A REPLY TO KIPLING'S 'IMPERIAL RESCRIPT.'

Observer, Volume X, Issue 622, 29 November 1890, Page 11

A REPLY TO KIPLING'S 'IMPERIAL RESCRIPT.'

(By W. R. Wills.)

Come, hear now this tale of the Council The German Kaiser decreed, That the strong should give way to the weary Aud succour the poor in their naed. He commanded his people who labour, With bishops and princes and peers, To show him why people should murmur In hunger, those thousands of yea^s ! , Thus they meet in the palace at Berlin — Men, dying of hunger and cold ; They met— the great nobles and pi\nces, Array'd in their purple and gold. And men look'd askance at the nobles, . The nobles stared back with a frown ; The Kaiser, in ermine and criuison, Sat toying with sceptre and crown. Ay, there came to the palace at Berlin, The Lords and Masters of Slaves ; The floggers of women, babe-starvers, The princes and diggers of graves ; And some had their guns and their side swords, And some had their whipa and their spears, And all had the blood stains of victims, Dried in for a thousand of years ! There bastards of Princes and Harlots Stood near by the oh ldren of Toil ; And there, by the side of the bishops, Knelt famishing Serfs of the Soil. They came from the ety and the palace, They came from the temple and slum, And some were like blustering bubb.es, And others were sightlebs and dumb ! The Kaiser then said — ' O, ye people, Come, show me the way that is best To dry up the tears of the weary, Aud find out a kingdom < >f rett ; For some one has plunders! the people, And murdered the helpless and meek ; I hear but the sobbing of children— The pitiful cry of the weak.' And the Kaiser swore roundly, by heaven, The days of the despot were o'er — Thai the poor should be helped by the noble, And wounds should be heal'd that were sore. He said — There's a deed set before you ; Stand forward, my men, in aline, ' And write down the name of the villain Who hath butchei-'d my people. SIGN" ! Then the princes took up the goose-quill A nd wrote down a name on the deed ; Thf> noble wrote his, then the bishop, The weary one next, in his need ; The matron, starveii into a harlot, The maid, as she tremblingly, stood, And the babe sign'd his, and the writing Was red as \jhe gushing of blood. 4 WHO,' thundered the Kaiser, 'is culprit ; Who, for he dieth to-day P' Then rang a clear ripple of laughter The years shall not banish away ; And a shadow came in to the Council, And a voice clanged forth like a knell — • THOU ! Thou art the culprit, O Kaiser !' And they saw then a spirit from hell ! The grave, with its thousands of horrors, Had ne'er such a picture, I ween ; Gaunt, fleshless and eyeless, he stood there, As only a fiend may be seen ! Green snakes coiled round him in clusters And over his bosom they ran, And they changed, now and then into spirits — The desolate spirits of man ! Yes ! This is the tale of the Council The German Kaiser decreed ; For he thought that a brother would succour The helpless and poor in their need. But as long as Monarchs shall rule us, There shall be no change in the times ; But nobles and robbers shall fool us, And breed in a million of crimes !

A census of the whole of New Zealand is to be taken on the night of Sunday, the sth of April, 1891.

Mr K. J. (tlovbb has resigned his membership of Auckland Schools Committee. He took the broad hint given by Hodge through the Herald ; but Usher and Carr don't seem inclined to follow suit.

In the ship Assaye, which was been posted at Lloyd's us ' missing,' was shipped Sir Walter Buller's very valuable New Zealand library— the accumulation of 30 years' careful selection. Besides this, there was his careful collection of natural history and ethnological specimens.

Apropos .of Dr. Bakewell's call to old Bohoolmates ot J. L. Toole, it is worthy of note that the great comedian ( foole, not Bakewell) met an old classmate at Wellington. We quote from a letter in the Wairarapa Daily : — ' More than 40 yeara ago, Mr Toole, myself and others were class mates in the study and practice of elocution. After a lapse of 40 years it affords a mutual pleasure to two old classmates to meet in social and friendly converse upon matters past and present. One classmate was Mr Toole, the other wag yours obediently, 0. VV. Hobnblow.' Nothing like blowing one's own horn, eh, Hornblow !