Only to hear as every year came round, But, spite of pounds or guineas, Of turning to a neutral tint, The plaguy negroes and their piccaninnies However, nothing dash'd By such repeated failures, or abash'd, With hundreds of that class, so kindly credulous, However, in long hundreds there they were, Alas! concluding in the usual strain, That what with everlasting wear and tear, The scrubbing-brushes hadn't got a hair— The brooms-mere stumps-would never serve again The soap was gone, the flannels all in shreds, The tubs and pails too shattered to be mended- "In fact the negroes were as black as ink, Yet, still, as the Committee dared to think, And hoped the proposition was not rash, A rather free expenditure of cash-" But ere the prospect could be made more sunnyUp jump'd a little, lemon-colour'd man, And with an eager stammer, thus began, In angry earnest, though it sounded funny : "What! More subscriptions! No-no-no,not I! You have had time-time-time enough to try! They WON'T come white! then why-why-why -why-why, More money?" "Why!" said the Chairman, with an accent bland, And gentle waving of his dexter hand, 66 Why must we have more dross, and dirt, and dust, More filthy lucre, in a word more gold The why, sir, very easily is told, Because Humanity declares we must! We've scrubb'd the Negroes till we've nearly kill'd 'em, And finding that we cannot wash them white, But still their nigritude offends the sight, We mean to gild 'em!" TO THE EDITOR OF THE ATHENÆUM. MY DEAR SIR,-The following Ode was written anticipating the tone of some strictures on my writings, by the gentleman to whom it is addressed. I have not seen his book; but I know by hearsay that some of my verses are characterized as profaneness and ribaldry "-citing, in proof, the description of a certain sow, from whose jaw a cabbage sprout Protruded as the dove so stanch For peace supports an olive branch. 66 If the printed works of my Censor had not prepared me for any misapplication of types, I should have been surprised by this misapprehension of one of the commonest emblems. In some cases the dove unquestionably stands for the Divine Spirit; but the same bird is also a lay representative of the peace of this world, and as such, has figured time out of mind in allegorical pictures. The sense in which it was used by me is plain from the context; at least, it would be plain to any one but a fisher for faults, predisposed to carp at some things, to dab at others, and to flounder in all. But I am possibly in error. It is the female swine, perhaps, that is profaned in the eyes of the Oriental tourist. Men find strange ways of marking their intolerance; and the spirit is certainly strong enough, in Mr. W.'s works, to set up a creature as sacred, in sheer opposition to the Mussulman, with whom she is a beast of abomination. It would only be going the whole sow. I am, dear Sir, yours very truly, THOS. HOOD. ODE TO RAE WILSON, ESQUIRE. Close, close your eyes with holy dread, And drunk the milk of Paradise!" COLERIDGE. "It's very hard them kind of men OLD BALLAD. A WANDERER, Wilson, from my native land, I guess the features:-in a line to paint And call the devil over his own coals- Ushers of Beelzebub's Black Rod, Of such a character no single trace A face profane, that would not do at all That Hall where bigots rant, and cant, and pray, Till ev'ry farthing candle ray Conceives itself a great gas-light of grace! Well-be the graceless lineaments confest! "Within the limits of becoming mirth ;' What else? no part I take in party fray, tartars, I fear no Pope-and let great Ernest play I own I laugh at over-righteous men, |