Algernon Charles Swinburne
ON
MR. GLADSTONE AND HOME RULE.
During the recent election The Times newspaper was strongly opposed to Mr. Gladstone’s policy, and on July 1, 1886, it published a poem by A. C. Swinburne, entitled “The Commonweal” to which it thus solemnly drew attention in its leading article:—
“None can accuse Mr. Swinburne of sympathy with oppression, or with failure to champion the cause of struggling nationalities. But he is clear-sighted enough to see on which side in this struggle lie the great interests of human liberty, and the vigorous poem which we print to-day from his pen is a worthy contribution to the battle now being waged. “See the man of words embrace the man of blood”—points an alliance which English Liberals may well blush to acknowledge; and an appeal to all that is sound in this nation cannot better end than in Mr. Swinburne’s words:—
“Yet an hour is here for answer; now, if here be yet a nation,
“Answer, England, man by man, from sea to sea!”
The Commonweal.
A Song for Unionists.