Punch (74.1878)

February 2, 1878.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

S9

EXPENSIVE LUXURY.

Scene—A Wood, where an unmistakealle "Bagman" has been chopped.

Keeper. "You'll send me my Card, authorising Keeper's Fee on 'a Find.'" Huntsman. "Not good enough for that!"

Keeper. " Not good enough ! Why, he cost Fifti Shillings !"

Mr. Bourke said the Government had no authentic news that the
Russians were advancing on Gallipoli, but they had reports that
they were marching in that direction.

The Government had nothing more to tell the House about the
Russian terms of peace, or the English occupation of Quettah. (Let
us hope the Government is not preparing for our troops rather too
much occupation in India.)

Lord G. Hamilton, moving for a Select Committee on the construc-
tion of Public "Works in India by money raised on loans, spoke a
well-got-up speech to prove that Irrigation Works were not a panacea
for famine and would not always pay—" which nobody can deny."
Thanks to Mr. Fawcett, Mr. Bright, Sir G. Campbell, and Mr.
Grant Duff, the terms of the inquiry were enlarged to "such
measures as may be adopted to prevent the recurrence or mitigate
the intensity of famines in India." Without this, the inquiry, as
Mr. Grant Duff pointed out, would be Hamlet with the part of
Hamlet omitted.

A propos of Sir A. Cotton, as the High-Priest—and sometimes,
perhaps, the over-zealous High-Priest—of Indian Irrigation Works,
the Government seems a little too eager to thrust Cotton in our ears.
The truth may lie outside the Cotton-fields, somewhere in the wide
debateable ground between Sir G. Baxfour and Sir G. Campbell.

Altogether the debate was noteworthy for the clashing of half-
truths all through it. " Armed with half-truths, and mounted on
hobbies," might be the description of the forces on both sides this
and most great questions of a chronic up-crop in Parliament.

To-day's real Parliamentary business was done out of the House,
in Downing Street, where forty supporters of the Government
mustered to ask Sir Stafford Northcote whether British Interests,
as defined by Mr. Cross, were not menaced by the reported Russian
approach to Constantinople. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
declared that the Government would stand to its declarations, and
might soon find it necessary to ask for money. Since then the ne-
cessity has come—in Lord Beaconsfield's opinion—and Britannia
may now realise the sensational situation prefigured in Mr. Pi
recent Cartoon, " On the Dizzy Edge." How does she like it ?

Wednesday — First Morning Performance. Two rapid acts. A
Scotch Bill (for providing Public Parks) read a Second time ; an
English Bill (Metropolitan Elections) carried through Committee.
Collapse of one Scotch Bill (Hypothec), and one Irish (Sale of In-
toxicating Liquors). House up at ten minutes to one.

Thursday.—Lords and Commons stirred to their depths by news
for which we may as well find one mouth, as England will have
but one ear to hear it, and, we hope, one mind to make up
about it. Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon have tendered their
resignations. Government means to ask for Six Millions on Mon-
day. Orders have been sent to the Admiral in command of the
Mediterranean fleet, on the occurrence of a certain contingency—
no doubt a Russian movement on Gallipoli, which seems in every
way unlikely—to land blue-jackets and marines in Saros Bay, for
temporary defence of the lines of Boulair, and to send six of his
roomiest ships to bring up from Malta the needful strength for re-
inforcing them. In other words, England is brought within one
short step of war for the Turk against the Russian. Will England
agree to take that step ?

Select Committee on Public Business appointed, but the House too
much excited to attend to anything but the day's news.

Friday.—The fleet is stopped at Besika Bay. Lord Derby's
resignation is not yet accepted. In the Lords, Lord Carnarvon
tells his story in a manly, modest, and straightforward style,
showing'the long continued disunion in the Cabinet, which Lord
Beaconsfield has persistently and categorically denied, and the
vacillation, and final decision, as to the movements of the fleet,
which have ended in Lord Carnarvon's resignation. The pendulum
has since swung back, and stopped our ships at the entrance of the
Dardanelles. This, for the moment, has averted a step which could
have had no conceivable effect but to prolong the agony of Turkey
and aggravate her ruin, while it embroiled us with one, or, probably,
with both of the belligerents, and violated our pledged neutrality,
without the occurrence of any of the conditions on which it was
secured.

After Lord Carnarvon had explained his own resignation, in a