The feeling of indignation in the publics mind at being
yoked with Germany in the infliction of punishment upon the errant Republic of Venezuela, a feeling which has been more
nearly unanimous than any experienced in the present genera- tion, is reflected with extraordinary vividness in a .poem by Mr. Kipling published in Monday's Times entitled "The
Rowers." The poet there exactly interprets and makes conscious the national feeling :—
"They Bang:—' What reckoning do ye keep And steer her by what star,
If we come unscathed from the Southern deep To be wrecked on a Baltic bar?
Last night ye swore our voyage was done, But seaward still we go ; And ye tell us now of a secret vow Ye have made with an open foe !
The dead they mocked are scarcely cold, Our wounds are bleeding yet—
And ye tell us now that our strength is sold To help them press for a debt!
'Neath all the flags of all mankind That use upon the seas, Was there no other fleet to find That ye strike hands with these P"
That is poetic expression given to what Englishmen have been growling throughout the week whenever and whereVer they have met together,—at the covert-side, in railway carriages, in club smoking-rooms, and most of all on ocean steamers,
