to their friends. The Muse can indeed be worshipped under the Dog Star in numbers frankly canine. '0 honey, my honey,' rendered as 'O mel, mel nostrum,' would be a case in point. case in point. So would a couplet reproducing the opening lines of the navvy's 'Ode to a Sparrow':

'Sanguinolentus erat, si vera est fabula, passer

Cui domus in plumbo sanguinolenta fuit.'

And, in this manner but in prose, a great achievement was Lord Dufferin's speech in Iceland in reply to the toast of his health proposed by the Bishop: *

'Viri illustres, insolitus ut sum ad publicum loquendum ego propero respondere ad complimentum quod recte reverendus prelatus mihi fecit, in proponendo meam salutem: et supplico vos credere quod multum gratificatus et flattificatus sum honore tam distincto, etc.'

The Little Dog must have laughed to see such sport as that.

Few who have ever attempted to turn verses at all can have refrained from trying their hand at nursery rhymes. Mr Ramsay and Mr Broadbent themselves (for their names obstinately recur) do not despise them. Here is Mr Ramsay's version of 'Humpty Dumpty':

'Humptius in muro residebat Dumptius olim
Cum facta est clari magna ruina viri,

Humpti, te, Dumpti, nec equis nec milite toto
Rex potuit sedi restituisse tuæ.'

And here are two of Mr Broadbent's versions:

‘HI, DIDDLE DIDDLE.

'Evoe, per artem felis ovat lyra,
Et vacca lunam transilit; at canis
Arridet huic ludo pusillus,

Lanxque rapit cocleare secum.'

'THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.

'In socco vivebat anus, cui plurima proles:
"Tot pueris," queritur, " nescio quid faciam."
Ius sine pane dat et cæsos-nec parcitur ulli-
Verberibus cubitum protinus ire iubet.'

* 'Letters from High Latitudes,' No. VI.

kly

If, greatly daring, I venture to append my own versions, independently composed, of the same nursery rhymes, I do so in no spirit of vain emulation of two masters of the art of versification, but merely in order to show how widespread is the practice in which they J'excel. I have essayed thus:

'HUMPTY DUMPTY.'

'Dumptius in muro considerat Humptius alto,
Humptius e muro Dumptius, ecce! cadit.
Principis haud valuere equitum peditumque cohortes
In solitos miserum restituisse Lares.'

'HI, DIDDLE DIDDLE.

'Aspice ut æluri perstringant barbiton ungues !
Ecce! super lunam mira iuvenca salit,
Accepit dulci catulus ioca tanta cachinno
Dum cyathus patina cum fugiente fugit.'

'THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE.

'Antiqua est mulier, cui præbet tecta cothurnus,
Natorum innumero sollicitata choro.

"Hei mihi! quid faciam?" rogat hæc: dat parca puellis
Dat pueris tenuem ius sine pane cibum :
Tum teneros artus crebro pulsata flagello

Mittitur in proprios cuncta caterva toros.'

Two more quotations from latter-day versifiers must suffice. Reginald Griffin, a brilliant young civil servant, slain, alas! in the Great War, once addressed the following ode to a friend and colleague returning from service overseas, the friend being a person who believed in the wisdom of building up the system by good living and was addicted to the game of bridge:

'Pone me gratis adytis leporum
Ingeni crassi glacie remotis,

Quæ tenent almæ Veneres nitorque
Mercurialis.

'Pone ubi blanda recreatur aura

Ignium corpus nivis odiosum,

Et mero systema epulisque in altum
Edificetur.

'Picta post paullo viridante mensa
Charta tractetur digito scienti:
Apta dicendo Lalage comes sit,
Apta tacendo

'Sit comes; fas sit faciem videri
Pulchriorem unam Cnidiove Gyge aut
Phosphoro haud impune oculis virorum
Aspiciendo.

'Neu sequelæ unquam mihi peieratæ
Pœna triplex sit misero luenda:
Ecce Nizami videor beati

Vincere sortem.'

Lastly, here are some verses, Latin and English, accompanying her godfather's christening gift to Mary, the infant daughter of Mr Justice Feetham, Chairman of the Irish Boundary Commission:

'Accipe, cara infans, vile hoc sed munus amici,
Accipit ut clemens te, sua dona, Deus.

Dividat imperium genitor: quæ debita pars sit
Terminus auspicio mandet utrisque bono.
Lætitiæ tibi pars sit maxima, neve parentum
Pectoribus Mariam dividat ulla dies.'

'A little gift, dear little elf,

Take from my slender store,

As Heaven, which gave, accepts yourself
Its small inheritor.

'Let Daddy, carving Ireland's sod,
Divide to each his share;

And may the little Boundary God
Look on and see all fair.

'But may your share be all the joy
Your parents' love imparts,

And no division e'er destroy

The bond between your hearts.'

But no anthology of this kind can wholly omit the buds plucked by the inky fingers of the Muse's youngest follower, the Fourth Form boy.

Something of the sadness of the Sonnets of Shakespeare seems to haunt his translation of

'Post equitem sedet atra cura,'

'After riding, the Dark Lady sits down with care': while the very spirit of Waterloo breathes through his rendering of

by

'Dido vento reditura secundo'

'Dido will come again with her second wind.'

The Duke of Wellington's hackneyed apophthegm is apocryphal, no doubt; but I like to think that that translation came from the playing fields of Eton.

And so I end where I began, at the nursery of the Duke of Wellington's brother, who has bequeathed to it the imperishable legacy of his poem:

'Fortunæ rerumque vagis exercitus undis
In gremium redeo serus, Etona, tuum.
Magna sequi, et summæ mirari culmina famæ,
Et purum antiquæ lucis adire iubar,

Auspice te, didici puer; atque in limine vitæ
Ingenuas veræ laudis amare vias.

Siqua meum vitæ decursu gloria nomen

Auxerit, aut siquis nobilitarit honos,

Muneris, alma, tui est; altrix da terra sepulchrum
Supremam lacrimam da, memoremque mei.'

Vol. 245.-No. 486.

T

D. O. MALCOLM.

Art. 5.-THE GOLD STANDARD.

THE British Government, on April 28, took effective steps towards the full restoration of the Gold Standard, which was suspended in August 1914, owing to the situa tion created by the beginning of the War. This very important decision has been accepted by the majority of those competent to form an opinion on it, as wise in principle and also as judiciously timed. As was to be expected it has met with reasoned objection from some critics whose knowledge and intelligence entitle them to be heard, and with ignorant and, in some cases, interested opposition from other controversialists. The problem before the Government has been obscured in the minds of many by considerations respecting the Foreign exchanges, which have only a secondary degree of importance in connexion with it. It has been complicated by the pleadings of Mr J. M. Keynes and others who think that the Currency should be fixed in terms of internal prices by certain 'authorities,' who would use an official Index Number, registering the price of a standard composite commodity as their standard of value'; this would be supplemented by such other information respecting employment, production, credit, foreign trade, etc., as may be at their command. The validity and relevance of these statistics as a basis for resettling the Standard of Value are challenged by experts and economists of high reputation, who believe that a great deal of the disturbed state of home and foreign markets and international trade which has been afflicting this and other countries is due to there having been no Gold Standard, or any Standard, in Great Britain since August 1914. We have had a 'managed currency'

instead.

The Government's object in getting the Gold Standard Act passed was to carry out one of the first duties of all Governments from the economic point of view-to reequip the country with a sound monetary system, without which no healthy economic conditions at home and no healthy foreign exchange relations can exist for any community. A sound monetary system is indispensable for the well-being of Great Britain and the British Empire, quite independent of the Foreign exchanges. We