Punch (12.1847)

76

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

BROUGHAM'S POSES PLASTIQUES.

Wje have had, during the last year or two, a variety of Professors
whose attainments have consisted of an aptitude for throwing them-
selves and others into all sorts of different attitudes. We have seen
Professor Risley with his sons standing on the palm of their parent,
who gets his children off his hands in the most astonishing manner.
We have witnessed tntortilationists of every description, who have com •
bined the twistaboutitiveness of the eel, with the jumpupeightfeethigh-
ativeness of the antelope. We have heard of, though we have not
cared to see, the half-dozen Venuses who have been nightly rising
from the sea during the last six months in every quarter of the
metropolis.

But the greatest wonder of all in the pose plastique line are the mar-
vellous entortilations of Henry Lord Brougham. He has all the
elasticity of Indian-rubber, with more expression ; and the play of his
features, down to the very tip of his nose, is absolutely wonderful.
The very best of the Venuses rising from the sea is nothing compared
with the Ex-Chancellor rising from the woolsack. Cincinnati's tying
his sandal—by the bye, how was it he had it so frequently dangling
about his heels as to make his tying it a personal peculiarity by which
he is known to posterity ?—was a mere fool to Brougham fastening
his high-low.

But the most astonishing part of the noble Lord's performances is
the series of attitudes into which he throws himself during a speech in
the House of Lords ; for however brief the oration may be, he contrives
to illustrate it with a rapid succession of elective tableaux, as unique
as they are graceful. He not only suits the action to the word, when
he speaks himself; but while any one else is addressing the House,
Loud Brougham finds for every word a suitable action : he is the
great pantomime peer, or, to use a legal expression, he is a tremendous
chose en action. The annexed Sketches, made on the spot by an accom-
plished artist, during a short speech made by Lord Stanley, will show
the rank his Lordship ought to hold as an entortilationist.

"Lord Stanley entirely concurred in the observations of his noble

and learned friend, that this was a time of all others when public men

ought not to be subject to misrepresentation with regard to their

motives, and particularly when their motires and actions had reference
to publii; distress."

A FEW WORDS WITH JOHN BRIGHT.

John, thou art a sturdy, stalwart sort of man, speaking roundly out,
with something of a good English leaven in thee ; but thou art hot,
John, and thus riskest to be ungenerous and ignoble in thy speech on
the Short-time Bill. Punch would urge on thee, in kindness, certain
truths which thou hast forgotten.

Thou callest this a bill to control adult labour. It would limit the
working-hours of boys between thirteen and eighteen, and of women of
all ages, to something under twelve hours a day. Thou sayest that
when the work of the young stops, stops that of the grown man. If
mules and spindles are not tended, and threads pieced, the power-loom
must pause and the spinner stay idle. Does not this apply in the case of
children below thirteen ? Might not the same argument have held to
keep them to their twelve, thirteen, and fifteen hours' daily toil, while
big men could be found willing to labour so long, and requiring the
children's aid ?

There is an alternative, John ; older people may be employed if
young ones cannot. Wages will not suffer for that, and wits will be all
the brighter for not simmering in the tropical heat of the mill, and faces- ;
the ruddier, and lungs the sounder, for an hour's more fresh air to coun-
teract the cotton-fuz.

This Bill puts no absolute restraint on the labour of the strong man
it but restrains that labour under its present circumstances; it gives-
women some time to attend to their homes and families. All tbi?, !
John, thou unaccountably sayest nothing of. Wages, wages, wages, |
is thy cry. We do not think they will suffer ; but if they did, there is-
something besides money.

Thou wert never at school after fifteen ! Perhaps thou art none the
better for that, John. Thou tellest the House that in the establish-
ment with which thou art connected there is an infant school, a reading-
room, and a news-room, a school for adults after working-hours ; and a
person specially employed, at a very considerable expense, who devotes-
his whole time to the investigation of every case which can affect the
welfare of the working people, as a missionary among them ; and not a
few hundred pounds per annum are expended in promoting the advan-
tage of that body of workmen, wholly independent of any compulsion
by any act of the House.

Then thou goest on to warn the House, that if they arm the working
classes against the capitalists by a law fixing the maximum of labour
to ten or any other number of hours, it will be impossible thai that feeling
should exist on the part of the manufacturers towards the working classes
which had hitherto existed.

Dost thou mean that, if the Bill passes, thou wilt do away with thy
iufant schools, and adult schools, and reading-rooms, and missionaries ?
—that if Parliament infringe on what thou deemeU thy rights thou wilt no
longer perform what certainly are thy duties 1 John, John, this is-
unworthy ! It is not on condition of working thy looms fourteen hours
a day that thou dost these things. It is that thou art an employer of
labour—and an intelligent one—and seest what belongs to thy station, :
that thou providest thy workpeople with something beyond work
and wages.

We remember, when schoolboys, to have had a similar disposition.
If the master thwarted us, by admonition or punishment, we deter-
mined to be very bad boys, to write naughty words on our slate, to-
deface our books, and rebel against our lessons.

Surely, John, thou art not going to threaten the House with similar
pranks, now-a-days ? Bethink thee of this, John. Thou hast not, in
all these things, done a whit more than thy duty ; nothing to plume
thyself on ; nothing thou canst cease to do without sin ; nothing thou
canst talk of ceasing to do, without making tby enemies chuckle and |
thy friends sigh—as Punch sighs, and subscribes himself

Thine, in sorrow.

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Tna Mangling: Market.

In the late snow-storm, the officials of the National Gallery almost
despaired of clearing the long pavement which runs through Trafalgar- ■
square, in front of their architectural cruet-stand. One of them, how-
ever, thought of the picture-cleaner, and by his exertions the path was
soon as smooth as the canvass of "Peace and War." The Paving
Commissioners complain that this operation has damaged the stones.
They intend to proceed against the Trustees of the National Gallery,
as they say the injury lies at their door.

THE BONDS OF THE IRISH PARTY.
The " Hereditary Bondsmen," whom O'Connell was so constantly
appealing to, must mean the Irish Landlords, whose mortgaged estates
fully entitle them to the appellation of "Bondsmen." They are at
present "striking the blow," in getting England to pay off their boDd ,
for they know well enough that, without that, they never can be "free,"
or their estates either.