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ONCE AND FOR AYE.

HE sang as he lay on a Highland mountain,

That English knight who had never known love,

'What song so sweet as the chiming fountain?
What blue so blue as the heaven above?'
Fond heart!-for nearer and nearer drew
A sweeter voice and an eye more blue.

'O what can blush by the purple heather?

What gold with the gorse-flower dare compare?
He turned, fond heart, and found them together
On her glowing cheek and her glittering hair.
Now what for the knight are the hill-flowers' dyes,
The fountain's voice and the sapphire skies?

She had lost her path, that Lowland lady,
Whose heart had never a lord confessed;
O bright she blushed, and gently prayed he
Would guide her over the mountain crest.
And little loth was the gallant knight
To squire the steps of that lady bright.

So he took her hand, and they passed together,
The knight and the lady unlearned of love,
Through the golden gorse and the purple heather-
O laughingly beamed the blue above.

And the fountain sang as their feet went by,

The Sibyl fountain- For aye-for aye?

THE AUTHOR OF SONGS OF KILLARNEY.'

VOL. XXV.-NO. CXLVII.

T

SOCIAL SUBJECTS.

THE NEW PARLIAMENT-MODERN ICONOCLASTS-THE TREATMENT OF THE BODY AFTER DEATH-SERJEANT COX'S QUESTION, WHAT AM I?'

THE

HE fruits of the sensational policy of January 23rd are ready for plucking. The oats so wildly sown upon the occasion of the Cabinet Council of that eventful Friday are ripe for the harvest. The Ides of March are at hand. What will be the issues of that political manoeuvre executed by Mr. Gladstone when he appeared before his colleagues, and flourished his address to the electors of Greenwich before their eyes, and told them to look sharp and get re-elected if they could, such of them at least as were members of the House of Commons, within the next ten days? Did those colleagues of his in Her Majesty's Government feel grateful to their leader for having relieved them from an individual sense of responsibility, or did they feel injured that they were not taken a little more into the Premier's confidence, as the outside world not unnaturally thinks that they had a right to expect? It is only right, however, to say that these gentlemen loyally suppressed their sentiments, and exhibited a chivalrous devotion to their leader. Publicly, that is. Privately, we have had glimpses of a less quiet state of things; and there have not been wanting whispers of oaths, not loud, but deep,' ejected from reluctant lips when returning answer to the question, 'How do you like it?'

Probably political expectation has not been so keenly excited as to the forthcoming Queen's Speech on the assembling of Parliament, and as to the debate which in both Houses must be aroused thereon, for many years. Mr. Gladstone

threw himself upon the country with a huge surplus and golden promises; no unworthy imputations of insincerity are cast upon him by simply stating that he offered five millions as the price of his return to power. That is the sum to be disposed of in the remission of taxation; and he told us that he had fairly earned this amount, and therefore claimed our unhesitating confidence in his ability as financial administrator for the future. For, at the time these lines are written, he has given us no reason to suppose that he does not intend to continue to combine the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and it cannot be denied that the two titles harmonise. The great and defined promise is abolition of the income tax; the qualifying terms are to be found in a vague hint at the readjustment of other taxes. At first everybody was charmed. No more inquisitorial taxation. Merchants, tradesmen, and farmers were immensely pleased with the idea, and struggling professional men seemed to see an end to those claims of family and conscience which have always been in such direct antagonism. But the period of reflection has supervened, and we cannot but feel that if Peter is robbed, Paul will have to pay, and that the imperial revenue cannot afford to lose the vast amount raised by the income tax unless compensation is made in some other direction. And so we suspiciously inquire, How is the equivalent to be reached?

For the solution of the problem we must be content to wait a little longer, though we must own that

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