Punch (18.1850)

A REAL CASE OF CAUDLE.

THEREBY HANGS NO TAIL.

One of those ingenious and ever-watchful gentlemen, the astro-
nomers, who may be termed the police of the skies, and are ever on the
look-out for suspicious characters among the stars, or luminous bodies
having no visible means of existence, has written to the Times,
announcing the detection of a new comet. It is very clear
that there is no escaping the vigilance of the astronomical
detective force, and the new comet that has just been observed
makes his appearance under circumstances of more than ordinary in-
terest, for he is declared to be " without a tail,"—a fact which seems
to indicate the presence of the comet in some meteorological disturb-
ances of a very violent character. As there is a good deal of difficulty
in finding names for all the new comets that are continually appearing,
we beg leave to propose that the one which has just come forth without,
& tail, should go by the title of the Comet Spencer.

a regular mull.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer introduces another Stamp
Bill, in which are incorporated, he tells us, all Mr. Mulling's sug-
gestions. We should have thought there had been quite mullings
enough in this measure already.

THE WONDERFUL PROPERTIES OE RENT.

" The Free Trader," growls a Pro-Corn-Law organ, "cannot deny that
the entire abolition of rent would not enable the occupier to cultivate
at a profit."

Ei go, levy a bread-tax which shall pay the rental of the United
Kingdom, and yield a profit to all the farmers in Great Britain and
Ireland into the bargain !

But the Free Trader has more to swallow. "And," continues our
slightly paradoxical contemporary, " he has discovered that those who
are most distressed, are those who have no landlord between them and
their returns, but cultivate themselves the soil that descended to them
from their fathers."

Therefore, having rent to pay is a positive advantage to the farmer.
Agricultural subtraction is the same thing as simple addition. Reiit
is like mercy, " it blesseth him that gives and him that (takes ;" and
the tenant in paying his landlord aggrandises himself. " Fair is foul,
and foul is fair." Minus is plus, and plus is minus; and so Pro-Corn-Law
reasoning brings us to a regular nonplus.

A Rotten Cause.—Among the opponents of the Extra-Mural Inter-
ments Bill are a good many, we fear, who attack it on the most corrupt
private grounds,—private burial grounds.