, And the acres henceforth have hands!

A. J. H. DUGANNE.

JOIN THE GLADSTONE LEAGUE,

which aims at establishing

Tam RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE IN THE LAND."