A SONG EMPIRE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 170, 11 April 1908, Page 10

A SONG EMPIRE.

■ , $-f- : : ■■ : "To bo master of the sea is an abridgement of a monarchy."—Bacon, Essav 29. , No foreign lands of alien speech . Our broad domains;divide j ~ i Our British ports speatf''each to each i Across a'friendly*; tide, i . i Prom far Hong-kong-ti' Singapore i ! .The course 'is safo -audi free;.' ". " '' ; ,Quebeo'is'joined with'|lndia's shoto , I ; While .Britain rules the sea! Then build the-ships and train the crews, ... i. 'Whatever tho cost bay .be.;' ' Such heritage '■tweroisharao; to lose ; 'Tis ours to rule the seal hi.. Where'er far-reaching <scean laves The last colonial strand, Uniting seas , their .willing .waves Extend from land to land. - While Nnptuno's r&tless'realm is ours, THe, merchant's course is free;; . He fears, no force; of "foreign powers . ; While-Britain.guards the sea! - - Then build tho ships,' etc. > • hi.; <By seamanship this island rose 1 An Empire vast to.claim; ' . ...' And still'tho English language grows . . In daily-uso/ and fame,; . - But should the weakened fleet givo way, ■ Supremacy would flee ' And checked would be our*slighted sway By /every hostile sea. ■ Then build tho ships, etc. . ■ —Walter W.'Skeat, in the "Standard." Cambridge, 1908. : . - , (Tho Rev. Walter W. Skeat.is the-Elring-ton and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon aWCambridge, which post he has held sinco 1878. He has edited tho works of Chaucer and other, old English writers, besides a number of ctymologioal and dialect dictionaries.)