l temptation;
But what's good rule for one will fall quite crushingly
If 'tis adopted by a mighty nation.
SCIPIO, no doubt, was splendid in his modest
And generous dealings with those Spanish hostages;
But SALISBURY-SCIPIO? Picture of the oddest!
Imperial rule is not all Penny Postages,
Dainty diplomacies, generous concessions
To Teuton tastes and Hohenzollern fancies;
Or faith in bland CAPRIVI'S fine professions,
And wandering WEISSMANN'S roseate romances.
Kilimi-Njaro, Masai-Land, the Congo,
Should satisfy your thirst for abnegation;
And now, methinks, dear Lord, you cannot wrong go,
If you go in for--let's say "exploitation."
SCIPIO the Elder was not given to letting
The Carthaginians get too much the best of him.
Now on the Teuton it is even betting;
To squeeze you north, or south, or east, or west of him.
Out of the Congo State on the west border,
Out of the Southern Soudan on his north one!
By Jove, my Lord, that seems a biggish order!
To stop it needs some struggle, and 'tis worth one.
That poor East African Company's affronted,
While Iron-clads and soldiers help the Teuton.
_Must_ they then be from the Nyanza shunted,
And _must_ I all their miseries be mute on,
Because plain speech is what you call "embarrassing."
Because unto the Teuton you're so tender?
Must Englishmen in Africa stand harassing,
And stoop to a calm policy of Surrender,
And all that a proud Premier at Hatfield
May play the SCIPIO--in this feeble fashion?
My Lord, we did not win our spurs in _that_ field.
Upon my soul, it puts me in a passion;
And not me only, but, as you'll discover,
A lot of Englishmen who watch this drama.
SCIPIO was not an indiscriminate lover,
But it was he licked HANNIBAL at Zama.
I bring you, SCIPIO, the East Afric beauty
Captured and chained, but opulent and charming.
You turn away! From sacred sense of duty?
From fear of your (political) virtue harming?
No! SCIPIO seemed ruled by honour's laws
When to the captured beauty he was lenient,
You turn away, sham SCIPIO, because
She seems "embarrassing and inconvenient!"

* * * * *

BEER.

[Messrs. SPIERS AND POND say in a letter in _The Daily
Telegraph_, that "bottled beer is really what the great
majority of the public want when they are out for a holiday."]

MENTION not the w