"THERE'S SOMETHING IN THE ENGLISH AFTER ALL."

[To TRNI EDITOR 01 TRII "SPROTLTOR.1 SIR,—You may be interested in the inclosed reprint of verses written by me some ten or fifteen years ago.—I am, Sir, &a.,

BEETRA.ND SHADWELL.

Poste Bestante, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

P.S.—I am not an American, but a native of Cheshire, England.

I've been meditating lately that, when everything is told,

There's something in the English after all : They may be too bent on conquest and too eager after gold, But there's something in the English after all ; Though their sins and faults are many, and I won't exhaust my breath By endeavoring to tell you of them all, Yet they have a sense of duty, and they'll face it to the death, So there's something in the English after all.

If you're wounded by a savage foe and bugles sound "Retire," There's something in the English after all: You may bot,your life they'll carry you beyond the sone of fire, For there's something in the English after all ; Yes, although their guns be empty, and their blood be ebbing fast, And to stay by wounded comrades be to fall, Yet they'll set their teeth like bulldogs, and protect you to the last, Or they'll die—like English soldiers—after all.

When the seas demand their tribute, and a British ship goes down, There's something in the English after all :

There's no panic rush for safety, whore the weak are left to drown,

For there's something in the English after all; But the women and the children are the first to leave the wreck, With the crew in hand, as steady as a wall,

And the Captain is the last to stand upon the sinking deck,

So there's something in the English after all.

Though the half of Europe hates them, and would joy in their decline, Yet there's something in the English after all: They may scorn the scanty numbers of the thin red British line, Yet they fear its lean battalions after all ;

For they know that, from the Colonel to the drummer in the band, There is not a single soldier in them all

But would go to blind destruction, were their country to eom_ mend,

And call it simply "duty "—after all.

[We remember well the first appearance of the above verses, and have often quoted the refrain in these columns.—ED. Spectator.]