ODE TO THE COMET.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 113, 19 November 1858, Page 3

ODE TO THE COMET.

(Melbourne Punch.) Wonderful stranger, healthy, fresh and fiery, You Ye on us bounced Quite unannounced, By any sort of almanack or diary. Where have you been These three last centuries—upon the spin ? Skylarking through the sky; My eye! To think last time earth saw your face so jolly Was in the days of Sanguinary Molly. And here you are, as fresh as any colt, And doubtless will observe, as did Ben Bolt, Considerable changes meet the view Between the. ancient matters and the new. How long do you stay— Is 't true, as rumours speak, Ye mean to disappear within-a week ? Ifso,wemay As well just have at once our little say. How long have you been tearing Through boundless space, incontinently scaring : Whole worlds in your sky r rockptty career ? Most venerable comet, sir or madam, 'Tis not absurd To think you might have stirred Some speculation in the soul of Adam Kespecting you, my incandescent stranger, Whether you heralded good luck or danger, Pray, did our great forefather make remarks About your vast expenditure of sparks, Your most amazing Continuous prodigality of blazing? In his mind's eyes, Depict your'heavenly size ? And did you dwell within his,memory's ken, When in three hundred years you came again ? Now, as we write, suspicions gather thicldy You 're getting old and feeble, worn and sickly, Used up, in fact, (from living rather fast), Poor comet; We don't mean disrespectfulness—far from it; But something's wrong with you, and pray what is it That ails you at this tri-centenary visit ? this Wednesday night You don't seem right/. You look so miserably dull and dowdy, It makes us systematically cloudy— 'Tis quite inscrutable, Oh! all ye muses! : Just as our fevered inclination chooses To write some verses, spirited-and suitable, '"' And the nine powers Declare them ours, From gentle Clio to Polyhymny-- , There falls a blow,. , ' ' '. A dreadful goThat blessed comet's gone behind a chimney!

Mr. Robert Napier, now manager of the Melbourne branch of the London Chartered Bank, has been appointed manager of the Commercial Bank, Sydney. ■■ \': ; :; ■■ ■•-■'■'• '•" ■' ■"

THE AUSTRALIAN POSTAL'QUESTION.' Tiik present state of the Australian Postal Question, as it is now entitled to be called from the. protracted deliberations bestowed upon it, may be pretty clearly collected from the particulars we have "put together concerning it in another column. It seems, if some authorities are to be believed, that the notion of au alternate service by the Suez and Panama ronfe3 has been abandoned by Government, yet that, notwithstanding that determination, a number of gentlemen, influentially con* nected with Moreton Bay, New South Wales, and New Zealand, have prepared a memorial to the Colonial Secretary, setting forth the importance a,nd necessity of establishing an alternate communication via' Panama, for the use of the colonies in which they are directly interested. The arguments, for whatever they are worth on both sides, are fairly presented in our current number; but we apprehend that the choice of route 3, important as the consideration is, yields an immediate-inter-est to the certain establishment of some one route by which the communications with our colonies may be,- at all events, kept up with regularity, if not with all the despatch or convenience that could be desired. It is idle to discuss two routes before we have got one ; or to insist on the merits of Panama, about which there is much doubt, while we are suspended over Suez, about which there is no doubt at all. The fault of our Govern-' raent is, not that it hesitates in establishing separate routes to each of the colonies, but that it delays in establishing a single route to any. Certainty, regularity, and despatch.by any one route is the desideratum. According to existing appearances we are as far from the attainment of this end as ever, in spite of the pleasant promises of the new secretary. The Colonial-office and the Admiralty cannot agree. Australia, therefore, must wait. In the meanwhile trade suffers, emigration checks its eager flow, and a thousand interests, public and private, are kept in abeyance. Our only hope rests on the absolute necessity of doing something, and doing it soon. It is one of the many golden opportunities of Lord Derby's Administration ; and if ministers be not disposed to take advantage of it for the sake of the colonies, they will, probably, see the wisdom of doing so for their own.— Home News, August 16.