XIII.

"As from the blind seed springs the flower,
As from the acorn soars the oak,
From darkness into heaven may tower
The soul of man," he gently spoke,
"From Time into the Eternal Love!

Rally the might within thee, trust
In truth, and those broad heavens above,
They will not doom thee to the dust."

XIV.

Troubles enough there were indeed
Before I caught the first great gleam.
It came when I was most in need

And, like one waking from a dream,
To a new heaven and a new earth

I saw and, kneeling, wept for joyDeath bringing heavenly life to birth In bliss which nothing can destroy.

XV.

It was the night my loved one died,

The night our child, who lives, was born! All night upon my knees I cried

To God to change His world ere morn, "Roll back thy stars, bring back my dead, And take what else Thou wilt away;

But bring not back to me," I said, "The hopeless horror of the day."

XVI.

I could not live, I could not die,
My fate was not in my control:
I only knew that this wild cry

Would, with the dawn, destroy my soul,
If, with that dawn, our rutted road,

The same dark trees, the same dark farms Should mock me! "God, too great Thy load!" Then-round me swept the Eternal arms.

XXII.

But here I felt within my soul,
Clear as on field and tree,
The falling of the heavenly snow,

A twofold mystery,

And one was meant to bless the world,

And one was meant for me.

XXIII.

And at the grave-side of my love
Once more thro' Nature did I see
Unspeakable, O heaven above,

What shining from Eternity!

They lowered the coffin to its place,

And o'er the grave the great sun smiled

Full in that lifted, laughing face,

There, in the nurse's arms, the child.

XXIV.

Since then, the Power behind the world
Has never left me, and I find
In every April fern unfurled

Some vision of the Eternal mind:
The clouds affirm their Charioteer,
The hills demand His higher throne,
And year cries out to fleeting year
The Everlasting claims His own.

XXV.

The God I worshipped when a boy
I lost; and now that fifty years
Have passed with all they could destroy
Of all my hopes and dreams and fears,
Full fifty years, in this dear place
Where all those generations trod,
Why (and heaven lit his lifted face)
Now, there seems nothing else but God.

ALFRED NOYES.

THE GREAT BETRAYAL.

have never been of two minds,
and that is the welfare and
honour of the British Navy.
It had never entered the minds
of Englishmen till quite re-
cently that this could ever
become a party question. Al-
most every other political
or social principle must in the
long run be more or less
affected by party considera-
tions. Let people say what
they like about keeping this
or that subject out of the
party arena, the thing is in-
evitable.
say, one exception; and that
is our naval supremacy.
M'Kenna amusingly observed

But there is, as we

Mr

THE fine speech of Lord Rosebery at Shepherd's Bush, June 5, came at an opportune moment. As the utterance of a great statesman who has enjoyed the confidence of the Crown, and is still looked up to with hope by a large section of the community, it naturally drew to itself no ordinary share of public attention and admiration. Coming from one who now occupies an independent position, detached from party ties and free to speak his mind openly without regard to its effect on political connections, it possesses an additional value which the country will be quick to recognise. But over and above these general claims on our respect, it has the special and pre-eminent merit of going straight to what is the central Whichever political party point of interest at the present might for the time be uppermoment, with the effect of re- most, whatever Government minding us that we must allow might be in power, the people no other question, however have always felt assured that urgent or important, to divert this noble legacy from our our eyes from it. "We can, Elizabethan ancestors would and we will, build Dread- never be robbed or tampered noughts." Be these our watch- with. They laid their heads words. The Government would fain draw a red herring the trail, if they could, but

the other day that this ought not to be a party question. It never was so till he made it one himself.

on their pillows in perfect conacross fidence that here at least was a sure rock of defence placed

this is just what they must beyond the reach of party

not be

on

allowed to do.

people of this country have ments, led astray by demaoften been divided in opinion gogues and fanatics, they have some of the most vital placed Governments in power domestic and constitutional pledged to the destruction of questions which the science of ancient and valuable instituis one subject on which they principles essential to the copolitics embraces. But there tions and the violation of

The passions. In thoughtless mo

hesion of society. This they strength, with plenty of time for have done under the influence consideration, and looking the of tempting baits and glittering future fairly in the face, they falsehoods. But while yielding have deliberately decided to to these visions of a promised throw overboard the one great land, destined never to be real- security established and mainised, they never for one moment tained by their fathers for imagined that they were hand- the independence and security ing over power to men who of Britain and of the British would venture to strike at the Empire. They have taken a foundations of their empire, or deliberate step downwards— haul down the flag which has no sliding, no drifting, but a hitherto defied the world. direct descent straight down from a higher level to a lower. Does the country appreciate this? Do the people understand how that this Government, entrusted with the preservation of an hereditary primacy so long and so honourably maintained before the whole world, has practically ordered them to go down lower-to take a back seat? No flimsy excuses, or evasions, or misrepresentations can disguise the fact. Not the most vehement protestations can efface the knowledge of what Government intended, and, as far as we have been informed, still intend, to do. They abandon our sea rampart on the pretext that the country cannot afford to keep it up, but in reality that they may have money to spend on furthering the designs of socialism, and thereby securing themselves in office for a longer term. The sacrifice of our imperial security goes hand in hand with the sacrifice of private property. Both are required to ensure the fidelity of the Prætorians on whom the Government depend. The dominion of the sea is our

Yet this is what has happened; and it is to the gross betrayal by the present Government of the sacred interests committed to their charge that we desire to call pointed attention. That the Government have been negligent, ignorant, and subservient to the baser doctrines of a revolutionary faction, deaf to all the generous traditions of our British patriotism, it is unnecessary to repeat. But the particular offence which invests their whole naval policy with a deeper shade of guilt requires to be set before the public in plainer terms than have hitherto been applied to it. Its real nature requires to be scanned, apart from the details by which it is necessarily encompassed, though the Government do their best to make them hide it. Our command of the sea, we cannot repeat it too often, was placed in their keeping by a too confiding nation, and they decided to abandon it. This is no ordinary case of drifting, or doubling, or any of those shifts to which a weak Government is often obliged to In their full

have recourse.