Punch (73.1877)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [December 8, 1877.

''NONE BUT THE BRAVE DESERVE THE FAiR."

SO thinks TflOMP-SON, AND he volunteers TO DfilVE a cow OCT of THE PATHWAY FOR THOSE pretty MISS AVlLKINSONS TO PASS.

But the Cow won't be Driven out of the Pathway, and what is Thompson to do ? !

THE " TUG OF WAR."

"Pull, France; Pull, Marshal! " 'lis a sorry sight
To see Wrong stubborn iu the name of Right.
To see the choice of France set down bis heel
Against the will of France and France's weal.
To see one who affects the Bayard pose
As France's friend in league with France's foes.
Call it no worse than blunder—though the liue
'Twixt treason and such blunder is but fine—
Sad to see e'en an honest blunderer do
The work and will of a dishonest crew.
" Pull, Marshal—pull—nor yield an inch! " they bawl.
" Yield but an inch, and in the gulf you fall! "
So in Law's cause 'gainst Law he takes his stand ;
On plea of Peace to civil war lends hand ;
Invests foul Treason in church alb and cope,
Gives Wrong too much—and Right too little—rope ;
Order's defender digs poor Order's grave,
And slays the Constitution he would save;
In Freedom's name joins those that Freedom dread,
And paints her hideous as a Spectre Red.
Gainst his own honour pulls, yet seems to say,
'Tis honour that forbade him to give way.
'Gainst France's progress pulls, and France's peace—
France, still so blest with thrift and earth's increase,
Could she but break with her long-troubled past,
Get Revolution's shadow from her cast,
She must the prosperous paths of plenty tread,
With graceful port and high-erected head :
But this ill-chosen guardian still must check
Her onward march, or guide it at his beck ;
Must have her foot move as he wills it fall,
Or, failing his will, wills no move at all.
So with no treasonous thought, perhaps, before,
It comes to what we see—"The Tug of War !"
On this side, France, that not an inch will bate,
On that, the Marshal just as obstinate—
For Rope, the little senatorial band,
That betwixt Rights and Lefts takes central stand.
It' the rope holds—tLough sore the strain, we know—
Small doubt, methinks, which way the Tug will go :

If the rope break—such ropes have snapped before—
What follows ?—Punch's Sibyl says no more.

OFF HIS PEDESTAL; OR, WHAT NEXT?

Will he publish a shilling pamphlet to prove that all the contri-
butions to a " Young Review " are, ipso facto, unreliable ?

Will he inform a select audience at Hawarden that " he has it on
the authority of an official at the Turkish Baths, who heard it from
a waiter at the Alhambra, who gathered it indirectly from a
Wapping Lascar, that the present Sultan absolutely doesn't know
the name of the only recognised Member for Greenwich" Y

Will he appear, on a shilling gala day, at the Crystal Palace, and
explain, in the midst of appropriate fireworks, the nature of his
recent quarrel with the proprietors of a largely-circulated daily
paper ?

Win he make arrangements to take a part in the after-portion of
a Christmas pantomime, and, at his own request, carry on a pre-
arranged conversation with the Clown on the subject of Mr. Archi-
bald Forbes ?

Will he, on or about the Fourteenth of February next, publicly,
in the columns of the Times, accuse Musurus Pasha of having sent
him an inexpensive and ribald valentine ?

Will he, further, in Parliament, move for the appointment of a
Select Committee " To inquire into, and report upon, the present
condition and future prospects of Ottoman caricature " ?

Will he, failing to dispose of his opponents and critics by Parlia-
mentary debate, platform oration, and printed argument, travel
about the country with a set of dissolving views, illustrating, by
striking scenes, "The Life of an ex-Leader in Opposition," and,
thus provided, express his opinions in a neatly-written lecture
accompanied by the piano ?

Or will he, ignoring, as he can afford to do, the crowd of smaller
men, leave them to criticise and carp, and mount once more to that
quiet height of dignity, which his brilliant services have won and
which his jealous reticence should guard ?

The Recent Gales.—The Sea may be assailed with such epithets
as greedy, furious, mad, wild, raging, and so forth; but it can
never be called wreckless.