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TACTICS.

I

How should an Anglican priest with due cunning
Win his poor parish from England to Rome,
And, while the shame of a renegade shunning,
Secretly ruin each Protestant home?
How can he warp our obstinate people
Catholic unity safely to reach,
Stout though they stand for the old parish steeple,
Shy as they seem of what Romanists teach?

II

Kidnap the children! and shrewdly and slyly
Coax them and lure them to Mother-Church-rule;
And [for dear Rome ever watchful and wily]
Paste them up pictures of saints in the school:
Catch all those little ones, slyly and shrewdly;
But for their parents who make such a rout,
Vulgar old Protestants! snub the sect rudely,—
After a while, they are sure to die out.
4

III

No cottage-calling; the priest will err greatly
If his high office so low he demeans;
He, the chief celebrant, vested so stately,
Is not the cottager's serf, nor the Queen's!
If some parishioner asks for him meekly,
His condescension may grant such a call,
But as to visiting, monthly or weekly,
Duty so low doesn't suit him at all.

IV

True—for the town take contrary tactics;
There ostentatious humility pays,
There histrionic displays and didactics,
Street-preaching, too, sets a place in a blaze;
Choristers leading, monks trailing behind you,
Thus you can visit the poor and the sick,
And if a proselyte promises, mind you,
Anywhere, anyhow, look him up quick!

V

So through child-stealing, in one generation,
While the old Puritans die at their homes,
Anglican priest! in your fond calculation,
Juvenile England once more shall be Rome's:
Therefore press on with your singing and schooling;
Kidnap the children, ay, down to the least,
And, with your ritual-flowering and fooling,
Lure back this realm to the rule of the priest!

VI

But you won't do it! the children see through it!
Not even them can you cheat as you hope;
5

As they grow older they'll teach you to rue it,
Packing your reverences off to the Pope:
You may try craft, but old honesty's stronger,
Ay, and impatience is growing apace,
Loathing such tactics and standing no longer
Jesuit parsons, our Church's disgrace!
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