Punch: Punch (54.1868)

118

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [March 14, 1868.

EMBARRASSING QUESTION.

Pet. “ Ma’, mightn’t the Big Man let me have ms ‘ Searchers ’ for a

new Tail for my Horse?”

THE TOP OF THE TREE.

Great is the triumph of Creative Mind.

Lo, topmost on the Constitution’s Tree,

A Statesman of the lettered Artist kind!

0, Brothers, ’tis a goodly sight to see !

It was not so before, but was to be.

Genius, at last, doth recognition find.

A lofty purpose, with unselfish aim,

Forty years long well nigh the Scribe pursued.
Not the mere politician’s little game,

That seeks but self in seeking altitude;

But, for pure end the country’s profit viewed.
He trod, right on, the narrow path of Fame.

Still faithful to his party, in the sense
Of men upon high principles agreed,

He brought an earnest tongue to their defence,

No mere lip-service with pretended creed,
Which he would make them eat in time of need.
And so it was he gained their confidence.

The shaft of sarcasm never, from his bow.

Save when a noble scorn impelled it, sped.
Against a great and good man, as a foe,

From pique of undervalued merit bred,

A pack of purblind ’Squires he never led.

His policy was Honesty. Best so.

Be partners of our joy, fraternal hand,

That he, who was a Brother of the Pen,

Become Chief Ruler, has at his command
Place and preferment for deserving men.

Now, after having said all this, we, Ben,

Should like to know what you are going to stand.

Crossing the Line between England and Home.

Brother Ignatius is a-going it again, in his 0. S. B.
Benedictine tomfooleries, which, we are surprised to see,
he is allowed to carry on in one of the City churches—
St. Edmund’s, Lombard Street. This is evidently quite
a wrong Lyne in the Church of England, and the sooner
Lather Ignatius is shunted on to the Roman line the
better.

SOMETHING WRONG SOMEWHERE.

Counsel lately applied to Yice-Chancellor Maliks, at the
instance of the Charity Commissioners, to commit Sir Robert Peel
to Whitecross Street Prison, for disobeying an order to furnish the
Commissioners with the accounts of Tamworth School, of which he is
sole trustee. Eor these accounts the Commissioners have been bad-
gering Sir Robert ineffectually during the last two years.

Sir Robert had been personally served with notice of the motion
at Drayton Manor, but he neither appeared in person nor by counsel.

When a legislator sets such an example of repeated and aggravated
contempt for the laws, those who administer them, of course, are
prompt and severe in showing their sense of his conduct.

The order for commitment was no doubt at once made out, accom-
panied by some severe and well-deserved observations of the Yice-
Chancellor on Sir Robert Peel’s conduct in the matter. But the
case seems to have been strangely mis-reported, for we read that the
Vice-Chancellor said “ the notice of motion might have been served
upon Sir Robert when he was going out to shoot, and therefore he might
not have read it.”

Clearly this must be some stupid blunder of the reporters. The
Yice-CbanCEL10R knows the duty of his office far too well to suggest
excuses for a manifest contempt of Court following on a course of dis-
respect to a constituted authority, in a matter of public duty.

Sir Robert might, no doubt, have been going out to shoot, or
to fish, or to hunt, or to bait badgers, or kill rats, or any other
“ country contentment,” when the notice was served on him. But
nobody knows better than Yice-Chancellor Malins that if any
counsel were to put in such a plea before him for a sporting publican,
a dashing linen-draper, or any other variety of the genus “ snob,’’ who
had treated a similar notice of motion with similar contempt, he would
receive, for his.impudence, such a rebuke as he would not easily forget.

The blundering reporter goes on (still putting excuses in the Yice-
Chancellor’s mouth):—

“ Sir Robert was probably now at Whitehall, and to afford him an opportunity
ot informing him of the present proceeding, the motion must stand over till a

quarter past one. If he should not then appear in person or by counsel, the Court
would be obliged to dispose of the case in his absence.”

That there is some unaccountable mis-reporting here is clear from
what follows :—

“It turned out that Sir Robert was not in town, and the case was put off for
a week.”

Evidently, after the Yice-Chancellor had announced his intention of
disposing of the motion in Sir Robert’s absence, if he did not show,
in person or by counsel, at a quarter-past one, he would not have put
the case off for a week, when a quarter past one came, and brought no
Sir Robert. Nor is it in itself conceivable that a Judge would thus
allow the majesty of the law to be flouted, to suit the convenience
of even the most eccentric of Baronets.

We conclude, therefore, that the Reporter is utterly and unaccount-
ably at fault throughout this altogether incredible account of these
proceedings.

We can readily believe that Sir Robert Peel defied the law, and
was insolent in his mode of defying it. What we cannot believe is,
that a Judge was quick to suggest excuses for such defiance, and to
use his power over the business of his Court to shield the offender
from the penalty of it.

Curious Mistake.

An elderly maiden Lady, who has lived all her life in Little Trenid-
dium, Cornwall, said that she had always considered Westminster Hall
as a sort of Museum for stuffed Notabilities, as she had been invariably
given to understand that it was there you could see “ the most distin-
guished men in cases.” Her view was moreover confirmed by the
expression used by her young nephew just called to the bar, who told
her that the other day he saw Mr. Hossair, the eminent Queen’s
Counsel, “ regularly ‘ shut up ’ in a long case.”

The Co-Operative System.—The union of Mr. Mapleson with
Mr. Gye.