Punch (10.1846)

258

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

the Marquesas Islands. The mission-
aries to the savage and heathen dis-
tricts of London would not have far to
travel, and, short of cannibalism, would
meet with every variety of evil habit
to amend, and every degree of igno-
rance to enlighten. They would have
abundance of discouragement, and
enough of disappointment to satisfy
the zeal of a St. Vincent, St. Paul,
or a Henry Martyn. If not roasted
at the stake, they would be roasted in
slang, and the progress of their labours
would be calculable by something more
trustworthy than missionary letters,
and marked by more cheering results
than Masheboo's giving up his taste
for gold, or Rauparaku's solemnly
putting away eleven of his twelve
wives. "We throw out these hints to
the May-meetings in the best spirit
of co-operation, and remain, their bro-
ther in all good works, though they
won't own him so,

LEGAL FASHIONS.

The recent fracas on the subject
of forensic head-dresses, in the Court
of Exchequer, has drawn attention
generally to the subject of legal fash-
ions ; and a barrister's Belle Assembtte,
or Petit Courier d'Balle de Vestminster,
is very generally talked about.

One of the newest things we have
lately seen in forensic evening dress,
is the har gown, and a cigar in the

WORD ON THE MAY-MEETINGS. mouth, for after-dinner promenade in

_ „ „ ^, . .„ , _, .. , the Temple Gardens. The dispute in

Punch is not popular m Exeter Hall. If he were to present himself upon the platform, as a practical ^ Church as to " Who is to wear
■philanthropist, pious ladies would faint, evangelical chairmen break out into unholy passions, an& the gown and when?" has been vir-
Punch would be hustled by indignant piety down the steps among the pickpockets, who are practising j tualL ail_were_ bv a legal exquisite
)heir vocation in the crowd outside. j who y rushing out of his chambers'

He knows this, and deeply, sincerely regrets it. He has more sympathy with what goes on in May- exciaime_ "Who is to wear the gown
■meetings than Exeter Hall would be likely to give him credit for. TJ | and when, forsooth ? Why, I'll wear

Punch is anxious for the good of his fellows. He has not been a street-wanderer for nothing. He -t RQW „ ^n(j examp]g has since
•Vnows a good deal, he flatters himself, about the endurances, enjoyments, frailties, follies, vices, virtues. bee_ f0_owe_ by several of the legal
fclf-denials, and selfishnesses of the poor. He is anxious to correct the bad, and to set forth and aid the fraterj_tv The Temnie Gardens
jood round about him. He ventures, on this score, to claim a brotherhood with Exeter Hall. every evening exhibit various patterns

But still there are differences between him and it, viewed by him calmly and not uncharitably. ! ^ t^-g st,qe q£ *C0Situme In the way
Does Exeter Hall think it possible that Punch and the May-meetingers could be made to understand each j Q^ cop_ars t]ie _usty black is found to

)ther ? i predominate

Punch, it is true, teaches by laughter and wears motley. Exeter Hall dresses its charity in grave looks
)nd black coats. But Punch's grin may cover thoughts as solemn as a drawn-down lip and a dead ________

)ye. His parti-coloured doublet has a heart under it as penetrable, as sympathetic, and as large as
)hat which beats under the Rev. Jabez Beantv's raven broadcloth, or Dr. Anonymous's sable cassock.

Punch has his peculiar theories of social improvements, like Exeter Hall, but his own strike him as FRENCH GLORY,

the wider. He believes in the proverb, that " Charitv begins at home," though it by no means ends

)here. Exeter Hall, on the contrary, seems to think that Charity begins abroad, and that it should [ The Joui-naides DebatSAhlntrngupon
keep its pockets buttoned till it crosses the line. Punch has no doubt that the heathen are in a horri-; the reception. given to Ibrahim Fasha
Me state of darkness and depravity. Exemplary missionaries assure him of the fact; and, moreover, j D7 tne Rarisians, says •
Siat they have the greatest difficulty in convincing benighted but jolly Fejeeans that they are miserable' : fi Among the shouts w_ch weiComed him, he
Hnners. But his eyes have taught him the existence of a deeper heathenism and a more benighted might have heard more than once the name

lavagenesa lying round about us—the heathenism of untrained vice and the savageness of degraded ; Nezib; in the matter of glory the French do
>:,-]• t- v i not stay to examine, but applaud whenever

' o , . ^ , . _ . _. , „ _ „ it is brought under their eyes."

Suppose, besides its Pastoral Aid Societies and its Scripture Readers, Exeter Hall were to turn the j

Kream of its benevolence—its millions of money, and its thousands of agents, for a year or two, I Awfully true this. For the French
Sirough our own towns and hamlets ; suppose the Bible Society were to sink its Foreign labours for a | judge of glory as men judge of a black-
rhile, and to constitute itself a Society for the Education of the Poor—to multiply our Ragged Schools ■ pudding—by the quantity of the ma-
>y ten thousand, and increase their efficiency and scope in the same ratio? What if the propagators terial that goes to its manufacture.
)f the Gospel were to look at home, and begin propagating the Gospel lessons of peace on earth and good- j Hence, the greater the slaughter, the
rill towards men—to carry on, in short, the lessons of which their great Founder sowed the seeds and greater the glory ; the more the blood,
feft the record ? the bigger the pudding.

What if some dozen of Societies, now ready to tear each other in pieces from sheer excess of Chris-
tian zeal, were to lump their activity and intentions into a great Metropolitan Social Improvement
0hion, to go on step by step with the Metropolitan Buildings' Improvement Commissioners ? The
fritter pull down the hovels of the poor to build up houses for the respectable ; why should not the
proposed Society set to work to build up comfortable dwellings for the wretched who are thus dis-
placed ? What if, abandoning for a while their exclusive faith in tracts, they were to throw their
Juergies into baths and wash-houses, and prepare the human vessel for receiving the purified contents
jhey wish to pour into it ?

The zealous for Christian education might combine to supersede those present unsatisfactory school-
masters, the prison and the gallows. Saffron Hill and the Rookery he nearer home than Caffraria and

CORN LAW INTELLECT.

The Herald says, " There is no scale
wide enough to mark the vast intel-
lectual superiority of the country
party." Does Grandmother forget
the " sliding-scale ? "