SELECT POETRY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 31, 20 December 1861, Page 7

SELECT POETRY.

FOOTFALLS. BY HENRY KENDALL. The embers were blinking and clinking away— The casement half open was thrown; There was nothing but cloud on the skirts of the day; And I sat in the threshold alone ! And said to the river, which flowed by my door With its beautiful face to the hill, " I have waited and waited, all wearied and sore, But my love is a wanderer still!" And said to the wind, as it paused in its flight To look through the shivering pane, " There are memories moaning and homeless to-night, That can never be tranquil again ! " Did I hear a low echo of footfalls about; Whilst watching those forest-trees stark ? Or was it a dream that I hurried without, To clutch at and grapple the dark ? In the shadow I stood for a moment and spake— " Bright thing, that was loved in the past, " Oh! am I asleep—or abroad and awake ? And are you so near me at last ? " Oh! roamer from lands where the vanished years go, Oh ! waif from those mystical zones, Come here where I long for you broken and low On the mosses and watery stones ! " Come out of your silence, and tell me if life Is so fair in that world as they say ; Was it worth all this yearning, and Weeping, and strife, When you left it behind you to-day ? " Will it end all this watching, and doubting, and dread? Do these sorrows die out with our breath ? Will they pass from our souls, like a nighmare," I said, i " While we glide through the mazes of death? " Come out of that darkness, and teach me the lore You have learnt since I looked on your face ; By the summers that blossomed and faded of yore— By the lights which have fled to that place ! " You answer me not, when I know that you could— When I know that you could, and you should; Though the storms are abroad on the wave ; Though the rain droppeth down with a wail to the wood, And my heart is as cold as your grave !" SIR GEORGE GREY'S POLICY. (Pron^the New-Zealander.') It was therefore with pain that we saw the proposition made by the late Governer to the Waikatoes, that their rebellion should be condoned upon "restitution of plunder and upon compensation for losses sustained at their hands by Her Majesty's subjects, native or European." The very proposal of such terms was a confession of weakness of which the natives were quite ready to take advantage. But when these terms were rejected and treated with scorn, it seemed an inevitable conclusion that the force which was sent to this country to establish the Queen's authority, should be employed for that purpose. And it was assumed, as a matter of course, that the troops would be on their way to Waikato as soon as the season would admit. These expectations were put an end to by the announcement of Sir George Grey's appointment. The Duke of .Newcastle considered that "a remarkable authority would attach to the name and character of Sir George Grey as Governor of New Zealand." The result has proved that his Grace of Newcastle was remarkably mistaken. There has indeed been a most remarkable abdication of all authority. From all that we can learn, the natives are as firm as ever in the maintenance of the separate nationality they have assumed. They have refused to make restitution of plunder or compensation for losses; they have declined to yield one single point to the authority and character of Sir George Grey On the other hand it is said, and it is quite consistent with all we can learn, that he has offered to yield to them one point after another ; that after having expressed his determination to take down the Flag of Rebellion " were it as high as heaven," he does not even insist upon that point; that he considers the flag as a matter of no moment; that he still indeed insists upon the name of King being given up, and that of " Matua Maori" substituted for it; but then he offers place and pay under the British Government, in compensation for the change of title. As they will not yield to the Queen's authority, he will give the Queen's authority to them. As they will not restore the plunder they have taken, he will mark his sense of the spirit they have shown, by giving them salaries from the public purse. He will " introduce extensive machinery of government," and place it in the hands of those who have defied the Queen's government, and who have been in open rebellion against the Queen. Mankind have sought out many inventions, but surely this is the newest and most strange. That the functions of Government should be changed from being a terror to evil-doers and a praise to those who do well, to a means of gratifying and rewarding those who have been guilty of the gravest offences, which it is the object of Government to prevent and to punish.'

M. Alfred de Videl, sentenced to imprisonment for contempt of court, is , released from Newgate. Several relatives were in attendance to receive him on his discharge. He looked pale and in ill-health. The Baron, still an inmate of the House of Correction, is employed daily in picking oakum. Learning Spanish.—A Yankee writes from San Francisco to a New Haven paper —"A Spanish girl is the best grammar in the world ; and since my arrival in town I have been studying grammar." We suppose he'll conjugate soon, if the girl don't decline. A noble lord .asked a clergyman once, at the bottom of his table, " why the goose, if there was one, was always placed next the parson ?" " Keally," said he, " I can give no reason for it; but your question is so .odd that I shall never see a goose for the future without thinking- on your lordship."