Punch: Punch (11.1846)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

THE SM ITHFIELD BULL FIGHTS.

It would really seem that there is a chance of the Spanish custom of
Bull-fights being introduced into this country, for every Smithfield
market-day one or more of the noble brutes may be found giving the
public an elementary lesson in the exciting pastime. From St. Bartho-
lomew's Hospital to Blackfriars Bridge, the road is enlivened three
times a week with the playful gambols of a few bulls, and Chatham
Place furnishes a sort of amphitheatre, which only requires a stand for
spectators to give quite a Spanish air to the locality.

We recommend to the authorities that measures should be adopted for

giving to the Bull performances ail the benefit they can derive from the-
accessaries which are usual on similar occasions in the country where-
the Bull-fight is a part of the national amusement, as we expect it will
become with us if the Smithfield arrangements are allowed to continue-
as at present. We do not see why the drovers, with their sticks, should
not be at once constituted a band of picadorcs ; while the policemen might
be employed as torreros, with handkerchiefs affixed to the end of their
truncheons, to brandish in the eyes of the bulls, and take off the atten-
tion of the animals from any caballero who may happen to be in jeopardy..

THE UNITED GLASS AND CROCKERY

assurance ©ompang,

PITCHER COURT, CHINA ROAD.

This Office unites the benefit of a Mutual Association with the
security of a Proprietary Company, and offers to the Assured the
following advantages:—

To all demestics, from footmen to maids-of-all-work, an assurance
against the accidents—so frequent and so alarming in families—of
broken glass, china, crockery, and delf of every kind ; from care-
lessness, ill-temper, or the mischievous habits of dog or cat.

A very trifling per centage on the rate of wages received (clear of
tea and sugar) will enable the servant assuring to break more than an
average amount of glass or crockery; whilst the feeling of independence
insured to the breaker will considerably tend to elevate him or her
in the social position.

When it is remembered that the English domestic is peculiarly liable
to those accidents of broken glass and earthenware that, for a
time, tend to ruin the peace of families, and endanger the situation
of the unfortunate servant,—such a Company as the present must be
productive of the greatest good, as creating a cordial understanding
between the employer and the employed.

When, however, it is remembered that servants, covenanting to pay
for " all they break," are more than likely to be over-charged by the
cupidity of their master,—or what is more frequently the case, their
mistress,—this Society will step in, and throwing its shield about the
defenceless, will fairly arbitrate the cost of the broken pieces. '

To servants of eccentric or violent temper, who love to express their
independence of master or mistress by smashing a sugar-basin, or
letting drop a dozen of plates, this office will be found to offer the most
consoling advantages.

Mb. George Turner has, for many years, been incessantly occupied,
calculating the average duration of the existence of cups, saucers,,
dishes, plates, decanters, tumblers, glasses, cruets, &c. &c, in every
walk of life, from Berkeley Square to Whitechapel ; and is enabled,.
after the most earnest and minute research into their various longevity,,
to draw up such a set of tables as will enable the most independent
footman and the most careless housemaid to break to their heart's-
content, at a rate of insurance inconceivably contemptible. The quar-
rels, the bickerings, the ill-blood heretofore occasioned by broken glass-
or china, may henceforth be avoided ; and squabbles in the pantry,,
and tears in the kitchen be for ever abolished.

To heads of families, also, this Company must be of evident value,,
and in every way worthy of their countenance ; as, upon engaging a
servant, they cannot but feel doubly secure of their property, if the
domestic to be hired is duly insured in the " United Glass and
Crockery."

To render the rates of assurance as easy as possible, servants may
insure separately for Breakfast, Dinner, or Tea-Service ; or for Lamp-
glasses only.

JENKINS, Secretary.

The Admiralty and Somerset House.

We beg to call attention to the deplorable want of shot in the locker
of the Board of Admiralty. Miss Green, the daughter of a naval |
veteran who had distinguished himself for nearly half a century in his-
country's service, being left in a state of destitution, applies to its first '•■
Lord Commissioner for felief. The answer is. virtually, "I have-
nothing for you." This is not the way in which the British tar should
respond to the appeal of a female—the daughter, too, of a messmate— j
in distress. We fear that two public buildings, hitherto thought dis-
tinct, will now be confounded—the Admiralty and Somerset House.

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