Punch: Punch (6.1844)

258

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

THE SLIGHTS OF SAXONY.

We are very much afraid that Saxony is being snubbed on account of
the presence of Russia, who appears to have completely put out of joint
the most prominent feature in the Saxon Monarch's countenance. To
re-set the royal nose would be to Punch a most delightful task, could he
only accomplish it. Russia is invited to breakfast everywhere, though he
cau't go, while Saxony, who would only be " too happy," is asked
nowhere. We regard this treatment as very unfair towards one, who,
though only "a third-rate power," is a very gentlemanly fellow—a charac-
ter we have always heard of the snubbed, but good-humoured, Saxony.
When he visited West Cowes, three of the royal carriages were in attend-
ance upon him ; but when the rumour of Russia's arrival was spread,
nobody seemed to care what became of Saxony, who found himself at
Southampton, reduced to a common fly for the conveyance of his suite—
his luggage being actually taken by hand from the steam-boat. How
the suite that had occupied three carriages at West Cowes, contrived to
cram themselves into one fly at Southampton, is more than we can under- j
stand. The treatment, altogether, that Saxony has received, appears to
as to be very ungenerou?. It is fortunate for us lie is only a third-rate
power, or we might "hear of it" in an awkward way at some future
period.

the same love of fixed institutions (the Beadle's chair is chained to
the column), added to a desire for progress—

ON THE.

SUDDEN DISAPPEARANCE OF THORWALDSEN*s STATUE OF BYRON
from the cellar of the custom 1!0use.

Thorwalisen's work has disappeared,
Where could the sculptur'd Byron go ?

The Custom House at length is cleared,
The statue's not in statu quo.

Perchance the treatment it had met,

Down in a cellar rudely thrown—
(Such treatment genius ne'er had yet !)

At last has moved the very stone.

ENGLAND AND HER BEADLES.

THE BEADLES OF THE QUADRANT

hough the Quadrant Beadlery is a 's ever the Beadle's cry—all these ideas, or entities, are, we repeat,

' the same in Young Beadle as they are in Young England, and the
union of notions gives to the mind at once a picture and a parallel.

Having looked at the Quadrant Beadle in a constitutional light, let
us take a glance at him—or a squint at the pair—in a social point of
vision. The very publicity of his position will prevent. Young Beadle
from abusing his power, as it also discourages his temporary subjects-
—his dominions extend from Glasshouse Street to the County Fire—
from resisting it. If actual service were needed from either of these
Beadles, we say it most advisedly, that we doubt their nerve. We
believe them to he constitutionally timid, and useful only so far as-
their uniform and staff are calculated to inspire terror in the minds
of the refractory. Perhaps, however, the Quadrant Beadles, on the
principle of two negatives having the force of an affirmative, may be
said to be powerful from the fact of their duplicity.

The Beadles are elected by a body, of whom a woollen-draper in

comparatively recent institution —
though the tip of the staff is not hal-
lowed by the rust of time—though the
Beadle's power cannot boast of that
antiquity which is supposed, like the
highness in the game, the decay in the
Cheshire cheese, or the ripeness in the
Stilton, to make it all the richer and
better—though the Beadle's chair lias
not yet arrived at that palmy state of
rickets and craziness which, as indi-
cations of age, are presumed to give solidity,—in spite of all this, the
Beadles of the Quadrant—we say Beadles in the plural, or rather
the dual, for there arc two—in spite of all this, we repeat, the Beadles
of the Quadrant are very fair average Beadles in the long-run, and

they are by no means a disgrace to the order they have been lately ' the neighbourhood is said to be the leader, and as it is a dealer in
added to. Saxony broad cloth who has virtually the power to elect, the Beadles-

may be said to be under vassalage to the Elector of Saxony. As it
is a rare, and must be an interesting sight to see a Beadle unbeadled,
we recommend the public to watch the Quadrant at about five in the
afternoon, when one of the Beadles may be seen at his tea, throwing
aside for a time the

How the Quadrant, which had been, from the time of its first con-
struction, under no regular government, came to assume the shape of
a duarchy, would form an interesting nut for the application of the
crackers of research by the modern antiquarian. To ourselves we
confess it is a regular cocoa-nut, too large to be cracked off-hand by
the mere force of jaw, and not worth the trouble of hammering away
at with the mallet of perseverance. We therefore cease to ask how
the Beadles came to be Beadles, satisfied with the fact that Beadles
they are, and as Beadles we have a right to deal with them.

There lias been a great deal said recently in Parliament and in the
Press about Young England, and there can be very little doubt that
this "Young England" spirit is to be found more or less in all ourin-
stitutions. Young England is not the only symptom of the new gener-
ation, as depicted by Mr. D'Israeli in his lately-published novel of
Coningsby. No ! We have Young Beadle as well as Young England,
and we have no hesitation in pointing to the Quadrant as the spot in
which Young Beadle is about to develope himself. There is the
same mixture of old forms with new ideas ; the same regard to per-
sonal dignity, blended with a condescending courtesy of demeanour;

" Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious Beadledom,"

his mind no longer immersed in the cares of office, but his nose
immersed in a pint of that salubrious decoction of four-and-ninepenny-
mixed, which is strongly recommended to families.

Pictorial Mediators.

When the French do a good thing, we at lease have the sound taste
sometimes to copy them. It is said that the court of the Tuiheries sent
over Horace Ver.net, the painter, to bring about a reconciliation between
Nicholas and Louis Philippe. Taking the hint, we are informed that
Her Majesty intends to despatch Maclise to Morocco to negotiate a
peace between the African Emperor and the King of the French.