Punch (58.1870)

i30

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[April 2, 1870.

A MODEL MODEL.

(the artist is rather shy, and has left his model to do the honours op his studio.
" From whom did Mr. M'Gilp Paint that Head ?"

" FfiOM yours obediently, MaDAM. i SlT for the 'EDS of all 'iS 'OLY men.'

" He must find you a very Useful Person."

" Yes, Madam. I Order his Frames, Stretch his Canvasses, Wash his Brushes, Set his Palette, and Mix his
Colours. All he's got to do is just to Shove 'em on / "

EGYPTIAN PROGRESS.

Many people may have imagined that the humbug of political peti-
tioning had been carried to the highest perfection in this country.
Bat those Egyptian fellahs beat our fellahs hollow.

The Progres Egyptien, a newspaper—and we believe that Egyptian
progress thus far only exists on paper—reports that a new petition
bas lately been hawked through the Khedive's territories, which has
already received a considerable number of signatures and seals.
People will naturally ask what is the prayer of this " numerously and
influentially signed " petition. There's the rub. Nobody can answer
the question. The petition is a blank. When as many signatures are
attached as the paper will carry, the prayer will be put in by the Pasha.

Ex nilo nihil fit is an old saw; but Ex Nilo anything fit should be its
reading, for petitions signed on the banks of the Nile.

But whether the petition be one for extension of the new privileges
of Parliamentary Government, lately conceded to Egypt, or for inde-
pendence of the native tribunals from consular interference and diplo-
matic control, so much urged by the Pasha, or for the reduction of
taxation and abolition of forced labour, so earnestly prayed for by the
fellahs—none can tell. It is very properly left a blank, presented as a
nonentity, like the subject it relates to—be it the self-government of
Egypt, the freedom of its courts, or the liberties and hopes of its
poor fellahs. Egyptian progress, Egyptian petitions, Egyptian Parlia-
ments, Egyptian privileges, Egyptian process of law, everything Egyp-
tian, in short, but the power, prerogatives, peculations, peccaddloes,
and profits of the Pasha, are nonentities. The only things not blanks
in that happy land are the pockets of our friend the Khedive—the
Sovereign whom Europe delighteth to honour, and Sir Samuel
Baker to serve—and whom a fellah-feeling does not make wondrous
kind.

RECOGNITION OF GENIUS.

England has had some great composers, though this country never
produced a Mozart or a Beethoven, and did not produce but only
nourished Handel ; but that is something: for there is an element in
his grandest music which it could have derived only from a genius fed
on the best of beef. It is extractum carnis idealised ; but stdl extractum
carnis ; sublimated, etherealised extractum carnis booina, England has
had some great composers ? Yea, marry, and hath. Eor, look you,
there are, saith the Post, to be created -.—

" New Musical Knights.—There is a rumour that two popular composers
of music are to have the honour of knighthood, viz., Mr. Brinley Richard^,
the composer of the well-known and popular song, ' God Bless the Prince of
Wales' and Mr. J. P. Clarke, a military composer, for his new national
chant, ' Hail to the Duke.' "

" Hail to the Duke " may not perhaps be quite comparable to the
" Hailstone Chorus," nor " God Bless the Prince of Wales" to the
" Hallelujah." That loyal anthem and that loyal chant are, however,
compositions which have their merit, and happy man be the dole of
Mr. Richards and Mr. Clarke that it is merit such as to have won
the honour of knighthood. Of course Sterndale Bennett will be
offered a Peerage.

What Can They Be ?

Notes on Roulettes and Glisettes—-This sounds rather frisky tor the
title of a book by a " Lecturer and late Fellow of St. John's College,
Cambridge," and we should feel easier as to the future of St. John's
if we could receive an assurance from the College authorities that they
have examined the work in question, and can vouch for its being o.'
the highest respectability.