Punch: Punch (11.1846)

10

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

IBRAHIM PACHA'S WANDERINGS.

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We cariDot feel otherwise than angry at the manner in which this
distinguished individual has been allowed as it were to shift for himself,
so far at least as he has derived any assistance or advice from official
quarters. If a small German Prince comes over to this country, every-
thing is done to make him pass his time pleasantly. Apartments in a
royal palace are assigned to him, horses from the royal stables are at
his disposal for riding ; and if he wishes for a drive he has at his
command one of the royal carriages. Ibrahim Pacha, on the contrary,
has been compelled to put up at an hotel, to go about in a hired fly,
and when he attended the Review in Hyde Park, there being no saddle-
horse for him to ride, he was kindly provided with a charger from
Astley's stud, who of course executed all sorts of manoeuvres during
the Review, and insisted on taking Ibrahim in a canter round and
round a email circle, like the one in which the animal had been accus -
tomed to move from his infancy. The impetuous Pacha, not being
aware of our English customs, and of the necessity for producing a
voucher that the livery stable-keeper has paid the duty upon a horse
that is hired, has of course been fearfully harassed at the various toll-

The manner in which he goes blundering about London is truly
lamentable. It is not, perhaps, generally known that he came stumbling
the other day into the Punch Office. He drew up in a fly, and our
publisher seeing him enter the door, mistook him for a Lascar beggar,
and in choice Hindostanee observed, " There's nothing here for you,
my good man, so you had better go about your business." When the
visitor was found to be Ibrahim Pacha, every attention was of course
shown to him. He was escorted behind the counter, and the pigeon-
holes for the different works of the Punch library were pointed out to
him. He was allowed the privilege of inspecting the till, and on seeing
the heaps of money, he inquired, " how it was the national debt was
not paid off? " and added, "that if his country had a debt, and any
merchant had so much specie, it would all be taken from him to
relieve his country of its burdens."

On his expressing a desire to see a joke actually made, one of the
writers of Punch, who happened to be in attendance, manufactured a
complete pun, first taking the raw material, then spinning it out into
a fine yarn, and then winding it round until a perfect pun was made,

gates, by the'pikemen coming out and inquiring respectfully whether it! which was handed over to Ibrahim, who gave it at once to Sami—
is for "one day or two" that he has taken a lease of his quadruped.1 qucere Samuel?—Pacha, who seemed much embarrassed what to do with
Ibrahim, who was never stopped by the pikes of the enemy, is terribly it. His Highness left the office per 'bus for Charing Cross, en route for
disgusted at this obstruction from the 'pikes of a friendly power ; but Mivart's.

the authorities having left him to his own resources there is of course j Ibrahim Pacha's accidental dropping into the Reform Club has been
no help for him. perhaps the most fortunate casualty he has experienced, for the mem-

It has been, no doubt, observed by the public that in the reports of' hers asked him to dine on the strength of his visit. Here, however, he
our contemporaries who undertake to give intelligence of Ibrahim's ! was doomed to be victimised ; for though they gave him a magnificent
movements, there is a great deal of the Pacha's time wholly unac- repast, and plenty of Champagne, in which he nearly succeeded in
counted for. The fact is, that he gets into all sorts of holes and devilling himself, they followed it up with a quantity of dry speechifying

corners, into which the reporters are quite unable to follow him. He
goes every day at large,—

" Without a mark, without a hound,

And traverses London round and round; "

for nobody seems to care what becomes of him. A little while ago he
was groping about the Thames Tunnel, and subsequently we find him

on the merits of the late, and the prospects of the present Government.
Ibrahim, however, mistook the glee-singers for the principal people,
and thought the speakers were quite secondary personages. He went
away with the impression that " Hail, smiling Morn," was a sort of
ministerial programme by Lords Johx Russell, Grey, and Palmer-
ston ; while the applause that followed was misinterpreted by Ibrahim

a captive to a mercenary showman, imprisoned in the skeleton of a as an expression of confidence in the new Government. He will, no
whale, looking through the ribs like a miserable detenu through the ; doubt, go home and say, that on a change of Administration it is usual
bars of his jail, aud remaining wholly at the mercy of the ruthless for the new officials to make a musical announcement of the principles

exhibitor. A few days afterwards he found his way to Chelsea
probably in a 'bus—and wandered into Cremorne Gardens, where he
was of course, instantly converted into a part of the entertainment, and
divided, with the invisible poet and the balloon, the gaze of the com-
pany. We shall expect to hear of his being found in the gallery of the
Victoria some night, or taking a refreshment ticket at the bar of the
Bower Saloon in Stangate Street, under the impression that he is going
to one of the places of amusement frequented by the aristocracy.

they intend to act upon.

It is lamentable to see an illustrious foreigner blundering into all
sorts of places, and forming aU sorts of erroneous opinions, for want <>f
a little attention in the proper quarter. In the name of common
politeness, we call upon the Government to place at the disposal of the
son of Mehemet Ali a cicerone, a laquais de place, or at least a com-
missioner. One of the two porters who stand at the Temple Gate
might, we think, be safely entrusted with this special mission.