"RULE, BRITANNIA!" (?)
["Her Majesty's Government are perfectly satisfied as to the adequacy and capacity of the British Navy to perform all the purposes for which it exists."—Mr. Gladstone, in House of Commons, November 7, 1893.
"Everybody knows, Liberals as well as Tories, that it is indispensable that we should have not only a powerful Navy, but I may say an all-powerful Navy."—Mr. Morley at Manchester, November 8, 1893.]
Since "Britain First!" is Fate's command,
And History bids us sway the main,
We feel this charter of our land
All guardian statesmen must maintain.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
Out on the Chief who only shirks and saves!
The nations must not rival thee,
Their fleets below our own must fall.
Thou must, if thou'dst be great and free,
Still rise superior to them all!
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
Such primacy e'en peaceful Cobden craves.
Russia and France are now allies!—
Though funny, 'tis not all a joke.
As their rejoicings shake the skies,
Think how the great Free Trader spoke!
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
Better that Hundred Millions than be slaves.
True, all thy statesmen say the same,
Morley hands Cobden's dictum down.
Yet Ins and Outs do play a game
That hardly adds to thy renown.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
But Parties squabble and the Exchequer—saves!
If thou'dst maintain thine ocean reign,
And first in Commerce still would'st shine,
The easy optimistic strain
And Pangloss pose must not be thine.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
But constant warding constant watching craves.
Devotion to the needs of home,
And claims parochial, is not all.
Beware, lest shades more darkling come,
With gloomier writings on the wall.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
Britons to careless trust should ne'er be slaves.
Say, Statesman, are those figures found
Full warrant for your picture bold?
Our watch the wave-washed world around
Needs iron hearts, and ungrudged gold.
Rule, Britannia! Britannia rule the waves!
Britons—free-handed—never need be slaves!
Mrs. R thinks the reason so many of the young men of the present day are bald is, because they don't use antimacassar oil as they did in her time.