'Concilio!'

New Zealand Tablet, 4 October 1906, Page 9

' Concilio ! '

The ' message of hope ' recently given to Ireland by Sir Antony MacDonnell and Mr. Bryce recalls to mind the noble speech on ' conciliation ' delivered by Mr. Gladstone in the House of Commons. At the death of the Grand Old Man in 1898, the Rev. Joseph Dawson (a Protestant clergyman) wrote for a Scottish paper a parody on Longfellow's ' Excelsior '. The writer, however, retained the solemnity of character of the original— a trick which few parodists 1 lain '. 'A few stanzas may be appropriately quoted at the present juncture :—: — ' The hearts of men were failing fast, As to his place the old man passed, And raised, 'mid Tory snow and ice, A banner with the bold device, " Concilio ! " . . . ' As on the session dragged, and still Contention did St. Stephen's fill, Above the clamor raging there, A calm voice smote the weary air, " Concilio ! " 1 Amazed, the country gathered round, As triumphs new his efforts crowned, Till proud and hi'°jh his banner waved O'er Erin, wooed, and won, and saved— " Concil.o ! " ' Beside his grave two nations stand, & Linked heart to 'heart, and hand in .-hand $ And from the sky, serene and far, A voice comes like a falling star, •• Concilio ! " ' It. was a bold stretch of poetic fancy that maide Gladstone live to witness the triumph of his conciliation policy— to see ' Erin wooed, and won, and saved,' and the two nations • linked .like sisters ' heart to heart, and hand in hand '. But ' We call those poets who are first v to mark Through earth's dull mists the coming of the dawn '. So let us read the parting stanzas as the prophecy of things to come— of a dawn that is near at hand.