Punch: Punch (75.1878)

August 10, 1878.] PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHAEIVAEI.

53

Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Richard against legislating for the Church in
the House of Commons, and a plea for the Bill from _ Mr. Cross,
showing a good case in favour of allowing self-sacrificing bishops
and devout Churchmen to reduce old over-sees and provide for new
overseers out of their superfluity.

Thursday {Lords).—Lord Carnarvon protested against Lord
Beaconsfield's imputation on him of having stuck to the Cabinet
till it came to a prospect of fighting, and then having bolted. Lord
Beaconsfield clinched the imputation in an elaborate statement.
All depends on how you look at things. Lord Carnarvon and
Lord Derby worked for Peace and hoped for Peace. When, in spite
of their hopes and their efforts, they saw the country brought to
the edge of War, they protested, and parted company with Lord
Beaconsfield. Lord B. puts this in the unpleasantest way. Lords
C. and D. want it put in the pleasantest way for them. Naturally, the
two views don't harmonise. Time must determine whether B., or C.
and D., deserve to stand A 1. For the moment, the turn of the
political wheel has distributed B. into the right box, and C. and D.
into the wrong.

{Commons.)—The chiefs of the battle to-night may be classed
as—High (Lord John Manners) ; Lowe {in propria persona);
Jack (Mr. Chamberlain) ; and the Came (Sir J. Hay, Messrs.
Holmes and Staveley Hill, Alderman Cotton, Major Nolan,
Mr. Baleotjr, and Mr. Laing, Mr. C. Lewis, and Sir J. Lubbock.)

Mr. Lowe has seldom been more effective. Perhaps because his
points stand out in sharp contrast with Manners. He delivered
a series of biting epigrams on Turkey in Europe dismembered;
Greece sold; England professing to act impartially, with a secret
A greement in one pocket, and a secret Convention in the other;
the "little game" with Lord Odo ; the serious responsibilities
of the Convention; the burden of Cyprus ; the absurdity of pre-
paring a defence against an impossible attack; the moral of Rome's
decline and fall; and the straining of the Constitution and giving the
go-by to the House of Commons. The Queen has the prerogative
of treaty-making; no doubt, and so—

" The Queen has the prerogative of mercy, and could let loose every felon
now confined in her gaols without anybody having the right to say anything
against it; the Queen has a right to make treaties, and she could make a
treaty ceding the Isle of "Wight to France without any one having the right
to object; the Queen is the fountain of honour, and she could make an earl of
every cobbler in London if she thought fit, equally without any person having
the right to object."

But we are satisfied she won't do anything of the kind, and so we
sit at ease with the prerogative hanging over our heads.

Lord John Manners, in reply to this rude shower of sharp-pointed
shafts, harped tunefully on the Imperial string. The British
Lion was once more in his old form, and John Bull rejoiced in him,
and was willing to pay the bill.

The Treaty has made Turkey strong and England influential. The
Convention has but given the Sultan a guarantee conditional on im-
provement. Improvement is possible; and we can help it. We have
done nothing to strain the Constitution.

" When he says the prerogative of the Grown in making treaties has
hitherto been safeguarded by the conduct and character of the Ministers who
have advised it, and it has been so maintained because the Ministers of the
Crown have had a knowledge of the sentiments of the people, I tell him it
is precisely because this Government have had knowledge of the prevalent
sentiment of the people of England that we are here (pointing to the Treasury
Bench), and he is there."

It is a collision, said Lord John, of Imperial policy and counter-
policy, the latter

"—a policy which, if I understand it, is one of insular isolation and calculat-
ing selfishness—a policy shrinking from all risks, refusing all responsibilities for
the future, and probably ending in failing to discharge those which are still
admitted ; and a policy which in the course of long years has made England
a great and glorious empire—a policy which in a just cause and for noble
objects will not shrink from risk and will not avoid responsibility—a policy
which, as we believe and hope, if carried out, will bestow on the regions of
Asiatic Turkey some at least of those blessings which America, Australasia,
South Africa, and India have loved to associate with western civilisation and
the glory of England."

Very well perorated, my Lord. That is very much how the
British public is willing to have it put, just now—till the bill comes,
and the balance has to be struck between anticipation and achieve-
ment.

Friday.—The last day of the week's weary battle—the four nights
of great cry over spilt milk and little wool, though intolerable
length of yarn. Lord Elcho, Mr. Forster, Sir W. Harcourt, and
Mr. Roebuck, protagonists, with Sir Stafford for a stopper over
all. Division, in a crowded House, 338 to 195.

So the Government has its triumph, and the Opposition has had
its say. Events must and will decide between the two parties and
the two policies.

ANGELINA'S VIEW OF IT.

Dear Mr. Punch,

Whatever
sour critics
and sarcastic
caricaturists
may say, Earl
Beacoksfield
is a darling !
There! If Ed-
win sees this
he will be
angry, for he
does not be-
lieve in the
popular idol.
I do, and so do
all the nice
girls I know,
except a few,
a very few,
who are under
the influence
of grumpy
Badicallovers.
Kv -i •' J {-J Lord B. said
jW1- of the Greeks,
j that they "are
' ±2—I!_. an interesting

TO

\'" \











—-A ■

■



— i

people," and
that's exactly

what I feel about himself. He is so interesting that I am sure he
must be right.

I have been reading all his novels, and they are perfectly lovely,
though perhaps a little puzzling. Edwin says they are an amazing
mixture of keen cleverness and tawdry rubbish; but at any rate
they are far more interesting than horrid political pamphlets, all
bad temper and big sentences. I don't say they are so nice as
Ouidd's, or so easy as Mrs. Henry Wood s, but I'm sure it's
awfully condescending of a Statesman and an Earl to be intelligible
at all. The romantic parts are simply delicious, and when I am
puzzled by the politics and the mysticism, I feel inclined to say with
Tennyson, " I cannot understand; I love."

Indeed, it is this combination of mystery and niceness which is so
fascinating in an Earl. An affable Sphinx in a baU-room is bound
to be a success, and when the Asian Mystery curls his hair and talks
pretty, who could resist him ? And, dear Mr. Punch, since he has
proved himself to be the greatest and most delightful of men, why
cannot those aggravating Liberals let him alone ? I am sure if the
Queen, and the Court, and the Clubs, and, oh! everybody agreeable
or of any consequence, are quite satisfied, that grim-looking Mr.
Gladstone might be quiet.

Now there is a man I never could like, though Edwin considers
him the sublimest of heroes. He may be awfully high-principled,
and all that; but a man with that mouth and nose could never be
nice. If he would brush his hair, and not wear such enormous shirt-
collars, would talk pleasantly, and not object to everybody and
everything, well even then I don't believe he could ever be really
interesting, but he might be tolerable. As it is, 1 do not find that
anybody in Society has a word to say for him. But our Earl; oh!
he is the universal pet! Edwin says we women are ruled by per-
sonal prejudices, and have no grasp of political principles. He also
says that the feminine spirit seems so to have permeated the politics
of the day, that partisanship and personalities have for the moment
beaten principle out of the field. I don't quite know what he
means; but I do know that politics were never so interesting as
now to Tour old Admirer,

Angelina.

P.S. If Mr. Gladstone had not been so very cantankerous, he
might have had that other Garter, no doubt. Why doesn't he give
up Radicals, and Dissenters, and principles, and post-cards, and
other unpleasant things, and go in for being nice and pepular, like
our Earl ?

A Pas de Deux—The Father of Twins.

Happy Thought.

The Marquis of Lorne for Governor-General of the Dominion,
and with more power to his elbow in the fair shape of the Princess
Louise. A capital idea of Lord Beaconsfield's. It shows he was
determined not to put a duffer in to Dufferin's place.

Dog (and Gun) Latin for the Death of the Session.
Mo(o)rs!