ANOTHER HOME RULE APOLOGUE.
[To THE EDITOR OP TER "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Once upon a time there was a man who had a dog and three cats. The dog was fond of the man, but did not care for the cats, and the cats did not like either man or dog. As long as the man was with them he was able to keep the peace, but whenever his eye was off them they were sure to quarrel. After a time he grew tired of watching them, and at last he declared that they must really learn to love each other, and that the best way to teach them this lesson was to shut them up in a room together and leave them to themselves. And so, one day, be did. But when he went in the morning to see bow they were getting on, he was distressed to find that the cats had been so severely worried that they were hardly able to move, and that both the dog's eyes had been almost scratched out of his head. Some cynical friends tried to console him . by pointing out that for a long time to come, at any rate, his pets would not be in a condition to annoy him by. further quarrels, which was doubtless, they hinted, the object he had had in view. Others, who perhaps knew him better, felt sure that he had meant well; but, they added, it must be allowed that he knew very little of the nature of cats and dogs.—
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