Punch: Punch (38.1860)

| April 21, I860.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

161

AN EASTER OFFERING TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY.

he Athencmm expresses
its great joy that there
are not more than forty
Academicians, on ac-
count of the associ-
ations that are con-
nected with the number
forty, and it then in-
stances the “ forty
thieves” and the “forty
centuries.” We are at
a loss, we confess, to
see the great resem-
blance between the
lloyal Academy and the
two institutions above
alluded to. If we wrere
a R. A., we do not
know which would
please us most, to be
associated (or even
A. R. Associated) with
“ tnieves,” or to be put
on the same footing as
a common “century.”
We fancy the compli-
ment must have escaped
our wide-awake contem-
porary, after he had
been induigingin “forty
winks ” after dinner. If
a complimentary allu-
sion were needed, why
not have pointed to les
Quarante Immortels of
t he French Academy ?
There is some little

■connection between literature and art, and we fancy that Sir Charles Eastlake’s literary
palate would have been better tickled to be compared to Thiers or Lamartine than to
Ali Baba or the noblest “century ” that ever dragged his slow length along. As it is, if
the Athenaeum will generously forgive our punning on a subject to which it has devoted more :
than its customary seriousness, we must say that its compliment, though kindly intended no
doubt, smacks a great deal more of the “forty-ter in re” than the “suaviter in modo.”

AN IDEE NAPOLEONIENNE.

As Europe is all by the ears,

On the delicate question of rags,

And sad lack of material appears
To fill the chiffoniers' bags.

We, Napoleon the Third, would suggest
An excellent source of supply,

From which rags are e’en now in request.

And still more may be raised by-and-by.

Though it mayn’t show good fibre for wearing.
The paper material we mean,

Are the rags into which we are tearing
The treaties of Eighteen-fifteen.

The supply—at the rate we are going—

^ Of rags from this source will be steady;

Though some may throw doubt on’t, by showing
These treaties waste-paper already.

Annexation of English Journalism.

Since the Spectator and Morning Chronicle
have been annexed to French interests (for
further particulars, the curious reader is requested
to refer to the Tuileries), it is the imperial inten-
tion to change their titles, so that they may be a
little more indicative of the principles they so
disinterestedly advocate, into the more con-
genial ones of Le Spedateur and Le Chronique da
Matin. We applaud this resolution; for it is
only fair, having no longer any claim to be con-
sidered as English papers, that they should make
good their French title. In fact, so far as the
number of their readers are concerned, we do
not see why the two papers could not be
printed in French altogether. They would save
a large sum every year in translation.

THE LOST ROMAGNA.

Evil excommunications won’t restore my
good manors.—Bio IX.

SOMETHING LIKE A GOVERNMENT.

Mr. Punch reads in the Military and Naval Intelligence in the
Times, that—

“ The outer walls intended to form the new wings in course of construction at
the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, have progressed rapidly. Yesterday an
order was received from the commanding Royal Engineer, that on account of the
walls being faced with red bricks, which was pronounced objectionable, the work
■must be removed and commenced anew. The bricklayers have been accordingly
■dismissed until their services shall bo again required, and the decision has been
obtained as to the appropriate colour of the facings, hitherto given universally in
favour of red bricks. The expense of the alteration is calculated at £1,000, which
will be borne by Government.''

_ Mr. Bunch hastens to say with delight, that this is as it shoidd be.
Usually, when officials have made a ridiculous bluuder, from want of
proper attention to the matter in hand, the expense of rectifying that
blunder falls, and falls heavily, upon the people. The noble course
taken by Government in paying out of their own pockets for this piece
of stupidity at Woolwich deserves the highest praise. Mr. Bunch is
authorised to state that Ministers have all sent in their cheques, the
amounts having been arranged among themselves (to which there can
be no objection), as follows :—

Names and Amounts.
Loud Palmerston ...

Duke of Somerset
Lord Carlisle
Mr. Sidney Herbert
Mr. Gladstone
Lord Campbell

£100

200

50

50

50

300

£750

Lord John Russell
Sir G. U. Lewis
Lord Granville
Duke of Newcasti,
Duke of Argyll .
Sir Charles Wood.

Brought ovei

£750

£50

60

50

50

49

1

£1000

Mr. Punch is sure that the nation will agree with him, that we have
at last, got the right kind of Government, one that both preaches and
practises justice.


A Gratuitous
applied to joking—
person’s expense.

Truth.—What Sheridan said of wine may be
■the best to enjoy is that which you crack at another

MR. BRIGHT IN A BAD WAY.

It is to he feared that Mr. Bright lias suffered a reverse of fortune
which lias reduced him to a state of extreme indigencS. In a summary
of his late Reform speech at Manchester, he is represented as having
thus spoken

“ The Budget abolished several sources of indirect taxation, and had tied up the
Military expenditure by a tax from which hereafter there would be no escape.
Henceforth those two things would go together. If Parliament raised the Military
expenditure to twenty or thirty millions, that increase must bo defrayed by an
Income-Tax, or by an Income-Tax coupled with a Property-Tax. He (Me. Bright)
thought it a most happy thing that this result should have been brought about."

| If Mr. Bright does really think that which he calls a most happy
thing to be anything but a very alarming fact, he must, surely be
exempt from any liability to pay Income-Tax. He can no longer be a
member of those privileged classes which monopolise the honour of
paying for the national defences. If he were, he would never rejoice
iu the prospect of having, together with the rest of the commercial,
funded, and landed interests, to defray the expenses of those wrars
which they will be involved in by the representatives of those whom
hostilities will cost, nothing. Can anything have happened to the
honourable gentleman’s mill? Is it possible that he has invested
money in American speculations ? We know the cosmopolitan
patriotism which is characteristic of Manchester statesmen. Has he
been diddled in the matter of aDy loan by Austria, Russia, or the
Pope ? If lie has not lost all his money, talking- as he does of the
happiness he feels in the anticipation of the eternity and partial
incidence of the Income-Tax, he must have lost his senses. There is
evidently either a slate loose in his upper storey, or a hole in his pocket.

The Pursuit of Punning under Difficulties.

A Young Stockbroker, who for years has been labouring under a
chronic complaint of punning, states that the sharpness of the wind ou
Easter Monday was only to be accounted for by the fact of its being
“ a regular Nor-Easter.”

Vol. 33.

6