DOI Heft:
July to December, 1846
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16543#0027
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
19
THE SNOBS OF ENGLAND.
by ONE OF themselves.
CHAP. XIX—ON WHIG SNOBS.
E don't know—we are too
modest to calculate (every
man who sends in his con-
tributions to Mr. Punch's
broad sheet is modest) the
effect of our works ; and
the influence which they
may have on society and
the world.
Two instances — apropos
of the above statement of
opinion—occurred last week.
My dear friend and fellow
contributor Jones (I shall
call him Jones, though his
patronymic is one of the most
distinguished in this Empire),
wrote a paper entitled
" Black Monday," in which the claims of the Whigs to office were
impartially set forth, and their title to heavenborn statesmanship
rather sceptically questioned. The sic cos non vubk was Jones's
argument. The Whigs don't roam the fields and buzz from flower
to flower, as the industrious bees do ; hut they take possession
of the hives and the honey. The Whigs don't build the nests like
the feathered songsters of the grove, but they come in for those
nests and the eggs which they contain. They magnanimously
reap what the nation sows, and are perfectly contented with their "am i not a man and a brother?"
mode of practice, and think the country ought to love and admire _., , ~ , . , , , , . „ ,
them excessively for condescending to take advantage of its labour. r The result of this good-humoured and elegant piece of satire is to he
This was Jones's argument. " You let Cobden do all the work" | foUDd m the Times newsPaPer of Saturday, the 4th July,
says he, " and having done it, you appropriate the proceeds calmly to " We understand that situations in the Household have been offered to His Grace the
, j \. .c> , rc r r J Duke of Stilton, and His Grace the Duke ok Doublegloucester. Their Graces
yourselves, and otter him a htteenth-rate place in your sublime corps, have declined the honour which was proposed to them, but have nevertheless signified
Jones was speaking of the first and abortive attempt of the Whigs to I their intention of supporting publicly the new administration;"
take office last year ; when they really offered Richard Cobden a \ Could a public writer have a greater triumph ? I make no man-
place something better than that of a Downing Street Messenger ; j ner of doubt that the Dukes alluded to have, upon perusal and
and actually were good enough to propose that he should enjoy some j consideration of the last chapter of Snobs, determined that they will
such official dignity, as that of carrying Lord Tom Noddy's red j wear no livery however august ; that they will take no service
box.
What ensued last week, when Peel gave in his adhesion to Free
Trade, and meekly resigning his place and emoluments, walked naked
out of office into private life ? John Russell and Company stepped
in to assume those garments which, according to that illustrious
English gentleman, the Member for Shrewsbury, the Right Honorable
Baronet had originally " conveyed" from the Whigs, but which (accord-
ing to Jones and every contributor to Punch) the Whigs themselves,
had abstracted from Richard Cobden, Charles Villiers, John
Bright, and others,—what, I say, ensued ? Dare you come forward
0 Whigs ? Jones exclaimed . —0 Whig Snobs ! I cry out with all
my heart, and put Richard Cobden and his fellows into the rear rank,
and claim the victory which was won by other and better swords than
your puny, twiddling court blades ever were ? Do you mean to say
that you are to rule ; and Cobden is to be held of no account ? It
was thus that at a contest for Shrewsbury, more severe than any Mr.
B. Disraeli ever encountered, one Ealstaff came forward and claimed
to have slain Hotspur, when the noble Harry had run him through.
It was thus in France that some dandified representatives of the
people looked on, when Hoche or Bonaparte won the victories of the
Republic.
What took place in consequence of Punch's remonstrance ? The
Whigs offered a seat in the Cabinet to Richard Cobden. With humble
pride I say, as a Member of the Punch administration, that a greater
compliment was never offered to our legislatorial body
however majestic, but content themselves with the modesty of their
independence, and endeavour to live reputably upon five hundred or a
thousand pounds per diem. If Punch has been able to effect these
reforms in a single week—to bring the great Whig party to acknow-
ledge that there are, after all, as great, nay, better men than they
in this wicked world—to induce the great Whig magnates to see that
servitude—servitude to the greatest Prince out of the smallest and
most illustrious court in Deutschland—does not become their station,
—why, we are baulked of the best part of our article on Whig Snobs.
The paper is already written.
Perhaps the race is extinct, (or on the verge of extinction,) with its
progeny of puny philosophers, and dandy patriots, and polite philan-
thropists, and fond believers in House of Commons' traditions. Perhaps
My Lord or Sir Thomas, who condescend, from their parks and halls,
to issue manifestoes to the towns and villages, and say, "We approve
of the wishes of the people to be represented. We think that their
grievances are aot without foundation, and we place ourselves at
their head in oix infinite wisdom, in order to overcome the Tories,
their enemies ai.d our own." Perhaps, I say, the magnificent Whigs
have at last discovered that without a regiment, volunteer officers, ever
so bedizened wi th gold lace, are not particularly efficient, that without
a ladder even 1 he most aspiring Whigs cannot climb to eminence ;
that the natioi, in a word, no more cares for the Whigs than it cares
for the Stuart dynasty, or for the Heptarchy, or for George Canning,
who passed a i/ay some few hundred years afterwards ; or for any
And now with respect to my own little endeavour to advance our j collapsed tradition. The Whigs ? Charles Fox was a great man
country's weal. Those who remember the last week's remarks on Political
Snobs, must recollect the similitude into which, perforce, we entered—
the comparison of the British Flunkey with the Court Flunkey—the
great official Household Snob. Poor John in his outrageous plush
and cocked hat, with his absurd uniform, facings, aiguillettes; with
in his time, and so were the archers with their long-bows at Agincourt.
But gunpowder is better. The world keeps moving. The great
time-stream rushes onward ; and just now a few little Whigling
heads and bodies are bobbing and kicking on the surface.
My dearest friend, the period of submersion comes, and down they
his cocked-hat, bag-wig and powder ; with his amazing nosegay in his j go, down among the dead men, and what need have we to act as
bosom, was compared to the First Lord of the Dustpan, or the Head ! humanity-men, and hook out poor little bodies ?
Groom of the Pantry, and the motto enforced on the mind was— [ A paper about Whig Snobs is therefore absurd
19
THE SNOBS OF ENGLAND.
by ONE OF themselves.
CHAP. XIX—ON WHIG SNOBS.
E don't know—we are too
modest to calculate (every
man who sends in his con-
tributions to Mr. Punch's
broad sheet is modest) the
effect of our works ; and
the influence which they
may have on society and
the world.
Two instances — apropos
of the above statement of
opinion—occurred last week.
My dear friend and fellow
contributor Jones (I shall
call him Jones, though his
patronymic is one of the most
distinguished in this Empire),
wrote a paper entitled
" Black Monday," in which the claims of the Whigs to office were
impartially set forth, and their title to heavenborn statesmanship
rather sceptically questioned. The sic cos non vubk was Jones's
argument. The Whigs don't roam the fields and buzz from flower
to flower, as the industrious bees do ; hut they take possession
of the hives and the honey. The Whigs don't build the nests like
the feathered songsters of the grove, but they come in for those
nests and the eggs which they contain. They magnanimously
reap what the nation sows, and are perfectly contented with their "am i not a man and a brother?"
mode of practice, and think the country ought to love and admire _., , ~ , . , , , , . „ ,
them excessively for condescending to take advantage of its labour. r The result of this good-humoured and elegant piece of satire is to he
This was Jones's argument. " You let Cobden do all the work" | foUDd m the Times newsPaPer of Saturday, the 4th July,
says he, " and having done it, you appropriate the proceeds calmly to " We understand that situations in the Household have been offered to His Grace the
, j \. .c> , rc r r J Duke of Stilton, and His Grace the Duke ok Doublegloucester. Their Graces
yourselves, and otter him a htteenth-rate place in your sublime corps, have declined the honour which was proposed to them, but have nevertheless signified
Jones was speaking of the first and abortive attempt of the Whigs to I their intention of supporting publicly the new administration;"
take office last year ; when they really offered Richard Cobden a \ Could a public writer have a greater triumph ? I make no man-
place something better than that of a Downing Street Messenger ; j ner of doubt that the Dukes alluded to have, upon perusal and
and actually were good enough to propose that he should enjoy some j consideration of the last chapter of Snobs, determined that they will
such official dignity, as that of carrying Lord Tom Noddy's red j wear no livery however august ; that they will take no service
box.
What ensued last week, when Peel gave in his adhesion to Free
Trade, and meekly resigning his place and emoluments, walked naked
out of office into private life ? John Russell and Company stepped
in to assume those garments which, according to that illustrious
English gentleman, the Member for Shrewsbury, the Right Honorable
Baronet had originally " conveyed" from the Whigs, but which (accord-
ing to Jones and every contributor to Punch) the Whigs themselves,
had abstracted from Richard Cobden, Charles Villiers, John
Bright, and others,—what, I say, ensued ? Dare you come forward
0 Whigs ? Jones exclaimed . —0 Whig Snobs ! I cry out with all
my heart, and put Richard Cobden and his fellows into the rear rank,
and claim the victory which was won by other and better swords than
your puny, twiddling court blades ever were ? Do you mean to say
that you are to rule ; and Cobden is to be held of no account ? It
was thus that at a contest for Shrewsbury, more severe than any Mr.
B. Disraeli ever encountered, one Ealstaff came forward and claimed
to have slain Hotspur, when the noble Harry had run him through.
It was thus in France that some dandified representatives of the
people looked on, when Hoche or Bonaparte won the victories of the
Republic.
What took place in consequence of Punch's remonstrance ? The
Whigs offered a seat in the Cabinet to Richard Cobden. With humble
pride I say, as a Member of the Punch administration, that a greater
compliment was never offered to our legislatorial body
however majestic, but content themselves with the modesty of their
independence, and endeavour to live reputably upon five hundred or a
thousand pounds per diem. If Punch has been able to effect these
reforms in a single week—to bring the great Whig party to acknow-
ledge that there are, after all, as great, nay, better men than they
in this wicked world—to induce the great Whig magnates to see that
servitude—servitude to the greatest Prince out of the smallest and
most illustrious court in Deutschland—does not become their station,
—why, we are baulked of the best part of our article on Whig Snobs.
The paper is already written.
Perhaps the race is extinct, (or on the verge of extinction,) with its
progeny of puny philosophers, and dandy patriots, and polite philan-
thropists, and fond believers in House of Commons' traditions. Perhaps
My Lord or Sir Thomas, who condescend, from their parks and halls,
to issue manifestoes to the towns and villages, and say, "We approve
of the wishes of the people to be represented. We think that their
grievances are aot without foundation, and we place ourselves at
their head in oix infinite wisdom, in order to overcome the Tories,
their enemies ai.d our own." Perhaps, I say, the magnificent Whigs
have at last discovered that without a regiment, volunteer officers, ever
so bedizened wi th gold lace, are not particularly efficient, that without
a ladder even 1 he most aspiring Whigs cannot climb to eminence ;
that the natioi, in a word, no more cares for the Whigs than it cares
for the Stuart dynasty, or for the Heptarchy, or for George Canning,
who passed a i/ay some few hundred years afterwards ; or for any
And now with respect to my own little endeavour to advance our j collapsed tradition. The Whigs ? Charles Fox was a great man
country's weal. Those who remember the last week's remarks on Political
Snobs, must recollect the similitude into which, perforce, we entered—
the comparison of the British Flunkey with the Court Flunkey—the
great official Household Snob. Poor John in his outrageous plush
and cocked hat, with his absurd uniform, facings, aiguillettes; with
in his time, and so were the archers with their long-bows at Agincourt.
But gunpowder is better. The world keeps moving. The great
time-stream rushes onward ; and just now a few little Whigling
heads and bodies are bobbing and kicking on the surface.
My dearest friend, the period of submersion comes, and down they
his cocked-hat, bag-wig and powder ; with his amazing nosegay in his j go, down among the dead men, and what need have we to act as
bosom, was compared to the First Lord of the Dustpan, or the Head ! humanity-men, and hook out poor little bodies ?
Groom of the Pantry, and the motto enforced on the mind was— [ A paper about Whig Snobs is therefore absurd