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Wond'ring much, the Chinese Envoys :-
Wond'ring why it is the ladies

Care to sit squeezed up like herrings?
How it is their faces glow so
With the ruddy hues of nature?
Wond'ring why it is the nobles
Moon about with hideous cloaks on,
Making them appear round-shouldered,
Mute-like, "Jarvie-ish," ungainly?
Why it is Lord Coleridge carries
'Neath the folds of his the head-gear
Known in slang phrase as a "stove-pipe !"
Why in swallow-tail of evening
Mr. Pierrepoint walks at noon-day?
Why the Primate greets profusely
Fezzed Musurus when he enters ?
Why the latter comes to gaze on
These ill-fated dogs of Christians
That his former masters cheated?
And their wonderment continues
As they hear the charivari,
See the entrances and exits,

Watch staid men in green and silver,
Rushing here and running thither.
Others, clad in velvet small-clothes,
Pottering in among the benches,
Nought effecting but confusion.

Entered are at last the household,

And the Queen comes through the doorway, Sits she in her dress of velvet

On the throne, and all is silent.

Only for a minute's space though,

For, from down a distant lobby,

Comes the sound of pattering footsteps,

Like the rush of many waters,

By the shore of Gitche Gumee,

By the shining Big Sea Water.
Nearer, nearer, comes the pattering,
Louder, louder grow the voices,
More pronounced the hurried scuffling.
Now it seems as though the sound wave
Rolled close to the chamber's portal,
And, 'midst loud complaints and laughter,
Plainly heard by all who sat there,
Comes unto the bar the Speaker;
At his heels are Stafford Northcote,
And Ward Hunt, the Tory giant,
After them the deluge! Members
Fight and push, and pull and scuffle;
Loudly wrangle for their places,
And protest with scanty measure
Of politeness or good breeding;
Whilst their premier, safe translated,
Smiles a smile that's cold and selfish.

But at length the Commons settle
Into order as behoves them.
And the Chancellor upstanding

Mounts the throne's wide steps, and kneeling
To his sovereign he offers

Her own speech, which she declining,
He unrolls, and then distinctly
With a voice and tone majestic
(Picked up in his constant practice),
Read it in this way and this wise :-
"Listen to these words of wisdom

That with much elaborate caution,

In the Cabinet we hit on.

Oh, my faithful Lords and Commons, As it is so far from likely

That you read the daily journals,
As it is so very certain

You've heard nothing that has happened,

I will tell you what you cannot
By remotest chance have heard of:
Know ye then, my trusted children,
There has been a war in Turkey,
And my Ministers have written
Some despatches on the subject;
So if, later on, my Commons
Should find out the vote for foolscap
And for ink and quills is swollen,
They will know the cause and pass it;
But let me haste on to tell you
In thrice twenty lines the items
That for weeks have been known fully
Through the papers to the people.
Know ye then, my Lords and Commons
(This is likewise news important,

I have journeyed far to tell you),
We joined Europe in a Conference,
And we sent our trusty cousin,
Robert Cecil, Salisbury's Marquis,
To take part in its discussions?
Know ye not that Robert Cecil,
Lordly master he of Hatfield,

Went and saw, but did not conquer-
Went and talked, but did not manage

Well his coaxing or his bluster;

Nay, came back completely vanquished, And must do without his dukedom?

Need I add, my knowing children,

How his failure grieved his colleagues-
How Lord Derby wept to hear it-
How Lord Beaconsfield has felt it?
Still bewails it much in private,
And in public should his lips curl,
That is merely force of habit.
Know ye too, my legislators,
My most able statute-makers,
That my Indian subjects vastly
Liked the squibs let off at Delhi,
By my dreamy poet-Viceroy ;
And, about to die of famine,
They enjoyed the show immensely.
All the Colonies are prosp'rous !
Which, if I am not mistaken,
Will be news to many of them,
Say, for instance, to Barbadoes.

Gentlemen, who pull the purse-strings,

I presume you will, as usual,

Vote sufficient of the needful.

Go, then, and in these great labours
May the spirit of the Master,

Gitche Manito, the Mighty

Aid you, lest they should o'erwhelm you."

Then uprose the Queen, and vanished, And a hubbub fills the Chamber: Peers take off their robes of velvet ;

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Copies may be ordered of WALTER HAMILTON, 64, Bromfelde Road, Clapham, S. W., or of the Publishers, Messrs. REEVES & TURNER, 196, Strand, W.C,

Notices of the Press.

MR. E. L. BLANCHARD says:- "There are many playgoers who are somewhat puzzled to understand the full significance of the satire conveyed in the adapted comedy of "The Colonel at the Prince of Wales's, and Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan's original comic opera of "Patience," still prolonging its singularly successful career at the Savoy Theatre. To these, and many others, may be safely commended a curiously interesting book, just published, called "The Esthetic Movement in England." The author, Mr. Walter Hamilton, has treated a very important subject with much care and considerable research. His chapters on the painters and poets of the Esthetic school are excellently written and replete with information not readily accessible, while his sketch of the career of Mr. Oscar Wilde will solve many questions to which few, even in well-informed circles, could readily reply." Birmingham Daily Gazette."

MR. W. M. ROSSETTI says:-"There are, I think, many true and pointed observations in your book, and I necessarily sympathise in the general point of view which it adopts on the questions at issue."

MR. G. A. SALA writes:-"Many thanks for your book on 'The Esthetic Movement in England.' It will be historically curious and valuable long after the silly opposition to the movement has passed away."

"The West Middlesex Advertiser " thus described the scope of the work:

"The origin of the Esthetic Movement in England is here ascribed to the small circle of artists and poets who styled themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, as far back as 1848. These were seven young Oxford students, namely, Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Thomas Woolner, William Michael Rossetti, G. F. Stevens, and James Collinson, and they started a small magazine, entitled "The Germ," to advocate their peculiar views in art and poetry. After describing the attacks this circle was subjected to, and Mr. Ruskin's able defence of it, comes an outline of Ruskin's influence on art, and Sir Coutts Lindsay's formation of the Grosvenor Gallery, in which nearly all the most celebrated pictures of the Esthetic School have been exhibited, including the works of E. Burne-Jones, who is by some held to be the head of the School in painting, and the peculiar paintings by J. A. M. Whistler. In connection with the latter artist, an account is given of the remarkable action for libel he brought against Mr. Ruskin.

"The chapter devoted to Esthetic Culture is one that will probably excite the greatest interest and curiosity; in it the influence of the new School on art, music, architecture, furniture and dress is distinctly pointed out; and the undoubted good it has achieved prove that the ridicule which has hitherto been directed against the Esthetes was both unjust and unreasonable, "The poetry of the Esthetic School is next described, and naturally leads up to an account of Robert Buchanan's attacks upon Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Fleshly School, with the law-suit that arose out of the curious anonymous poem, "Jonas Fisher." These chapters are full of literary details, which will interest admirers of Swinburne, Morris, Rossetti, and Buchanan, whilst the article on Oscar Wilde contains facts and anecdotes concerning that talented young poet, which will certainly be new to the general public, and extracts from his poems of a stamp likely to astonish some of those who now think it 'good form' to sneer at the Esthetic bard.

"The author has throughout treated his topic in a reverent spirit; indeed, he deprecates the frivolity of those who, without understanding its aims or meaning, choose to ridicule Estheticism, and if he is not himself an Esthete, he is at any

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ALTHOUGH Parodies abound in English Literature no attempt has yet been made to pab collection of these amusing Jeux d'esprit, many of which have been composed by our greatest r

It is now proposed to publish, in monthly parts, a collection of Parodies, both in vend drawn from every available source, and illustrative of all the most celebrated writings i Language, together with such notes, explanatory, biographical, or bibliographical, as may be elucidate the text.

Each of the principal authors will be taken separately, and the series will commence will! the works of Alfred Tennyson, Poet Laureate, to be followed by Shakespeare, Swinburne, Hood, Byron, Scott, Moore, Longfellow, Poe, Goldsmith, Gray, Lord Macaulay, Dickens, Cari and a number of other favorite authors.

Full details will be given of the origin, and contents, of all the most famous collections Parodies, such as Charles Cotton's Travesties; John Phillips's Splendid Shilling; The Probatio Ireland's Shakespearian Forgeries; Hone's account of his Three Trials; The Rejected Addresses, Rejected Odes, 1813; Posthumous Parodies, 1814; Accepted Addresses; The Bon Gaultier Ballads Rhymes, and other Parodies written by members of the Oxford and Cambridge Universities, &c., &c

The Editor offers no apology for Parody in itself, suffice it to say it exists, that the puhk pleased with it, and that no man with literary tastes can entirely ignore it.

As will be seen from many examples here printed the object of a Parody is very seldom to n original, more often on the contrary it does it honor, if only by taking it as worthy of imitation or bur

Every endeavour will be made to render the collection complete, and free from political or other

The Editor tenders his best thanks to those gentlemen who have kindly permitted extracts to b from their works, and will be grateful for information as to any Parodies which may have escaped his The series will be published in Monthly Parts, price Sixpence, or the first Twelve Parts will b to Subscribers, post free, for Five Shillings.

The First Volume will be completed in Twelve Parts, for which a Title-page and Index will be iss
All subscriptions and communications to be addressed to-

WALTER HAMILTON,

64, Bromfelde Road,

Clapham,

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