Punch (34.1858)

132 PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. LMarcu 27- l858-

DID YOU EVER!

Augustus, "I say, Aunt! Did you see what the Newspaper says about the Eclipse?"

Aurd. " No! What does it say ? Read it, Child ! Anything relating to that Wonderful Event is Interesting."
Augustus. " Why, it says that it is expected to have an Extraordinary Effect upon the Inferior Animals! My
Wig! I'd have You and the Girls look out for Squalls!" [Disgusting, Low-Minded Boy.

A POPISH PICTURE OP PALMEESTON.

The Tablet, which, seems to have lost much venom of late, and
acquired some honesty, thus, very fairly, for a Popish journal, inveighs
against Lord Palmerston :—

" We are not ignorant of the evils of which a Tory administration may be the
cause, nor of those bad consequences which necessarily flow from it. But the
Ministry of Lord Palmerston involved evils and dangers compared to which they
are as nothing. At home and abroad, in questions of principle, and in questions of
practice, the Palmerstonian policy was anti-Catholic. In other matters there might
be weaknesses, inconsistencies, and blunders ; but the hostility to Catholicity was
steady, deadly, and successful. It sprang from no vulgar bigotry—it was directed
to no petty end. It was the offspring of an enlightened instinct, backed by a great
intellect wielding an enormous power. We have never underrated him. And the
fanatical hatred of the extreme No-Popery faction guided those vile grovellers to a
right conclusion when they hailed him as the great Protestant of England."

What the Tablet means to say, obviously is, that Lord Palmerston's
policy, foreign and domestic, has steadily and successfully tended to
deprive Popery, as Popery, of political power. This of course con-
stitutes a reasonable objection to Lord Palmerston on the part of
those who think that Popery ought to rule. The Tablet states the
objection very candidly. It expressly exempts him from the charge of
vulgar bigotry; it distinctly describes him as aiming at no petty end.
Further, it does justice to his intellectual powers; and lastly it truth-
fully distinguishes between the opponent of the European priest-party
and the mere Protestant bigot, who cries " No Popery !" simply or
chiefly on theological grounds. The writer of the above extract deserves
an acknowledgment. He might have pretended to sneer at Palmerston
for acquiescing in the French occupation of Rome—and have lied. He
might have ascribed to him the sentiments of Exeter Hall—and have
also lied. But he knew that if Louis Napoleon did not support the
Pope, the Popish priests would no longer back Louis Napoleon, and
that pending the French alliance, no English Minister could possibly
interfere in the business. He knew that, for that matter, Lord Pal-
merston could not help himself. He believed that Palmerston

despised Exeter Hall as much as he himself did. He might also have
tried to depreciate Palmerston's abilities, and have insinuated that
the Ex-Premier was in his dotage. An ordinary Jesuitical or Pusey-
itical journalist would have uttered or suggested these, or the like,
vulgar falsehoods, being purblind with malice, in the short-sighted
view of damaging an adversary. The Tablet has the honesty to give
the devil—as of course it considers Lord Palmerston—his due.

Note, in the mean time, how intensely the Romanists and Roma-
nizers all hate Lobd Palmerston, simply because they believe that
his endeavours are directed to confound the politics of the Pope and
his priesthood abroad and at home.

GRACEFUL TRIBUTE.

by an excessively phosaic poet, who has evidently forgotten, if he evkr
knew, how to be sentimental.

" A sister of the late lamented Lady Boothby is about to return to the stage, of
which she was at one time a brilliant ornament. As Miss Mob.da.unt she will I*
well remembered."— Weekly Newspaper.

The sentence quoted is confused,

Most "liners" throw their words pell-mel'

The pronoun " she " is loosely used,
And perhaps the statement is a sell.

But though Our Lady of the Laugh

No more our evening Star may rise,
We '11 hail, (if true this paragraph,)

The Lady of the Laughing Eyes.

The Mutiny in one Word.—An old lady, being asked what she
thought of the mutiny in India, replied that, to her mind, it ^a*
extremely " Hindoodicious."