Punch: Punch (76.1879)

May 3, 1879.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 197

A fight between Narrow and Broad Gauge on Irish, lines,—Lord
Lifford Champion of the Broad, Lord ReDesdale, as of right, of
the Narrow.

Lord Cranbrook interposed with a modification, in the spirit of
the old " Horns " oath at Highgate, allowing the narrow gauge in
cases where the broad would be difficult or unremrmerative.

(Commons.)—Rylands the Rasper introduced his famous Resolu-
tions condemning the increase of the national expenditure, censuring
Her Majesty's Government for it, and calling for reduction. The
year's expenses had risen to £91,000,000, the largest sum ever spent,
except when the country was in the throes of a great Continental
war. The Chancellor had tried to " bubble " the country by his
Budget, which shirked payments and postponed liabilities. The
depression of trade and commerce throughout the country was
aggravated by the uncertainty of peace, engendered by the '' Impe-
rial policy" of the Government, consisting of annexation, inter-
ference, and aggression.

Mr. Baxter seconded the Resolutions, quoting statistics to show
the rapid decline of English trade and agriculture, the growth of
pauperism, the falling off of traffic and business activity, and the loss
of old markets. The time had come to revise taxation and cut down
expenditure, and we were trifling with the one, and increasing the
other.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, most intrepid of the large
family of Smith, fit foster-father of iron-clads, advanced against the
Rylandian clawhammer and the Baxterian blade, his breast clad in
oak and triple brass, and hoisting the flag of " Peace, Retrenchment,
and Reform," contended that nobody had a right to twit Govern-
ment with extravagance, seeing that large majorities had sanctioned
every step of the policy which had to be paid for. He analysed
away the expenditure, denying that any Government could diminish
the Army by a man, or the Navy by a ship. The charge of the great
armies and navies of Europe had risen far more than ours, from
£73,000,000 in 1870 to £97,000,000 in 1878. As to new taxation, the
Government had only put in the poor man's pipe an extra twopence
on his pound of baccy. Altogether the national interests could not
have been guarded, and the national honour maintained for less than
the Government was spending.

Mr. Laing stigmatised the Budget as an operation in thimblerig.

Mr. Hubbard quite approved the Budget, and didn't see his way
to reducing Army or Navy.

Dr. Kenealy gave the Government the benefit of his support,
maintaining that, after the House had repeatedly approved ends,
it would be self-stultification to stint means.

Mr. Ritchie argued that the Resolutions ran in the teeth of the
truth, seeing that the pressure of pauperism, crime, and taxa-
tion had not increased.

_ Mr. Dodson dissected Mr. Smith's estimate of the financial situa-
tion—contended that the Debt had increased, in spite of Sinking
Funds; denied the existence of a Surplus, and doubted if the
honour of England could be maintained by a policy Government had
not the pluck to ask the Nation honestly to pay for.

Mr. Sclater-Booth maintained that the Government had done
its best under difficulties—and that the Resolutions amounted to
censure, not of the Ministers, but of the Majority and the Country.

Sir J. Lubbock put the figures the other way, insisting that the
extraordinary expenditure of the Government was unnecessary, and
its policy prejudicial commercially, without counterbalance of poli-
tical advantage. Mr. Grantham maintained that taxation had
diminished under the present Government, and the debate was
adjourned on Mr. Goschen's motion.

Friday (Lords).— Arma virumque. Lord Cadogan said the
Government knew all about the sale of arms in Africa, but it would
be unfair to name the man or men who sold them before the Zulu
War ; and they had taken measures to prevent the sale since.

(Common*.)—Sit Stafford shirked Sir j. Goldsmid's question—
"Whether Pot had turned on Kettle ; in other words, whether the
Sultan had offered to depose the Khedive. We infer from Sir
Stafford's fencing with the query, that he could not say " No."

Is the Attorney-Generalship of Victoria an office under the Crown,
acceptance of which by Sir Bryan O'Loghlen vacates his seat for
Clare? A Committee has reported that it is. Sir j. Goldsmid
challenges their conclusion. After a long scrimmage of mixed Irish
and legal forces, the House supported its Committee by 180 to 11,
and a new writ was ordered for Clare.

Common sense ought to be satisfied.

In Supply,

A movement to make charity begin at home—by the Charity Com-
mission paying its own expenses—was negatived by 72 to 52.

D. D. D. D.

(The Premier's Policy; or, Sir W. V. H. improved^)

Abroad.—Death, Danger, and Disease, Disaster and Distrust.
At Home.—Disquiet, Deep Distress, Dishonour, and—Disgust.

SHOOTING, NOT WITH THE LONG-BOW.

Dr. Carver at the Crystal Palace.

ince Punch called on the
Directors of the Crystal
Palace Programme to give
us a new sensation—a de-
mand almost as hard to sa-
tisfy as Tiberius' s for a new
pleasure, or as Alexander's
for a new world, they have
girded up their loins to the
task, and have provided a
sensation, in the shooting of
" Dr." Carver, which quite
satisfies Punch, and ought
to satisfy the public.

It is a pity that "Dr."
Carver should be heralded
by a book professing to
describe his life and ad-
ventures, which, if it be
not a piece of unmitigated
Barnumising, reads like it.
At all events, it strikes one
as quite out of keeping
with the wonderfulness of "Dr." Carver's performances, and the
modest, simple; and honest manner of the man, whom you cannot
exchange ten words with without liking, and believing all he
says to you. You have only to see " Dr." Carver go through his
incredible "shoot" to feel that—"Doctor" or "Medicine Man,"
" Dakhota-bred " or "pown-Easter,"—he is simply the most mar-
vellous master of the art of " drawing a bead " that ever lifted a rifle.

To break a hundred glass balls, of about three inches_ diameter,
thrown in the air, in front of him, across his line of sight, high
up, low down, towards him, from him, with varying forces, and at
changing distances, with a rifle-bullet, without a single miss—as
Dr. Carver did the other day at Sandringham—or with a propor-
tion of misses varying from five to seven, and that in less than five
minutes, seems a feat quite beyond any attainable steadiness of
human muscles, and any achievable accuracy of human eye. But
Dr. Carver has done this, over and over again. Twice a day—at
3 and at 5.30, weather permitting, and even in the teeth of an East
wind fit to cut you in two—you may see him outside the north end
of the Crystal Palace break fifty balls so thrown up in less than
two minutes, with three or four misses at most, and sometimes
without one. He smashes a couple of such balls from the saddle,
thrown up as he rides past at full gallop, over and over again.

His fancy shots, from the hip, from the top of the head, lying
back over a chair, with his back to the mark, sighting by help of a
looking-glass are tricks of the stage and the_ show, looking more
wonderful than they are.

The incredible accuracy of eye and steadiness of hand are shown
in the breaking of balls sprung from a trap, or thrown by the hand
in a given time. Everybody—rifleman or no rifleman—should see
this, as an example of the perfection to which very exceptional
natural gifts can be carried by practice. There is intense interest
in watching this champion of all rifle-shots that are, or ever were, or
ever will be—as one cannot but think—through one of his perform-
ances, as there is delight in watching any other achievement of
consummate skill; and the perfect quietness, simplicity, and re-
freshing absence of all bounce and braggadocio, adds greatly to the
pleasurableness of the performance.

Here are no wretched pigeons, with tails twitched out to make
them zig-zag, or half-starved to cripple their speed, being blown
to pieces, or, worse still, wounded and left to a lingering death;
here is no neck risked, as in walking the high rope, or daring the
aerial dive. We are looking on at an achievement of perfectly
disciplined human senses, and human muscles, their natural
keenness sharpened, and strength strengthened by consummate
temper and self-control, by regularity of habits, by mastery_ of
appetites — in, short, by keeping down the baser, and keeping
uppermost the higher, of the two natures, which doubtless claim
their part in Dr. Carver as in the rest of us.

He throws the lasso almost as dexterously as he aims the ball;
and I am told is as consummate a master of the bow as of the
rifle. There is, however, nothing of the long-bowman in what he
does with the more formidable weapon.

Punch asked for a novelty at the Crystal Palace. He has got
two in one—a shooter unequalled among riflemen, and an
exhibitor unique among Yankee performers—a modest, quiet, and
unboastful doer of things even more wonderful in the reality than
in the description.

Egyptian Loans and Egyptian Beans.—Ill-lent and Lent-ill.