It "adjourned," as I know, in a fortnight or so,
and it did not do much while it sat,
But I was not to blame if we failed in our aim--
for I could not anticipate that.

'Tis a shame, I agree, that I cannot set free
all persons who kill the police;
That patriots leal who in dynamite deal
I can only in sections release:
But I think you must see that a statesman like me
has a character moral at stake,
And must simulate doubt as to letting them out,
for my Saxon constituents' sake.

For their sentiments move in the narrowest groove--
be thankful you are not like them!
Mere murder's an act which they seldom approve,
and are even inclined to condemn:
When the patriot blows up his friends or his foes,
those prejudiced Saxons among,
It is reckoned a flaw in his notion of law,
and he is not unfrequently hung.

Then explain to your friends that their means and their ends
I wholly and fully approve,
Though at times what I feel I am forced to conceal,
and to partly dissemble my love,
And the Saxon, I hope, may develop the scope
of his narrow and obsolete view--
He will alter in time his conception of crime,