HOME-RULE.
Has Repeal, that in 'Forty was folly,
Grown sense in Eighteen-seventy-two?
Will the walls that defied Big Dan's volley,
Be by Butt's brass two-pounder split through?
Has Paddy, that still has craved ruling
And rulers, in wrong as in right,
Of a sudden out-grown schools and schooling,
And shot to Self-Government's height?
And was it but bottomless boasting,
With a point from Hibernian wit,—
That there ne'er yet was Irishman roasting,
But an Irishman's hand turned the spit?
Is it John that across the Atlantic
Stamps Pat Order's foe ever known;
And declares him a nuisance gigantic,
Till Yankee Home-Rule ousts his own?
Must hist'ry, as writ all untruly,
Like Hebrew, be read in reverse,
That, since Strong-Bow, shows Ireland unruly,
With lawlessness cursed as chief curse?
When the best of the race for home-ruling
Are those that Home-Rule most distrust;
As convinced that to trust Irish "tooling,"
Will bring Erin's car in the dust.
Home-Rule! 'Tis a compound sonorous,
Fine phrase on a green flag to fly;
But take stock of the stuff that's before us—
And who shall the Home-Rule supply?
Is't your own Irish Lords, Irish Commons,
Who adorned College Green long ago?
But to London would rather hear summons,
Than in Dublin be tied by the toe:
For the Greenest of all, the best brother
Of Pat in John Bull can discern;
And to cool English air from the smother
Of your factions, is thankful to turn.
Is't the Lawyers, who look for preferment,
Praise, pence, and distinction, o'er sea;
And when they have ris'n by your ferment,
Will be glad your close corking to see?
Is't your National Papers—press-razors,
Produced not to shave, but to sell—
Whose scribes might seem genuine blazers,
Did not conjurors spit fire as well?
Is't your Priests, with the gag and the blinders,
Which Church would fain use to tame Law:
Their pincers, for law-reason's grinders,
Their scissors, for lay-reason's claw?
Is't your Peasants, in feuds and in factions
Stark mad, for a nothing or name:
In their lodges, at murder's black pactions,
Or from a dyke-back taking aim?
In short, gauging all ranks and classes—
Those who are, or will be, by the ears—
The units, as well as the masses,
Lawyers, traders, priests, press, peasants, peers—
All ages, from seventy to twenty,
All shades, from deep knave to born fool—
I find means of "Home Mis-rule" in plenty,
But where are the means of "Home Rule"?