Punch (73.1877)

December 15, 1877.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 265

HIGHLY CONSIDERATE.

Little Smithkin {debonairly). " Object to Smoking ? "

North Briton. " Nab is the least, if it does na' mak' ye Sac' !"

[As Little S. said, lie "cut the old Cad for the rest of the journey.

SOME RECOMPENSE FOR A WRONG.

Ma. Pdnch is happy to see that the Gov-
ernment, adopting the suggestion of a jurist
whom modesty tor bids him to name, have re-
cognised the position that a just and generous
country is bound in justice and generosity
to make reparation to guiltless persons made
examples of for their country's good.

" The three men named "Wild, Jackson, and
Greenwood, who were wrongly convicted of an
outrage on the woman Blackburn, near Burn-
ley, and who, after being ' pardoned,' were re-
leased from Pentonville Prison, eleven days ago,
each received on Saturday a letter, which had
been sent by the direction of the Home Secre-
tary, stating that, on receipts being sent by
them, a gratuity of £5 10s. would be forwarded
to them."

For "gratuity" read "compensation."
Though "compensation" is, perhaps, rather
a large word; but in fixing such amounts or
such sums, the Government must, of course,
be limited by the means of the nation.

Well Out of It.

It was wired from Paris the other day
that ex-President General Gbant, on leav-
ing the French capital for Lyons, paid a
farewell visit to President Marshal Mac-
Mahon. Did the President take the oppor-
tunity of obtaining from the ex-President
advice how to back out of a fix with ease
and elegance ? Any way, be seems to have
learnt the secret from somebody. If we
may' believe the last bulletins — which
Punch is slow to do—" II s'est soumis"
and, being so, II y restera.

NOTES PROM DR. BRIGHTON'S CASE-BOOK.

Captain Flatfoot, aged thirty-five. Smokes all day. Spends his
time in billiards and lounging down the King's R,oad. Utterly bored.
Can read nothing but Puff's Guide to the Turf. Hates ladies'
society. Has treated himself with "pegs" (otherwise glasses of
brandy and soda-water), taken every half hour. Prescription—A
course of lawn tennis.

Clara Babyngton Nash, aged seventeen. Wears a light Ulster with
three capes to it. Fond of talking slang. Thinks Major Smith
(who was in the Bombay Heavy Dragoons) "awful fun." Reads
Outda's Novels. Says she smokes cigarettes. Skates at Melli-
son's. Prescription—Two years longer at her boarding school.

Hebbebt Tentebfotjb, aged twenty-five. Spends his day in talk-
ing nonsense to the Misses Buttebfly. Dances all night at the
Grand Hotel or balls of equal selectness in other parts of the town.
Spends about eight times his income in the Club Card-room. Neglects
his future and undermines his health. Prescription—Immediate
return to his stool in the Government Office to which he belongs.

Ida Dyaway, aged twenty-four. Ultra-romantic. Deeply in
love with Major Bbass Faething. Enjoys moonlight strolls on the
New Pier. Writes two letters daily to the object of her affections.
Prescription—A good " talking-to " from old Dyaway, who made
his money out of tallow, and knows the exact value of Major Bbass
Faething, both from a pecuniary and a moral point of view. If
this has no effect, a lengthy tour on the Continent.

The Hon. Mrs. Dashalong, between thirty and sixty. Wears
dyed hair, Persian bloom, and pearl powder. Smokes. Drives a
couple of ponies. Calls men by their Christian names. Flirts with
the worst known roues. In every imaginable way sets healthy public
opinion at defiance. Prescription—The cut direct.

Feances Flaccid. Aged thirty-eight. Languid, lazy, stout,
melancholy. Fond of eating. Hates walking. Sleeps eighteen
hours out of the twenty-four. Prescription—Hard work.

MR. P UNCH. Age—the prime of life. Hates second-rate shops.
Does not care for the sea when it is covered with fog or looks dusty.
Tired of skating-rinks. Prefers to see Town faces in Town. Objects
to third-rate scandal. Dislikes ex-soldiers. Cannot tolerate brass-
bands. Never could believe in ozone. Fond of whistling " Home,
Sweet Home" Prescription—London.

The Woest Cheistmas Waits.—Christmas Boxes and Hampers
at the Railway Stations.

IRISH TRIAL BY JURY.

In the Mitchelstown Libel Case, tried last week in the Irish Court
of Queen's Bench, the Lord Chief Justice concluded his summing-up
by telling the Jury that the publication of the letters forming the
ground of action was, he had no hesitation in saying, "libellous;
that it was a foul, unfounded libel, and that, considering the time,
opportunity, and circumstances under which it was published, it
was a libel of the most pernicious tendency." On the only two
counts of the indictment on which the Jury could agree, their verdict
was " Not Guilty." This is just what a Judge who understands
Irishmen and Irish pig-driving ought to have expected. He'ought
not to need telling, that the next time he thinks the plaintiff's case
overwhelmingly proved, he should charge for the defendant.

Witnesses and Victims.

" A Solicitoe," having been subpoenaed as a witness to attend an
action in a certain Court, complains in the Times, that there being
no accommodation whatever provided for witnesses at that Cour^
nor any other Court, he believes, of the Chancery Division, they,
"are compelled (women as well as men) whenever, as frequently
happens, they are ordered out of Court, to stand about in the open
air for days together, in all weathers, which at this season is not
only unpleasant but dangerous to health." If this be so, and any
unfortunate witness, thus shut out in the cold, should catch his
death, whom should a Coroner's Jury send to trial for manslaughter—
the Office of Works, or the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury, or
the High Court of Parliament, or the High Court of Justiciary?
Somebody must be to blame.

New Thing in Hats.

An article in the window of a Hatter's shop in Fleet Street is
labelled, " The Patent Bismarck Flexible Silk Hat." The names
of great Generals used in other days to be appropriated to boots ;
but there was never any Blucher or Wellington Hat. A fitness of
things may be perceptible in the notion of a Bismarck Hat; as a
hat is for the head, and head is the Great Chancellor's strong point.
It mav be difficult, at first blush, to imagine Bismakck m a flexible
hat. But when one comes to think of it, an inflexible head ma,
flexible hat is not at all a bad symbol for the Policy of Blood and
Iron in diplomatic forms.

vol. Lxxm.

a a