DOI issue:
January to June, 1851
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16607#0112
104
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
THE ORACLE OE SOMNAMBULISM.
new system of theology, and mental
and moral philosophy, is making some
progress in the world, especially
among a portion of the ' superior
classes, whose sense of pleasure is
exhausted by enjoyment, and in whom
an enthusiastic temperament is com-
oined with a feeble understanding.
This species of revelation is derived
from the mouths of soothsayers, who
are generally either nervous and
epileptic youths, or females afflicted
with hysteria. The state of inspira-
tion is induced on the seer by the
processes of what is termed mesmer-
ism ; that is, by concentrating the
gaze, or operating, by a sort of sham-
pooing without contact, on the indi-
vidual, till sleep is produced, in which
state that person begins to talk.
The discourse of the sleeper is in
most cases manifestly incoherent and
nonsensical; but, sometimes, it takes
a more connected form, and relates
to scenes in the other world, or re-
mote objects in-this, which, the pro-
phet, if not shamming, may be pre-
sumed to be dreaming about. These
oracular trances are diversified, occa-
sionally, by convulsions, and par-
oxysms of grief or violence.
During their more tranquil mo-
ments, the entranced afford informa-
tion concernina- another life, and the
constitution of the mind. Useful
knowledge respecting the latter point-
is obtained by touching the head in
this or that place, when the subject of the experiment indicates, by
speech or gesture, the faculty seated in the corresponding part of the
brain, which is supposed to be excited by the finger's end, through the
skull. For instance, when the part phrenologically called Self-esteem is
touched, the somnambulist struts ; when the finger is placed on Vene-
ration, kneels down, or prays; or when it is put upon Wit, laughs and
giggles, or, perhaps, in states of uncommon lucidity, quotes Punch.
Different phrenological manifestations, however, are obtained by
different mesmerisers, and the same may be said of theological doctrines.
There are conflicting denominations in the religion of fits. The hyste-
rical faith, according to some of its preachers, declares the present
existence final, and teaches that there is no essential difference between
Mr. Punch and his dog Toby. According to others, that Punch is
immortal; but that whether he has destroyed his wife and child, and
killed the constable, the beadle, the churchwarden, the overseer, and
Jack Ketch ; or whether he has devoted himself all his life to promote
the welfare of Society, will make little difference to the felicity of
Mr. Pu?ich.
The revelation of these vast, but contradictory wonders, is stated to
be accompanied by the power of seeing, not only through stone walls
and into closed pill-boxes, but also into the middle of next week, and
farther; also of reading by the crown of the head, pit of the stomach,
and soles of the feet.
The doctors of the epileptic Church complain grievously that their
miracles are received with incredulity; which they might easily remove,
by performing one of them—say, causing a patient to read Punch with
the crown, or the heels, satisfactorily—in the College of Surgeons. Till
this is done, the convulsionary doctrines will probably not find any
disciples possessed of a homoeopathic particle of common sense, albeit
supported by certain persons who have too well deserved respect and
esteem, that their names should be mentioned in connection with
absurdity and "bosh." Persons wishing for information on mysterious
subjects—unless they know of a better authority whence to seek it-
should apply to Mr. Punch.
friends of the foreign office.
The Times states that at the late Election of a Lord Rector of
Glasgow University, two " nations " voted for Lord Palmerston. It
is not probable that those two nations were Austria and Russia.
Go! Naughty Man.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir
m m-°7 ■ ™ been much blamed for his unwillingness to take off
the Window-lax, and he now has the satisfaction of feeling that he
has been obliged to take himself off instead.
THE YEAR OF EXPECTATIONS.
The present year, 1851, seems to be The Year of Expectations.
Every one is expecting something !
Every lodging-house-keeper is expecting to let her lodgings at three,
and four, and five times the ordinary rent!
Every house-agent is fondling the same beautiful expectations. We
have heard of a sanguine agent who actually expects to let the grand
house, at Albert Gate, opposite Mr. Hudson's. What he expects to
get for it we should be afraid to mention!
Every little hotel and coffee-house-keeper expects to have his house
filled from top to bottom, and is forming most absurd expectations as
to the_ prices he shall get for beds, fitted up in sculleries, garrets, and
dust-bins !
Every theatrical manager expects to have "Crowded Audiences"
"Overflowing Houses," not merely in the play-bills, but positively
inside the theatre every night!
Every proprietor of a Panorama, Diorama, Cosmorama, Cyclorama,
and every other rama, expects to be able to retire next year with the
enormous receipts of this season's Exhibition!
Every shopkeeper is madly expecting to sell off every bit of his stock
this year, and expects if he does not make his fortune, that it will be
entirely the fault of not having sufficient goods to supply the demands
of his innumerable customers !
Every young lady is expecting to be brought up to town, for
"Pa's been promising it ever so long, and he can't refuse now, for
there never will be such an opportunity for seeing London as this
present year !"
Every wife expects, of course, the same.
Every country yokel expects to come up to Lunnun this year, and
expects to find our dirty streets paved wi: h the traditionary paving-
stones of gold, and to see the Queen riding about all day in a carriage
and six, with the crown on her head, and the sceptre in one hand, and
the ball in the other.
Every bigotted Englishman, belonging to the fine old John Bull
school, of stop-at-home Englishmen, expects to see every foreigner with
long moustachios, long beard, and long hair, and dirty habits, similar
to the class of Frenchmen he has been in the habit of meeting in
Leicester Square, and expects that London will be troubled with
nothing less than the Plague in consequence.
It would be difficult, and perhaps very tedious, to put down all the
expectations that have been raised, like so many cucumbers, under the
glass-frame of the Great Exhibition, more especially the expectations of
all those who expect this year to make their fortunes. We
can only say, that amongst so many expectations, more or less fragile,
that it will be a very great wonder if a few of them are not broken.
And that is the only expectation we venture to form on the subject,
and about the only one we expect to see fully realised this year!
COCKS AND HENS FROM EGYPT.
What will Colonel Sibthorp, Farmer Chowler, aye, even the
Duke of Richmond, say to the subjoined, extracted from the Morning
Post ?—
" The hens of Egypt now lay eggs for the Londoners. Thirteen casks were lately
landed at Southampton from Alexandria."
Thus, our real, indomitable English game-cock is to be duly out-
crowed by the cock of Egypt! Once upon a time, the King of Spain
—if we may trust the letters of Cardinal D'Ossat—was called "the
Cock of Christianity ! " Would he have stood such an importation of
heathen poultry ; and ought our own Lord Stanley, whose game-
cocks have a national reputation at stake—ought he, as a Protectionist
and a proprietor of English game birds—to allow of such a corruption
of the breed of English hens, as these Egyptian eggs must inevitably
bring into our farm-yards, and to the very doors of our British barns?
One fact, touching these Egyptian eggs, may show what we may
expect. Mr. Cobden, with a contempt of the maternal instinct,
worthy of a free-trader, last season set—degraded, we should say—
honest English hens upon Egyptian eggs. And what is the consequence?
Why, the hens, neglectful of motherly yearnings will only lay their eggs
in an oven (to be hatched by wood and coals)—whilst the cocks, instead
of strutting, dolcemente feroce—as the poet says—and crowing English
cock-a-doodle-doos—do nothing but perch upon outhouses, for minarets,
and at morn and evening crow—" Allah Bismillah ! Allah ! Allah ! "
The Twopenny Great Exhibition.
Persons coming to London during the Great Exhibition, will imagine
that they hear St. Paul's bell for the first time. A visit, however, to
the sacred edifice will probably convince them that, by simply ringing
two pence together, they might, at any time, have heard the toll of
St. Paul's.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
THE ORACLE OE SOMNAMBULISM.
new system of theology, and mental
and moral philosophy, is making some
progress in the world, especially
among a portion of the ' superior
classes, whose sense of pleasure is
exhausted by enjoyment, and in whom
an enthusiastic temperament is com-
oined with a feeble understanding.
This species of revelation is derived
from the mouths of soothsayers, who
are generally either nervous and
epileptic youths, or females afflicted
with hysteria. The state of inspira-
tion is induced on the seer by the
processes of what is termed mesmer-
ism ; that is, by concentrating the
gaze, or operating, by a sort of sham-
pooing without contact, on the indi-
vidual, till sleep is produced, in which
state that person begins to talk.
The discourse of the sleeper is in
most cases manifestly incoherent and
nonsensical; but, sometimes, it takes
a more connected form, and relates
to scenes in the other world, or re-
mote objects in-this, which, the pro-
phet, if not shamming, may be pre-
sumed to be dreaming about. These
oracular trances are diversified, occa-
sionally, by convulsions, and par-
oxysms of grief or violence.
During their more tranquil mo-
ments, the entranced afford informa-
tion concernina- another life, and the
constitution of the mind. Useful
knowledge respecting the latter point-
is obtained by touching the head in
this or that place, when the subject of the experiment indicates, by
speech or gesture, the faculty seated in the corresponding part of the
brain, which is supposed to be excited by the finger's end, through the
skull. For instance, when the part phrenologically called Self-esteem is
touched, the somnambulist struts ; when the finger is placed on Vene-
ration, kneels down, or prays; or when it is put upon Wit, laughs and
giggles, or, perhaps, in states of uncommon lucidity, quotes Punch.
Different phrenological manifestations, however, are obtained by
different mesmerisers, and the same may be said of theological doctrines.
There are conflicting denominations in the religion of fits. The hyste-
rical faith, according to some of its preachers, declares the present
existence final, and teaches that there is no essential difference between
Mr. Punch and his dog Toby. According to others, that Punch is
immortal; but that whether he has destroyed his wife and child, and
killed the constable, the beadle, the churchwarden, the overseer, and
Jack Ketch ; or whether he has devoted himself all his life to promote
the welfare of Society, will make little difference to the felicity of
Mr. Pu?ich.
The revelation of these vast, but contradictory wonders, is stated to
be accompanied by the power of seeing, not only through stone walls
and into closed pill-boxes, but also into the middle of next week, and
farther; also of reading by the crown of the head, pit of the stomach,
and soles of the feet.
The doctors of the epileptic Church complain grievously that their
miracles are received with incredulity; which they might easily remove,
by performing one of them—say, causing a patient to read Punch with
the crown, or the heels, satisfactorily—in the College of Surgeons. Till
this is done, the convulsionary doctrines will probably not find any
disciples possessed of a homoeopathic particle of common sense, albeit
supported by certain persons who have too well deserved respect and
esteem, that their names should be mentioned in connection with
absurdity and "bosh." Persons wishing for information on mysterious
subjects—unless they know of a better authority whence to seek it-
should apply to Mr. Punch.
friends of the foreign office.
The Times states that at the late Election of a Lord Rector of
Glasgow University, two " nations " voted for Lord Palmerston. It
is not probable that those two nations were Austria and Russia.
Go! Naughty Man.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir
m m-°7 ■ ™ been much blamed for his unwillingness to take off
the Window-lax, and he now has the satisfaction of feeling that he
has been obliged to take himself off instead.
THE YEAR OF EXPECTATIONS.
The present year, 1851, seems to be The Year of Expectations.
Every one is expecting something !
Every lodging-house-keeper is expecting to let her lodgings at three,
and four, and five times the ordinary rent!
Every house-agent is fondling the same beautiful expectations. We
have heard of a sanguine agent who actually expects to let the grand
house, at Albert Gate, opposite Mr. Hudson's. What he expects to
get for it we should be afraid to mention!
Every little hotel and coffee-house-keeper expects to have his house
filled from top to bottom, and is forming most absurd expectations as
to the_ prices he shall get for beds, fitted up in sculleries, garrets, and
dust-bins !
Every theatrical manager expects to have "Crowded Audiences"
"Overflowing Houses," not merely in the play-bills, but positively
inside the theatre every night!
Every proprietor of a Panorama, Diorama, Cosmorama, Cyclorama,
and every other rama, expects to be able to retire next year with the
enormous receipts of this season's Exhibition!
Every shopkeeper is madly expecting to sell off every bit of his stock
this year, and expects if he does not make his fortune, that it will be
entirely the fault of not having sufficient goods to supply the demands
of his innumerable customers !
Every young lady is expecting to be brought up to town, for
"Pa's been promising it ever so long, and he can't refuse now, for
there never will be such an opportunity for seeing London as this
present year !"
Every wife expects, of course, the same.
Every country yokel expects to come up to Lunnun this year, and
expects to find our dirty streets paved wi: h the traditionary paving-
stones of gold, and to see the Queen riding about all day in a carriage
and six, with the crown on her head, and the sceptre in one hand, and
the ball in the other.
Every bigotted Englishman, belonging to the fine old John Bull
school, of stop-at-home Englishmen, expects to see every foreigner with
long moustachios, long beard, and long hair, and dirty habits, similar
to the class of Frenchmen he has been in the habit of meeting in
Leicester Square, and expects that London will be troubled with
nothing less than the Plague in consequence.
It would be difficult, and perhaps very tedious, to put down all the
expectations that have been raised, like so many cucumbers, under the
glass-frame of the Great Exhibition, more especially the expectations of
all those who expect this year to make their fortunes. We
can only say, that amongst so many expectations, more or less fragile,
that it will be a very great wonder if a few of them are not broken.
And that is the only expectation we venture to form on the subject,
and about the only one we expect to see fully realised this year!
COCKS AND HENS FROM EGYPT.
What will Colonel Sibthorp, Farmer Chowler, aye, even the
Duke of Richmond, say to the subjoined, extracted from the Morning
Post ?—
" The hens of Egypt now lay eggs for the Londoners. Thirteen casks were lately
landed at Southampton from Alexandria."
Thus, our real, indomitable English game-cock is to be duly out-
crowed by the cock of Egypt! Once upon a time, the King of Spain
—if we may trust the letters of Cardinal D'Ossat—was called "the
Cock of Christianity ! " Would he have stood such an importation of
heathen poultry ; and ought our own Lord Stanley, whose game-
cocks have a national reputation at stake—ought he, as a Protectionist
and a proprietor of English game birds—to allow of such a corruption
of the breed of English hens, as these Egyptian eggs must inevitably
bring into our farm-yards, and to the very doors of our British barns?
One fact, touching these Egyptian eggs, may show what we may
expect. Mr. Cobden, with a contempt of the maternal instinct,
worthy of a free-trader, last season set—degraded, we should say—
honest English hens upon Egyptian eggs. And what is the consequence?
Why, the hens, neglectful of motherly yearnings will only lay their eggs
in an oven (to be hatched by wood and coals)—whilst the cocks, instead
of strutting, dolcemente feroce—as the poet says—and crowing English
cock-a-doodle-doos—do nothing but perch upon outhouses, for minarets,
and at morn and evening crow—" Allah Bismillah ! Allah ! Allah ! "
The Twopenny Great Exhibition.
Persons coming to London during the Great Exhibition, will imagine
that they hear St. Paul's bell for the first time. A visit, however, to
the sacred edifice will probably convince them that, by simply ringing
two pence together, they might, at any time, have heard the toll of
St. Paul's.