e on renewing the acquaintance, judiciously
reflecting that the flowing costume of a Persian magnate was favourable
to the secretion of infernal machines of all sorts and sizes.

CHAPTER XI. -- HOME AND FOREIGN POLICY COMBINED.

Knowest thou the House where the members elected
Consider the measure apart from the brand,
Where Voting by Party is quite unaffected,
And solely concerned with the good of the land?
Knowest thou the House of Amendments and Clauses,
Where Reason may reel but debate never pauses,
Where words, the grand note of Humanity, reign
(Oh Mueller, Max Mueller, expound us the gain!),
Articulate always, if often insane?

*****

'Tis the Temple of Justice, the home of M.P.'s,
Our noble, our own representatives these,
But endless as sands of the desert, and worse,
Are the Bills they discuss and the rules they
rehearse.

'What about the Government?' said Queen Mab to the Owl one day. 'Is
there anything that it would do to introduce into Polynesia--that is,
if the Germans and the missionaries have gone away again? If they
haven't--!' and she sighed.

'I think you had better not try,' returned her counsellor, after
considering the point. 'You have got a queen already, and I should
think the Polynesians are hardly ripe for a representative Government No
doubt, in the course of the struggle for existence, they will get into
a good many difficulties, but I rather think that a British constitution
on the top of them would not improve matters. If you could get up a
Witenagemot now!'

'Oh, the gathering of the Wise Men,' said the fairy. 'I remember
that. Has not England got a Witenagemot now, then?' she inquired. Her
historical notions, during her long residence in Polynesia, had got
fearfully mixed up and hazy.

'They don't call it so,' said the Owl gravely. 'I wonder they don't, it
would be very suitable.'

'And what is it for?' asked Mab.

'Chiefly to legislate for the Millennium, I think,' replied the Owl.
'They have been legislating now for a considerable time, but it hasn't
come yet. It is late. We expect, however, that it will arrive when the
New Democracy is in power. There has been a good deal of annoyance with
the Established Church lately for not telegraphing for it sooner, and
people say that but for the Church's neglect the Millennium would have
been here a very long time ago. Therefore, whe