A BABE O' GRACE.
[Mr. Chamberlain says that "Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Policy was
conceived in secresy, was born in deceit, and was nurtured on evasion.">[
Poor Babe (whom kind Nurse C. so fain would throttle)
Ill was thy fate, fed from the Gladstone bottle!
Nurture less harsh had Romulus and Remus.
Nurse C. would, oh! so gladly, "Nicodemus
The bantling into Nothing." Yet it lives
And kicks and crows, and lots of trouble gives,
This happy Baby on the tree-top dangling
Whilst friends and foes about thy fate are wrangling!
When the wind blows—ah! then the world shall see
What a prophetic soul has kind Nurse C.
Its face, perchance, had been more bright and bland
Could kind Nurse C. have "brought it up by hand,"
As Mrs. Gargery did the infant "Pip."
Nay, there are some who on the hint let slip
That kind Nurse C. had never wished it slain
Had it but in another Chamber lain!