Punch: Punch (33.1857)

254 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [December 19, 1857.

MERCATOR.

Mercator growls, like any Bruin,
At Palmerston's Suspending lines,
That saved ten thousand homes from ruin,
But baffled Capital's designs.

" Things should have had their way," he cries,

" ill weakly traders gone to smash;

The air a storm but purifies,

And splendid interest's got for Cash/'

When, from his counter near St. Paul's,
They raised him to a Peer's degree,
What waste to give the man Four balls !
His much more fitting type were Three.

FROM THE MINING DISTRICTS.

{Young Curate finds a Miner sitting on a Gate smoking.)

Curate {desirous to ingratiate himself with one of his flock). A fine morning, my friend.
One if his flock gives the slightest nod, and a grunt, and spits.
Curate {supposing that he had not been heard.) A fine morning, my good friend.
One of his flock. Did I say it warn't. Do you want to hargue, you beggar ?

REWABD OP MERIT.

We are happy to announce that a subscrip-
tion has been set on foot for the purpose of
conferring a testimonial on Mr. Gladstone,
in acknowledgment of his noble protest against
any interference of the House of Commons
tending to the increase of Sir Henry Have-
lock's pension. The homage which the Right
Honourable Member for Oxford, by that mag-
nanimous declaration, rendered to aristocratic
principle, has been properly appreciated in the
most exclusive circles. At the suggestion of
certain influential members of the Carlton Club,
arrangements have been made for presenting
the Right Honourable Gentleman with a gold-
headed stick, a gold-laced hat with a splendid
cockade in it, and a pair of breeches manu-
factured of the richest thunder-and-lightning
plush.

A Strange Remove (for Dinner).—Lord
Stratford de Redcliffe will have his Turkey
in England this Christmas.

THREATENED ABOLITION OF THE HOUSE
OF LORDS.

How did we ever come to have an hereditary peerage? How is it
that we are blessed with an aristocracy and enjoy the advantage of a
House of Lords ? These questions are suggested by a statement made
by Colonel Nouth, speaking in the other House, on the pension
granted to Sir Hesry Havelock. Colonel North is reported to
have Said :—

" Captain Havelock had participated in all those battles which had gained for
his father such world-wide renown; he had highly dii-tinguished himself as an
officer, and had r< ceive i fur his gallant conduct the Victoria Cross. He thought,
theretiue, that this was a case calling most loudly upon them to follow the general
piact ce, which was to grai.t such pem-ions for two generatiot s. (Hear, hear.) He
hoped the circumstances of Captain Havelock would be considered by the Govern-
ment, fad that the same pension so deservedly awarded to his distinguished father
woul i be made to descend to him."

If acts like those of Havelock Senior, accompanied by similar acts
on the part of Havelock Junior, are not enough to ennoble and enrich
all future Havelocks, how came anybody in the House of Lords,
except Lord Overstone the capitalist, to be enriched and ennobled ?
It may be a very sound principle to reward deserving men in their own
persons merely; but if this principle is to be adopted by +he Govern-
ment, of course they intend to let the Peerage, and the House of
Peers, die a natural death.

Suppose the Duke of Camrridge had taken Delhi; suppose the
exploits of Havelock and Out bam had been performed by the Earl
of Lucan and the Earl of Cakdigan; would not his Royal
Highness have instantly received a truncheon like that which has
been wielded in the mouths of so many cannons by another Royal
Highness ? Would not two noble Earls have been exalted into two
more noble Dukes, and would they not have been decorated with any
and every star, garter, ribbon, cross, medal, or other distinctive bauble
which they had not earned, or at least had not received, already ?

A thousand a-year is a good income in these times, but if the
services of such a man as Havelock are worth only one thousand
a-year, whose services, Mr. Bull, do you consider to be worth five,—
to say nothing of ten or twenty ? What has any ex-Chancellor, except
Lord Brougham, done for you that can be for a moment named in
comparison with the exploits of General Havelock ? Of what use
to you is any one of your Bishops in comparison with that hero ?

Either you underpay him shamefully, or you excessively overpay them.
It is true that the dignity of a Peerage may necessitate the difference,
and Havflock's pension may suffice a commoner, but if Havelock is
to remain a commoner, of course no more Peers will be created, and
the Upper House will be allowed to expire.

FUN AND FREEDOM OE OPINION.

The Hampshire Independent contains an account of a comic religious
meeting, which took place the other day at the Victoria Rooms,
Southampton, when the members of the Independent Congregational
Church celebrated their Fourth Anniversary. Our Southampton con-
temporary thus concludes his report of the proceedings :—

" Mb. Martin, in a humorous speech, proposed a vote of thanks to the lading
who had supplied so excellent a tea, and also to the indefatigable individuals who
kept the tea-pots sup] lied with boiling-water, and the vote having been carried by
acclamation, Mr. Nash made a few remarks.

" The Meeting was then closed with the doxology and the benediction."

The doxology and benediction, which succeeded Mr. Martin's
humorous speech about the ladies, may perhaps have been felt to
present some contrast to the facetious address of that gentleman. _ A
transition so abrupt, and so peculiar, by the natural laws of emotion,
was likely to produce an effect the reverse of solemn, and, there is
reason to fear, occasioned too many mouths to be suddenly stopped
with pocket-handkerchiefs. This unhappy result might have been
obviated by the introduction of a few dry words on business between
the fun relative to the ladies, and the devotion. However, we will
not be too critical in a case like this, and we notice, with pleasure, the
introduction of hilarity into the transactions of the jolly Independents
of Southampton, who enjoy their fun, as well as their faith, at their
own expense, and not at that of other people.

Bankruptcy and Boobyism.

We read in the Musical World that at Hamburgh a couple of Italian
opera-singers have made such a sensation, that in one evening the
audience called them before the curtain Thirty times. Is it wonderful
that Hamburgh should at this moment be in commercial ruin, when its
affairs are in the hands of such Fools P