Punch: Punch (22.1852)

66 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

BRITANNIA CALLING HER DUCKS HOME.

PROTECTIONIST UNITY OF THOUGHT.

There are said to be just now three oppositions ; but, though, there
may be a difference of opinion on the Anti-Ministerial benches, there is
a remarkable unanimity of idea; for the two leaders—the Earl of
Derby in the Lords, and Mr. Disraeli in the Commons—were found
making use of exactly the same figure in almost precisely the same
words. Both commented on the Queen's Speech, and both suggested
that one of its fifteen paragraphs was the production of one of the
fifteen members of the Cabinet. Considering that this was almost the
only " point" in the speech of the Protectionist peer, as well as in
that of the Protectionist commoner, the question will be, whether
two great men hit simultaneously on the same thought; or whether
one took it from the other; and if so, which is the original, and which
the copyist. The matter may perhaps give rise to a controversy similar
to that regarding the respective claims of Adams and Le Vekrier to
one of the recently discovered comets.

The friends of the peer will stick up for the priority of his Lordship,
and will attribute to the Earl the early notion; while, on the other
hand, the admirers of Mr. Disraeli may perhaps assert that he had
the idea cut and dried in his desk for nearly twenty-four hours before
the speech was actually delivered. It will be impossible to decide on
such a very delicate question; but we can, at all events, have no hesi-
tation in allowing that it looks as if the Protectionist opposition had
been animated on the opening night of the Session by one—and exactly
one—idea.

The Sibthorp Parade.

Colonel Sibthorp boasts that he was never inside the Crystal
Palace, and still wants it pulled down. Will no consideration induce
him to spare that wonderful building ? He could at once preserve an
ornament to the ivj etropolis, and obtain a great personal triumph, by
persuading the House of Commons to keep up the Temple of Peace-
tor the purpose, in wet weather, of drilling soldiers in it for national
defence.

A Colourable Excuse.—The reluctance shown by many military
men to abandon the red uniform, arises from a natural disinclination
they feel to deserting their colours.

THE GRAND EXPLANATION.
The Premier.
Normanby said, Turgot said Walewski said he said—
1 mean the noble Lord said—more than we said ;
So 1 said, did he say what certainly he said—as they said?
Then he to what I said, after some three or four days' delay, said,
That as to what I said they said he said, he had said so and so;
Whereupon I said, that after what he said we couldn't get on ; and he
had better go.

The Ex-Foreign Secretary.
With regard to what I said ; at least, according to what they have said
To my noble—friend—as he said—'tis possible I may have said
Something of that na'ure, perhaps, I in reply said,
As soon as I had time ; but they had not, said quite what I said.
Besides, I said, what I said, as aforesaid,
He said as well, and they said, and many more said ;
And what I said, as he said, and they said, I had a right to say, if 1
chose.

And, after all's said and done, it is I who have kept you from blows.

LORD BROUGHAM'S OPTICAL LECTURE.

His Lordship, during his brief sojourn in Paris, on his way from
Cannes to London, where he arrives—Punch is happy to say—full of
southern sunlight, gave a lecture upon Optics, to the delight and
admiration of the French Academy. After all, we may say of
Brougham as Peel said of Palmebston—"we are all proud of him."
Nevertheless, his Lordship's sense of fun—not that Hunch complains of
it; no, no ! he leaves that to the over-grave and consequently over-foolish
—will get the better of the scientific legislator. It was very proper
that Lord Brougham should give his lecture on Optics; but why—why,
at such a time, did he propose to give—what, he called " the greatest
Optical illusion that ever visited a nation ? "—and then, followed up
his promise by producing a phantasm of Louis Napoleon in the
cocked hat, redingote, and boots of his uncle P We ought to feel at once
happy and lucky that our own Brougham is safe in London, and not
on his way to Cayenne.