POETRY.

DEAF EARS AND MELTING HEARTS.

(Dedicated to Dr. Horton.)

THE Walrus and the Carpenter

Were walking in the Strand, They wept like anything to see Home Rule so near at hand " If only they were Catholics," They said, "it would be grand."

" We weep for you, 0 brethren dear, We deeply sympathize ; Look at our pocket-handkerchiefs Before our streaming eyes. You've put us in a horrid fix," The tearful Walrus cries.

" We feel for you so tenderly, Our very heart-strings melt ; Had we been standing in your shoes The same we should have felt.

We do not wholly like to trust The Roman-Irish Celt.

But now the time has come, alas: To talk of many things—. Fiat justitia, caelunt

Ruat—and how it stings,

That Nonconformist con-sci-ence, And whether it has wings.

It hurts us just as much as you, Your sorrows are our own ; If Irish Parliaments oppress You'll hear a bitter groan, From all our loving brotherhood One sympathetic moan.

We may be right, we may be wrong,

But still our course is plain— What Ireland asks is Ireland's right, And never mind the pain That we shall feel to know that you've Appealed to us in vain, 'Tie we who most your pity need, Though upon you is ]aid

The yoke our very hands have forged, The yoke our votes have made :- The Nonconformist con-scf-ence Again," the Walrus said.

Let right be done though skies may fall

Whatever be your fate,

Let all your liberties be lost And ruin seize the State ;

We are all right and, if you're hurt, Your glory, will be great.

Wolves howl in Ireland round the fold, So fly before you're bit ; If not courageous, yet 'tie wise The sinking hark to quit ; 'There sad to know, if you were there- We'd helped to scuttle it."

The Walrus and the Carpenter Went walking hand in hand : "I think we've made it very clear Our sympathy is grand," The Walrus said, " and in their eyes Have scattered heaps of sand." E. Hinman's-