DOI issue:
January to June, 1848
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16546#0124
116
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
and your Own Correspondent is obliged to close bis despatch abruptly,
the pen having been knocked out of his hand by a rotten apple.
[P.S. You will, of course, send Mrs. O. C. salary for two weeks, should
anyt hing more serious happen.]
lh. lm. p.m.
A multitude has just arrived from the Faubourg St. Giles's. The
Municipal Guard are trying to stave them off with their truncheons
Stones darken the air.
3h. 6£m. f.II.
Glorious news ! They are going to demolish the National Gallery;
but express a benevolent determination to restore the pictures. It is
to be hoped they will do it better than it was done this time twelve-
month. They say they have put up with the building long enough, and
arc resolved to pull it down.
44 p.m.
Alas ' they have changed their minds! They are smashing the police
instead. The Foot Guards have been called out, and the Duke of
Wellington sent for.
5 P.M.
Several of the rioters have expressed their intention of going home
to tea.
Gh. 15m. p.m.
Fourteen lamps have been smashed, and an express has arrived from
Apsley House with these remarkable words, " Up, Guards, and at 'cm!:
I hear, however, that the soldiers are wavering.
HFRE S THE POLICE.
7 p. m.
Punch and the People are lost! The Foot Guards have fra-
ternised !
7± p. m.
Xo theyhaven't ! The mistake occurred in consequence of a general
(postman) inuniform tumbling over a chimney-sweep, and in the dusk
they were mistaken for a fusilier and a patriot embracing. The rappel
is, however, beating in Castle Street. The people have carried off
the Nelson column. [Here our correspondent's account breaks off.
He was taken into custody about ten, for refusing to " Move" on.]
the heal OBJECT of the revolution ix trafalgar square.
The English Agitator.
On Wednesday a public meeting of the " Early Closing Association"
was advertised for eight o'clock. The meeting, however, was antici-
pated long before by a large mob of boys and blackguards, rushing
down Fleet-street and Cheapside, when almost every shopkeeper carried
out the object of the above Society bv putting up his shutters as early
as two o'clock. We imagine that Mr. Cochrane may compliment
himself upon being the great promoter and Chairman of this new
" Early Closing" movement. If he were allowed his way, business
would probably close still earlier ; for the chances are, that the shops
would have to shut up the very moment they opened. Wc wish some
humane philanthropist would start an Association for the Early Shut-
tin<r-up of Mr. Cochrane. It would be the most numerous Association
in London.
NOTICE.
If the individual calling himself John Smith, who left a wig at the
Cordon Bleu Inn, at Treport in France, does not reclaim his property,
the same will be sold to pay expenses.
THE PHOT THAT DIDN'T WEATHER THE STORM.
CHEAP TAX-GATHERING; OP, WORK FOR THE
WEALTHY.
It appears from a recently published statement, that for the year
ending on the 5th of January, 1847, the amount deducted from the
gross receipts of the revenue, chiefly on account of the expense of
collecting it, was no less than £5,904,690 lis. 4rf. We knew that an
immense sum of money passes through the tax-gatherers' hands; but
wc had no idea that so much of it stuck to their fingers. An outlay,
hard upon six millions sterling, and much harder upon the millions
forming the population, is incurred in merely getting in the taxes !
Why, all this cash would set us up for ever in a standing army, which
might constantly keep off invaders at the point of the bayonet, and, if
necessary, levy the taxes—especially the Income-Tax—in the same
manner. At least some of the money ought to find its way into the
Exchequer.
We are happy in being able to propose a plan for the cheaper collec-
tion of the revenue. It is but fair that those who have a stake in the
country should take the trouble of preserving it. A stake in the country
is property in the country ; now, we suggest that all unemployed gentle-
men of property should be liable to serve as tax-gatherers gratuitously.
It is thus that an individual who has a stake in his parish is obliged to
act as churchwarden or overseer ; and what is a parish but a nation in
little ? If Aristocracy has its rights, it has also its duties ; let the latter
be extended so as to include those of collector, tide-waiter, and excise-
man. Dignify these offices with becoming titles, as Lord High
Assessor, or Grand Gauger, with the addition of Right Honourable or
Most Noble. Let those who are to fill them have the option of
appointing deputies, just as the High Sheriff delegates his functions to
Jack Ketch. What is there so absurd in this proposition to employ
the idle, when men of business are summoned from their desks and
counters—not to mention their hearths and homes—for the purpose of
officiating as jurymen ? It is at least fair that tax-eaters should do thus
much towards getting their own bread.
A Whipping Well-Merited.
The Times says, that during the late Cochrane riots, the coal-
whippers, mustering 2000 strong, sent a deputation to the Home
Secretary with an offer of their assistance in preserving the public
peace. As the rioters consisted mainly of a set of blackguard boys, the
coalwhippers would have been just the persons to deal with them,_by
performing that operation which they practise on coals—viz., whipping
—on the backs of these mischievous young vagabonds.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
and your Own Correspondent is obliged to close bis despatch abruptly,
the pen having been knocked out of his hand by a rotten apple.
[P.S. You will, of course, send Mrs. O. C. salary for two weeks, should
anyt hing more serious happen.]
lh. lm. p.m.
A multitude has just arrived from the Faubourg St. Giles's. The
Municipal Guard are trying to stave them off with their truncheons
Stones darken the air.
3h. 6£m. f.II.
Glorious news ! They are going to demolish the National Gallery;
but express a benevolent determination to restore the pictures. It is
to be hoped they will do it better than it was done this time twelve-
month. They say they have put up with the building long enough, and
arc resolved to pull it down.
44 p.m.
Alas ' they have changed their minds! They are smashing the police
instead. The Foot Guards have been called out, and the Duke of
Wellington sent for.
5 P.M.
Several of the rioters have expressed their intention of going home
to tea.
Gh. 15m. p.m.
Fourteen lamps have been smashed, and an express has arrived from
Apsley House with these remarkable words, " Up, Guards, and at 'cm!:
I hear, however, that the soldiers are wavering.
HFRE S THE POLICE.
7 p. m.
Punch and the People are lost! The Foot Guards have fra-
ternised !
7± p. m.
Xo theyhaven't ! The mistake occurred in consequence of a general
(postman) inuniform tumbling over a chimney-sweep, and in the dusk
they were mistaken for a fusilier and a patriot embracing. The rappel
is, however, beating in Castle Street. The people have carried off
the Nelson column. [Here our correspondent's account breaks off.
He was taken into custody about ten, for refusing to " Move" on.]
the heal OBJECT of the revolution ix trafalgar square.
The English Agitator.
On Wednesday a public meeting of the " Early Closing Association"
was advertised for eight o'clock. The meeting, however, was antici-
pated long before by a large mob of boys and blackguards, rushing
down Fleet-street and Cheapside, when almost every shopkeeper carried
out the object of the above Society bv putting up his shutters as early
as two o'clock. We imagine that Mr. Cochrane may compliment
himself upon being the great promoter and Chairman of this new
" Early Closing" movement. If he were allowed his way, business
would probably close still earlier ; for the chances are, that the shops
would have to shut up the very moment they opened. Wc wish some
humane philanthropist would start an Association for the Early Shut-
tin<r-up of Mr. Cochrane. It would be the most numerous Association
in London.
NOTICE.
If the individual calling himself John Smith, who left a wig at the
Cordon Bleu Inn, at Treport in France, does not reclaim his property,
the same will be sold to pay expenses.
THE PHOT THAT DIDN'T WEATHER THE STORM.
CHEAP TAX-GATHERING; OP, WORK FOR THE
WEALTHY.
It appears from a recently published statement, that for the year
ending on the 5th of January, 1847, the amount deducted from the
gross receipts of the revenue, chiefly on account of the expense of
collecting it, was no less than £5,904,690 lis. 4rf. We knew that an
immense sum of money passes through the tax-gatherers' hands; but
wc had no idea that so much of it stuck to their fingers. An outlay,
hard upon six millions sterling, and much harder upon the millions
forming the population, is incurred in merely getting in the taxes !
Why, all this cash would set us up for ever in a standing army, which
might constantly keep off invaders at the point of the bayonet, and, if
necessary, levy the taxes—especially the Income-Tax—in the same
manner. At least some of the money ought to find its way into the
Exchequer.
We are happy in being able to propose a plan for the cheaper collec-
tion of the revenue. It is but fair that those who have a stake in the
country should take the trouble of preserving it. A stake in the country
is property in the country ; now, we suggest that all unemployed gentle-
men of property should be liable to serve as tax-gatherers gratuitously.
It is thus that an individual who has a stake in his parish is obliged to
act as churchwarden or overseer ; and what is a parish but a nation in
little ? If Aristocracy has its rights, it has also its duties ; let the latter
be extended so as to include those of collector, tide-waiter, and excise-
man. Dignify these offices with becoming titles, as Lord High
Assessor, or Grand Gauger, with the addition of Right Honourable or
Most Noble. Let those who are to fill them have the option of
appointing deputies, just as the High Sheriff delegates his functions to
Jack Ketch. What is there so absurd in this proposition to employ
the idle, when men of business are summoned from their desks and
counters—not to mention their hearths and homes—for the purpose of
officiating as jurymen ? It is at least fair that tax-eaters should do thus
much towards getting their own bread.
A Whipping Well-Merited.
The Times says, that during the late Cochrane riots, the coal-
whippers, mustering 2000 strong, sent a deputation to the Home
Secretary with an offer of their assistance in preserving the public
peace. As the rioters consisted mainly of a set of blackguard boys, the
coalwhippers would have been just the persons to deal with them,_by
performing that operation which they practise on coals—viz., whipping
—on the backs of these mischievous young vagabonds.