Punch (12.1847)

S3

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

THE RISING GENERATION.

"A HIGH-SPIRITED FELLOW."

Father. " In short, you are ruining yourself and everybody belong-
ing to you Bf your extravagance and dissipation."

Juvenile. " Why, ya—as, there's a great deal of—aw—truth in what
kou say ; but the fact is, my dear Sir, that I am, really—aw—such a
creature of impulse—that—aw—that—aw—" {Explanatimi dies away).

THE CAMBRIDGE BEGGING-LETTER WRITERS.

The Chancellorship of the University of Cambridge being vacant by
the death of the Duke of Northumberland, the Heads of Houses, with
that gushing loyalty which distinguishes such dignitaries, have drawn
up a humble petition to His Royal Highness Pkikce Albert, to allow
himself to be put in nomination for the office.

A very incorrect copy of this begging letter having been circulated,
we have been requested by several of our friends, the Heads, to publish
a correct version.

To His Royal Highness Prince Albert of Saxe Gotha, Field
Marshal. LL.D., F.R.S., F.S.A., F.X., Y.Z., &c, &c, &c, &c,
&c, &c, &c, &c.

The humble prayer of the University of Cambridge, by its
Heads duly assembled.

May it please Your Royal Highness,

The Chancellorship of this loyal and ancient University being
vacant, we venture humbly, reverentially, respectfully, and admiringly,
to pray that Your Royal Highness will be graciously pleased to con-
descend to allow the University of Bacon and Newton to do itself the
■honour to elect Your Royal Highness into the office of its Chancellor.

We, the Heads of this University, beg leave most humbly to express
that intense devotion to the person of Your Royal Highness which our
body has, from the earliest period of historical memory, felt for the

w?-fnd1 a11 that stands m immediate connection with it.

While the military achievements of your Roval Highness have
secured to your Royal Highness the distinguished rank of Field
Marshal ; while your knowledge of the laws of this country has
placed your Royal Highness high on the Bench of Lincoln's Inn ;
while the universality of your Eoyal Highness' acquirements is testified
by the number of learned societies which are proud to acknowledge a
patron or president in your Royal Highness, we humbly venture to
claim for our University the united advantages of your Highness'
military skill in maintaining its discipline, your Royal Highness' legal
erudition in ascertaining its privileges, and your Royal Highness' Ency-
elopasdaic information in directing and enlarging the inquiries of its
various professors and societies.

As standing nearest to the Crown, your Royal Highness will of
course be the most impartial mediator between the Crown anf the
University, which, we assure your Eoyal Highness, will be found at all
times submissive to the will of the Sovereign. Your Royal Highness,
not possessing a seat in the Legislative Body, will be spared the fatigue
of protecting University interests in Parliament ; while, not having
been educated at this University, your Royal Highness will be free
from all bias or prepossession as to measures affecting its interests.

We almost venture to regret that the attainments and character of
your Royal Highness are such as in themselves perhaps to justify this
application. But we are proud to assure your Royal Highness that,
had your Royal Highness been as ignorant as you are learned, as rude
as you are cultivated in good arts, as violent as you are gentle, as
overbearing as you are modest, we should still have shown our loyalty
and respect for dignities, by laying this office at the feet of your
Royal Highness.

[Here follow the signatures of the Heads, many of whom wept
while subscribing their names in transports of dutiful and loyal
affection. We believe it is intended, if his Royal Highness accept the
office, to insist on all members of the Senate kneeling during the
installation, the Heads of Houses remaining entirely prostrate.]

PUNCH'S HISTORICAL PORTRAIT GALLERY.

OLIVER CROMWELL.

While Sir Jabesh Windbag, from red-covered Bench of St. Ste-
phen's, questions, in the Face of the Honourable Dryasdust, ia
Discourse remarkable for the infinitesimal Precipitate of Sens*
deposired by its turbid, hubble-bubble, frothy Word-fluid, whether
Oliver Cromwell "should have a statue"—we, Punch, thinking that,
on the Whole, it matters Little what such Windbag or World of such
Windbags may think about this, or, indeed, any other Subject, have
chosen that Oliver " shall have a Picture." j

Here He is, looking, upon the Whole, more like the Flesh-and-Blood
British Lion—whose distorted Orange, or Pitt True-Blue Effigies, and
Phantasm, or Skin, stuffed with Chaff and Rubbish of Folly, is hideously
, paraded, with infinite Celtic Yell of unintelligible Irishmen, or Lowing
| of ruminant Farmers, or much Snorting of cbraffy apoplectic Squires—■
than any other Man that has gotten to himself a Place among the
Worthies of our England, or, indeed, any other of the Earth's Countries.
It seems clear to Us that albeit Sir Jabesh Windbag glibly holdeth