A POETICAL POLICEMAN.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1574, 6 March 1879, Page 3

A POETICAL POLICEMAN.

A successor to Thaekeray's tuneful Policeman X haa been discovered, says the Danedin "Star," in one Sergeant Peck. Thin present lanrete of the force does not, however, confine himself to ballad poetry. He has written a work called "On Duty"— not an essay, bub an epic—of no less than 366 stanzas. On two classes of his fellowcreaturea his divine wrath is freely expended. One—

The brutal London rough, Of whose clan there are enough To popu"a!,e a large provincial town ; In their rookerieß they thrive. There's no viler race alive, And a fearful task it is to keep them down. And the other (we regret to say) the :re* porter—-

There's another dreadful foe,

As most policemen know, Whom they meet with, and who sits at work in court, Like a spider on the watch, Unsuspecting fli"s to catcb, Ever weaving a sensational report. At the table there he sits, And his inky venom spite, And a story strange from nothing can concoct; And the public if it knew Just how much of it was true, Would often be less edified than shocked. If the gallant "peeler's" poem ia not so dramatic aa some of Mr Browning's, it has the merit of simplicity, and if it has not the Bensnousnesa of those of Mr Swinburne, it is cheaper. Let us hope the whole edition will be " taken np."