Punch (12.1847)

177

THE ENSUING EXHIBITION OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

The Great Room at the National Gallery will soon become an object
of interest to those who are fond of self-contemplation. Our Trafalgar
Square Correspondent has put us in possession of the fact, that nearly
one thousand portraits have passed over the pavement, and the
physiognomist will soon have an opportunity of studying those endless
varieties of the " human fact; divine " which are to be s< en every year
at the Royal Academy. A statistical account of the principal features
embraced in one of these Exhibitions would be very curious ; and we

wish some Macculloch of art would take the trouble to frame some
tables showing the relative proportion of pugs and Grecians in the
numerous noses which will stand forward, in a few days, as prominent
objects of art, to challenge the criticism of the connoisseur, and the
admiration of the public We understand that some of the portraits
sent in for exhibition during the ensuing season were private speculations
of certain fashionable tailors, who hoped to tmuggle a glowing descrip-
tion of a magnificent vest, or a registered Paletot, into the Catalogue.

SMITHFIELD MARKET PRIZE SHOW.

PRIZE 05

public healh
ace d io u>r&

^ STONE w;

The defenders of this flagrant—by no means fragrant—uu.isa.nce
have discovered that it is conducive to public health and public morals,
while the female population who complain of it are more frightened
than hurt; and as to the drovers, th nigh many of them are gored and
tossed, still the treatment does them no permanent harm, for the very
simple reason that they are used to it. We understand that the friends
of the abomination intend to advertise a number of prizes for the best
specimens of objects likely to prove the view of the question to which
the advocates of the continuance of Smithfield Market seriously incline.
For this purpose they will shortly advertise for the best specimen of an
old lady who is in the habit of walking about London on a Smithfield
Market day, and whose nerves have been so completely preserved that
she can not only say bo' to a goose." but can look an ox-eyed mon-
ster in the face without blinking—as if, in fact, her nerves were braced
with the oxide of iron.

There will bu a Second prize offered for a drover whose whole life
has been a toss up, and who is none the worse for the ups and downs
he has experienced. There will be a third prize offered in support of
the moral view 01 the question for the production of a prize parent,
who, having been all his life in the habit of attending Smithfield, has
passed through the ordeal not merely uncontaminated, but positively
improved in all the noblest attributes of human nature by the genus
loci, the atmosphere of the marker. The salubrious properties of the
place will be proved by the production of a prize butcher's boy, whose
weight and age, when compared, wdl afford the most substantial
evidence that public health is not sacrificed by an attendance at
Smithfield Market ; and as what is true with respect to a part must
be true in reference to the whole, the market must have a salutary in-
fluence upon all the inhabitants of London.