Page:The Earl of Mayo.djvu/75

Rh 'The wit to choose, the will to do, the right; All the more potent for the cheerful mood That made the irksome yoke of duty light, Helping to smooth the rough, refine the rude.

'Nor for this cheeriness less strenuous shown, All ear, all eye, he swayed his mighty realm; Till through its length and breadth a presence known, Felt as a living hand upon the helm.

'All men spoke well of him, as most men thought, Here as in India, and his friends were proud; It seemed as if no enmity he wrought. But moved love-girt, at home or in the crowd.

'If true regret and true respect have balm For hearts that more than public loss must mourn. They join to crown this forehead, cold and calm, With laurel well won as was ever worn;

'Only the greener that 'twas late to grow. And that by sudden blight its leaves are shed; Then with thy honoured freight, sail sad and slow, O ship, that bears him to his kindred dead.'

Lord Mayo felt the hostility of the Liberal journals the more keenly, as in Irish matters (his real business in life) he had been half a Liberal himself. But as usual his vexation was less for himself than for the Ministry which stood publicly responsible for the appointment. 'I am sorely hurt,' he wrote to Sir Stafford Northcote, 'at the way in which the Press are abusing my appointment. I care little for myself, but I am not without apprehension that these attacks