Punch (39.1860)

104

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[September 15, 1860.

JOHN BULL’S BLUNDERS.

The City of Mont,real, in Lower Canada, has been thrown into an
uproar by a proposition brought before its Municipal Council for
changing the name of one of its squares from Commissioner Square t.o
Victoria Square, and by the circumstance that a monument 1o Lord
Nelson has been erected in another square named after Jacques
Cartier^ the original founder of Canada. It certainly does seem
wonderful that, considering how punctiliously the British Government
has respected and protected the institutions and laws of French
Canada, the people of Montreal should abuse us like pickpockets for
proposing to name one of their squares after the British Sovereign,
and setting the image of a British hero up in the other. But this is
just the way we always do offend people after having done our utmost
to deserve their gratitude. We confer on them inestimable benefits,
and then unwittingly inflict on them some petty slight, or exas-
perate them by some unintentional insult. We consult their interests,
but, overlook their prejudices; do our best to promote their moral
and material prosperity, but tread by accident on their sentimental
corns. To pamper Sepoys and give them larded cartridges was a
regular British blunder; and it was a blunder stilt more regularly
and truly British to call a square in Montreal by the name of our
Queen, and to post an effigy of Nelson among the descendants of
French people in a place which would have been appropriately occupied
by that of a distinguished Frenchman.

How shall we make amends to the susceptibilities we have wounded ?
Shall we implore the City Council of Montreal to call the square which
was to have. borne the name of British Majesty, Bourbon Square?
Shall we invite them to remove Nelson from Cartier Square and put
Cartier on Nelson’s pedestal? It would be as well perhaps if we
were to endeavour to disarm the animosity we have unawares provoked
among foreigners, and particularly our next neighbours, if we were, as
a set-off against our Waterloo Places aud Trafalgar Squares, to call
several of our streets Bonaparte Street, and to name the new bridge at

"Westminster Austerlitz Bridge. It is true that, we have Napoleon as
well as Wellington boots. The more general adoption of such nomen-
clature would show that we intend no affront to those who feel them-
selves aggrieved by the clumsy ineptitudes—gaucheries don’t they call
them?—which they mistake for insolence. The fact is, that we, being
extremely deficient in pride and vanity, cannot conceive how others
can be irritated by trifles, of which we in their places should take no
notice except that of a smile. They should pity our obtuseness. As
to Nelson’s statue, the French Colonels themselves might, be content
to see it in the Place de la Concorde, on the condition that it should be
made by one of our own sculptors. They might admit Wellington’s
on the same terms. Both Waterloo and Trafalgar would then be more
than avenged.

Tribulation Cumming.

The Reverend Dr. Cumming has published a new book and some
prophetic sermons, in an advertisement, of which he styles himself
“Author of The Great Tribulation Coming on the Earth?' Dr. Cum-
ming, by his own account,, would seem to be a very ill-natured person;
but let us hope that his machinations will be frustrated, and that his
malevolent hopes will be disappointed by the non-arrival of the. cala-
mity which he appears to anticipate so confidently as to call himself
the author of it. At least, we may trust that he will inflict upon the
world no greater tribulation than a great bore.

Waste of Print.

“ Lord Granville's errand to Madrid is in connection wiih recent efforts to put
down slavery.”

“ The Kino of Naplfs has been offered an asylum by the Queen of Spain in the
event of his being expelled from his dominions.”

Except as regards the names, these paragraphs seem to Mr. Punch
to be tautology.

PARTRIDGE SHOOTING IN THE HIGHLANDS.

On his way to that Turnip Field, our dear Old Briggs passes through the Park, in which iiis Friend’s favourite
Bisons are kept. He says to Geordie the Keeper: “I trust, my good Fellow, this is not the Season you spoke of in
WHICH THESE CREATURES—YOU KNOW—EH—WHAT—A—A—ARE DANGEROUS!”