Punch (72.1877)

2

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[January 13, 1877.

KAISER-!-HIND.

[Queen proclaimed Empress of India at Delhi, January 1, 1S77.)

r-> n t . e t ., os >-

Roar, cannon, to the brass-bands',blare, and elephantine trump ;
Big drums, make all the noise you can, and native tom-toms thump !
While Viceroy Lytton changes gilt howdah for gilt throne,
And Victoria's Indian titles are to India's corners blown !

Prank yourselves, Scindiah, Gaekwar, Nizam, Ram, Jam, & Co.,
Rear your new-broidered banners, your new-coined medals show ;
Own that Old England, when she likes, can turn out a parade,
Almost as well as if such pomp were her, as 'tis your, trade.
Think not of cost, nor of the needs that call for it elsewhere ;
The cloud of coming scarcity that darkens the parched air:
Let not the whiff unmannerly of cyclone-swallowed dead
Come 'twixt your new nobility, and attar freely shed.

Lay your nuzzers* down in homage at the courteous Viceroy's feet;
Drink the sweet powder of salutes, increased new ranks to greet:
Nor ask if all this tinsel, these gewgaws, bind the band
More close betwixt your weakness and the strength of England's

'Twas not thus England spread her rule, from Charnock's narrow sway
To the days of Cxive and Plassy, of Wellesley and Assaye ;
But, first, by sharp swords in strong hands, and when their work was
done,

By proving she knew how to rule the Empire these had won.

And if some stains of force or fraud deface that record long,
The force is used, the fraud condoned, she now is just as strong :
The baser greeds of gold and rule a higher power o'er-rides,
By purer law than yours directs, to ends more worthy guides.
She holds your swarming millions now, but as a trust of Heaven,
To civilise and educate to her best teaching given :
A nursery for her Statesmen, for her Warriors a school,
To show men how a wiser West a wider East can rule.

Till India, as she bows before her Empress-Oaeen to-day,
Can offer her a gift for all the blessings of her sway-
Governors wise in council, and Christian soldiers, bold,

hand. * a present to a superior. j If need were, a more troubled East to take into their hold