aspect of the
case before the Leaders of the Party, but our repeated warnings have
been unheeded, and the necessary consequences have followed. Our
opponents, however, have not much to congratulate themselves upon. The
Irish question has been kept studiously in the back-ground, and the
results, so far as they have gone, only prove conclusively that there
is no diminution whatever in the dislike with which the majority of
the electorate regard the proposals of the party of disorder. We are
far from saying that even now we shall lose the Election. Everything
may yet be retrieved. But, even should the result be numerically
favourable to the Opposition, they will be powerless for mischief with
the small majority which is all they are likely to get.

NO. III. (_A WEEK LATER_.)

The Elections are now nearing an end, and it is possible to summarise
the results. It is not surprising that our opponents should be
reduced to the lowest depths of despair. They counted with the utmost
certainty on a majority of two hundred. But, as matters stand, it
is out of the question that their preponderance should exceed fifty.
Where are now the confident boastings with which they inaugurated the
campaign? They have confused the judgment of the electors with every
kind of side-issue. Misrepresentations have been sown broadcast, and
have, in too many instances, succeeded. But the great heart of the
country is still sound. Votes must be weighed as well as counted, and
it is safe to assume that, with a paltry and heterogeneous majority
of merely fifty, the advocates of revolution will be reduced to
impotence, even if they can succeed in forming a Government at all.
The result is one on which our Party may well congratulate themselves.
They have worked hard, and the solid fruit of their efforts is now
within their reach. We may safely say that the Irish policy of our
opponents has received its death-blow.

* * * * *

[Illustration: "THERE HE BLOWS!"

(_The German Emperor has gone Whaling in the North Seas._)]

"There he blows! There he goes!" Like a Titan in throes,
With his wallopping tail, and his wave-churning nose,
The spouting Cetacean Colossus!
Eh? Harpoon that Monster! The thought makes one pale,
With one thundering thwack of that thumping big tail,
To the skies in small splinters he'd toss us!

Rolling in foaming wild billows, ice-laden
He goes, like the "boisterous sea" (_vide_