DOI issue:
January to June, 1846
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16542#0085
PUNCH, Oil THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
77
THE FLIGHT OF THE ALDERMEN.
everal rumours were rife last
week of a sudden emigration
of Aldermen, who having ex-
hausted their spirits in the
fatigues of Provisional Com-
mittees on Bubble Railways,
were said to be seeking repose
on the Continent. One is
reported to have taken a house
at Brussels ; another to have
fled to Malta ; while a third is
alleged to be contemplating a
protracted sojourn in some
palazzo of Italy. We should
hope, for the honour of the
City, that Rumour's thousand
tongues are guilty of one enor-
mous fib ; but we are com-
pelled to own that we heard
the following strain suDg in
evidently Aldermanic accents,
aDd issuing from the cabin
window of a steamer just about
to start for the Continent.
Byron's famous "Adieu, Adieu ! " has evidently suggested the ensuing
melody : —
A ! duo, A ! doo, my fav'rite scheme
Low in the market falls ;
The lawyers sigh, the brokers scream,
They ask in vain for calls.
Yon bubble, bursting on the sea,
We follow in his flight :
Farewell ! my simple allottee ;
My engineer ! good night.
With thee, my cash, I '11 swiftly go,
Athwart the foaming brine ;
Nor care should fortune take me to
The equinoctial line.
Welcome, welcome ! ye bulls and bears;
And when I 'ni out of sight,
You 're welcome to my worthless shares;
My Capel Court, good night !
REMONSTRANCES FROM THE SHADES.
In the last number, 0 Punchiades ! which Momus brought us of thy
pleasant scroll, there is that which I, for my part, thy hitherto great
admirer, hugely disapprove ; and of my disapproval thereof, hasten to
make thee aware, informing thee likewise that both I myself on the one
hand, and on the other many highly respectable Shades of Heroes besides,
have determined, if the like occur again, to cease taking thee in, and in
thy stead to subscribe to the wise and facetious work conducted by the
god-like woman, Harris, which work we are informed will prove delec-
table reading for Shades, as being excessively shady, and which, though
having not the ghost of an argument, may soon become the standard
argument of the ghosts. Beware, therefore, O Punchiades ! how hence-
forth thou comparest a hero, and a man of mettle, whose dodges, however
artful, were generally devoted to such ends as his reminiscent eidolon
can now bmoke over without a blush, to-a Buckingham ; for such,
0 son of the Punches, is the offence of which thou hast been guilty !
Penelope is disgusted, and all the ghosts, my friends, are stamping on
the asphodels with impatience ; for who indeed knows that he may not
be the next selected for comparison with Buckingham ?
Ultsses.
Charity over the Water.
The French Government has kindly consented to allow " A Refuge
for Directors" to be erected at Boulogne. This large and daily
increasing class are likely at last to have their wants properly attended
to. Several subscriptions have already been made, and the poor alder-
men will shortly have a place where they can rest their cervine heads
with safety. A charitable gentleman has sent a large sum of money,
that each alderman may have a basin of real turtle, at least once a-year.
The day selected is one fraught with civic recollections—the ninth of
November.
PUNCH'S POLITICAL DICTIONARY.
cclesiastical commissioners. A
body appointed to look into the
revenues and duties of the Clergy.
They have recommended a better
distribution of the loaves and fishes,
and have made the extraordinary
discovery that the revenue of half
the bishoprics did not pay their
expenses, the income being posi-
tively below the outlay incurred.
Perhaps, however, the ideas of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners were
rather extravagant, and their own
notorious bankruptcy may be thus
accounted for.
Education. From educo, to lead
out. The bringing forth of the
innate faculties. The State does
not trouble itself much with edu-
cation in this country, but the most
usual schools for the young and
destitute are the prisons, where Education of a certain kind is easily
imparted. It quickens the apprehension, for it frequently leads to
the apprehension of the scholar upon some very serious charge. It
moreover sharpens the wits, which are all that they who come under
the influence of prison education generally have to live upon.
Election. Literally, the exercise of a free choice,—but practi-
cally, at least in many cases—the forced confirmation of the choice
of another.
Election Committees. Tribunals for deciding on the legality
of elections, but as the decision usually depends on the politics of the
majority of the members, the labours of the Committee might well
be spared by settling the matter at their first meeting. The affair
could be arranged with arithmetical precision according to the rule
of three, in the following fashion. As the politics of the majority
are to the candidates, so will be the decision.
Elector. A free voter. An elector is, however, in some cases,
one who elects either to support his landlord's nominee, or to take
the consequence.
Emancipation. An admirable word in the mouths of politicians,
some of whom, however, consider it applicable only to the blacks, in
whose behalf the professions of a love for freedom are often very
highly coloured. It has been wisely and yet quaintly said by one of
the primitive wags, " that he who talks most loudly of emancipation
for toe nigger would bestow freedom on his own countrymen with a
niggard hand."
Embargo.—An arrest laid on a ship to prevent its quitting a port.
Such as the order of the Lord Mayor, that the Watermen's steam-
ers shall not start from Blackfriars Pier. An embargo may also
be laid on ships to cause them to defend their native land, as in the
case of the levy made upon the coal barges and dredgers who were
compelled, by a kind of embargo, to join the civic fleet.
Emigration may be defined the act of leaving one's native coun-
try to settle in another. When the act is accompanied by that of
leaving one's native creditors without having settled in one's own
country, the probability that one will go and settle in another coun-
try is exceedingly remote—sometimes, indeed, more remote than the
place to which the emigrant betakes himself. The object of an
emigrant is usually to obtain land abroad, but he has sometimes very
good grounds at home for disappearing. Occasionally he goes into the
bush, and clears away the wood, an operation for which, by cutting
his stick, he has already prepared himself. It is said that an emi-
grant is one who finds that he is not in demand at home, but this is a
mistake, for some emigrants, particularly those to Boulogne, and other
foreign watering places, have been in verygreat demand at home before
emigration. Some have objected to emigration on the score that
every person who qnits a kingdom, takes from it, in his own person,
so much capital and labour. This is very true in some cases, for if
I lend my friend five hundred pounds, and he suddenly emigrates, it
is probable he will take that amount of capital with him, and will
cause also a fearful waste of labour by giving me the useless trouble
of looking after him. This is sound political economy, which we
have acquired by submitting ourselves to a course of good grinding
in Mill for the last fortnight.
77
THE FLIGHT OF THE ALDERMEN.
everal rumours were rife last
week of a sudden emigration
of Aldermen, who having ex-
hausted their spirits in the
fatigues of Provisional Com-
mittees on Bubble Railways,
were said to be seeking repose
on the Continent. One is
reported to have taken a house
at Brussels ; another to have
fled to Malta ; while a third is
alleged to be contemplating a
protracted sojourn in some
palazzo of Italy. We should
hope, for the honour of the
City, that Rumour's thousand
tongues are guilty of one enor-
mous fib ; but we are com-
pelled to own that we heard
the following strain suDg in
evidently Aldermanic accents,
aDd issuing from the cabin
window of a steamer just about
to start for the Continent.
Byron's famous "Adieu, Adieu ! " has evidently suggested the ensuing
melody : —
A ! duo, A ! doo, my fav'rite scheme
Low in the market falls ;
The lawyers sigh, the brokers scream,
They ask in vain for calls.
Yon bubble, bursting on the sea,
We follow in his flight :
Farewell ! my simple allottee ;
My engineer ! good night.
With thee, my cash, I '11 swiftly go,
Athwart the foaming brine ;
Nor care should fortune take me to
The equinoctial line.
Welcome, welcome ! ye bulls and bears;
And when I 'ni out of sight,
You 're welcome to my worthless shares;
My Capel Court, good night !
REMONSTRANCES FROM THE SHADES.
In the last number, 0 Punchiades ! which Momus brought us of thy
pleasant scroll, there is that which I, for my part, thy hitherto great
admirer, hugely disapprove ; and of my disapproval thereof, hasten to
make thee aware, informing thee likewise that both I myself on the one
hand, and on the other many highly respectable Shades of Heroes besides,
have determined, if the like occur again, to cease taking thee in, and in
thy stead to subscribe to the wise and facetious work conducted by the
god-like woman, Harris, which work we are informed will prove delec-
table reading for Shades, as being excessively shady, and which, though
having not the ghost of an argument, may soon become the standard
argument of the ghosts. Beware, therefore, O Punchiades ! how hence-
forth thou comparest a hero, and a man of mettle, whose dodges, however
artful, were generally devoted to such ends as his reminiscent eidolon
can now bmoke over without a blush, to-a Buckingham ; for such,
0 son of the Punches, is the offence of which thou hast been guilty !
Penelope is disgusted, and all the ghosts, my friends, are stamping on
the asphodels with impatience ; for who indeed knows that he may not
be the next selected for comparison with Buckingham ?
Ultsses.
Charity over the Water.
The French Government has kindly consented to allow " A Refuge
for Directors" to be erected at Boulogne. This large and daily
increasing class are likely at last to have their wants properly attended
to. Several subscriptions have already been made, and the poor alder-
men will shortly have a place where they can rest their cervine heads
with safety. A charitable gentleman has sent a large sum of money,
that each alderman may have a basin of real turtle, at least once a-year.
The day selected is one fraught with civic recollections—the ninth of
November.
PUNCH'S POLITICAL DICTIONARY.
cclesiastical commissioners. A
body appointed to look into the
revenues and duties of the Clergy.
They have recommended a better
distribution of the loaves and fishes,
and have made the extraordinary
discovery that the revenue of half
the bishoprics did not pay their
expenses, the income being posi-
tively below the outlay incurred.
Perhaps, however, the ideas of the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners were
rather extravagant, and their own
notorious bankruptcy may be thus
accounted for.
Education. From educo, to lead
out. The bringing forth of the
innate faculties. The State does
not trouble itself much with edu-
cation in this country, but the most
usual schools for the young and
destitute are the prisons, where Education of a certain kind is easily
imparted. It quickens the apprehension, for it frequently leads to
the apprehension of the scholar upon some very serious charge. It
moreover sharpens the wits, which are all that they who come under
the influence of prison education generally have to live upon.
Election. Literally, the exercise of a free choice,—but practi-
cally, at least in many cases—the forced confirmation of the choice
of another.
Election Committees. Tribunals for deciding on the legality
of elections, but as the decision usually depends on the politics of the
majority of the members, the labours of the Committee might well
be spared by settling the matter at their first meeting. The affair
could be arranged with arithmetical precision according to the rule
of three, in the following fashion. As the politics of the majority
are to the candidates, so will be the decision.
Elector. A free voter. An elector is, however, in some cases,
one who elects either to support his landlord's nominee, or to take
the consequence.
Emancipation. An admirable word in the mouths of politicians,
some of whom, however, consider it applicable only to the blacks, in
whose behalf the professions of a love for freedom are often very
highly coloured. It has been wisely and yet quaintly said by one of
the primitive wags, " that he who talks most loudly of emancipation
for toe nigger would bestow freedom on his own countrymen with a
niggard hand."
Embargo.—An arrest laid on a ship to prevent its quitting a port.
Such as the order of the Lord Mayor, that the Watermen's steam-
ers shall not start from Blackfriars Pier. An embargo may also
be laid on ships to cause them to defend their native land, as in the
case of the levy made upon the coal barges and dredgers who were
compelled, by a kind of embargo, to join the civic fleet.
Emigration may be defined the act of leaving one's native coun-
try to settle in another. When the act is accompanied by that of
leaving one's native creditors without having settled in one's own
country, the probability that one will go and settle in another coun-
try is exceedingly remote—sometimes, indeed, more remote than the
place to which the emigrant betakes himself. The object of an
emigrant is usually to obtain land abroad, but he has sometimes very
good grounds at home for disappearing. Occasionally he goes into the
bush, and clears away the wood, an operation for which, by cutting
his stick, he has already prepared himself. It is said that an emi-
grant is one who finds that he is not in demand at home, but this is a
mistake, for some emigrants, particularly those to Boulogne, and other
foreign watering places, have been in verygreat demand at home before
emigration. Some have objected to emigration on the score that
every person who qnits a kingdom, takes from it, in his own person,
so much capital and labour. This is very true in some cases, for if
I lend my friend five hundred pounds, and he suddenly emigrates, it
is probable he will take that amount of capital with him, and will
cause also a fearful waste of labour by giving me the useless trouble
of looking after him. This is sound political economy, which we
have acquired by submitting ourselves to a course of good grinding
in Mill for the last fortnight.