Littell's Living Age/Volume 169/Issue 2187/An Unpublished Correspondence

dear Mr. , In willing response To your letter my views on your project inviting, I take up my pen to address you at once, And reduce, as you wish, my objections to writing.

They mainly repose, you will see, on the fact That the scheme of Home Rule your proposals prefigure Appears to be that which I've always attacked With whate'er I possess of rhetorical vigor.

I have banned and denounced it, as every one know, I have called it "betrayal" of England, if granted; I have talked with dismay of "a nation of foes    Within some thirty miles of our shores" being planted.

And with such declarations as these in my rear, With such flouts of Parnell and his "cynical offer," To concur in your plan would expose me, I fear, To the gibes of the Whig or Conservative scoffer.

My dear Mr. , Much as I feel That your scruples become you, forgive the suggestion That some -acquaintance they seem to reveal With what I've been saying myself on the question.

For I think you will find, on examining well My political speeches before I decided To go for the programme of Mr- Parnell, That no one denounced it more fiercely than I did

I was wont against "rapine," you know, to exclaim; I inveighed against tactics of sheer spoliation Pursued to achieve a political aim, Which I said was directed to "disintegration."

And thus your punctilios appear to my mind Just the least in the world - you'll excuse - fantastic; I expect, if I swallow my pledges, to find My lieutenant's œsophagus no less elastic.

And, in short, I'm compelled to withhold my belief From the reasons alleged your defection to cover So must beg you more frankly to deal with your chief, And explain your true motive for throwing me over.

My dear Mr. , I cheerfully loose At so blunt a request all restraints on my candor; My doubt, then, is this, whether sauce for the goose Musts be always and everywhere sauce for the gander.

For though into training you possibly may Your young party, a thus far undisciplined cub, lick, Still, granting they dance to your piping, I say, I don't feel so sure you'll bamboozle the public.

You'll risk it? Your years such a hazard befits, But you seem to forget of my birth what the date is, And I don't see why I should play double or quits At the wish of a man who is nearing the eighties.

My dear Mr. , Caution, no doubt, Stands for wisdom in some people's sole definition; Your shrewd calculations perhaps might work out, Were it not for one force you neglect - competition.

You forget that you risk being passed in the race Nor would aught, I imagine, disgust you so sorely, As finding the fence that you dared not to face Had been cleared, and in triumph, by one Mr. M-rl-y.

My dear Mr. , I don't think I need, On a point I've so fully considered, address you.

My dear Mr. , Don't you, indeed? Then I've only to bid you good-bye, and God bless you!