Punch: Punch (21.1851)

138

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI

AUSTRIA'S FRIENDS IN THE CITY.

recent City article
of the Times, in
reference to the
new Austrian
loan, says that

" The Roman Ca-
tholic prelates have,
it is alleged, deter-
mined to subscribe
to the extent of all
the available means
of the convents;
and the principal
Jews have also
been influenced to
'recommend' all
of their profession
to subscribe libe-
rally."

And why not?
Is not money
like any other
commodity? Am
I to be debarred

from selling £. s. d., because my customer is
likely to make a bad use of the article, &c?
Must, I decline to export iron, because a
despot might have fetters made of it, to chain
patriots together withal—or cotton cloth, be-
cause it might serve an absolute prince for a
nightcap, &c, &c, &c. ?
^7 Well, my commercial moralist, suppose you
have the right to supply a tyrant with the
sinews of war on human liberty; suppose your conscience need be
disturbed by no such reflections, as that every penny you lend may
be a bullet for a true heart,—a knot in a scourge for a woman's back,
&c, &c. Let all that pass ;—there are other points in question.

Are the Jews recommended to subscribe liberally to the Austrian
loan as a good investment merely ?

Is it simply as usurers that the Roman Catholic prelates have deter-
mined to devote all the available means of the convents to the same
purpose ?

Will the Jews be likely to expedite their emancipation by lending
their money expressly to abet the Emperor of Austria ?

Will the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, by pressing the cash of their
Church into the Austrian service, gain any additional credence for their
constant assertion that they are merely a spiritual, and not a political
organisation, and by no means hostile to human liberty, and not at all
desirous of confining the intellect and enslaving the soul ?

THE NATION AND ITS MONUMENTS.

The National Gallery holds its place

In Trafalgar's noble Square,
And being a nati nal disgrace,

Will remain forever there.

The Duke on the Arch was raised, in spite

Of all that the world could say;
And because he stands on an awkward site,

We of course shall let him stay.

The Palace of Glass is so much admired,

Both in Country and in Town,
That its maintenance is by all desired :

So we mean to pull it down.

The Flower of Politeness.

There is now growing, at a nursery-ground in Chelsea, a Victoria
Regia, so gigantic as nearly to fill up the gardm. A person of cere-
monious habits, in passing the flower, put it gently aside, exclaiming at
the same time, " Now then, by your leaf."

another and another still.

The novel cable just prepare! for the Electric Telegraph may justly
be called the greatest curiosity in—new—rope—(in Europe).

[The maker of the above atrocities, if he had a little more rope,
would undoubtedly hang himself.J

No Wonder !—After all, we cannot be surprised that the American
invader can t get the Cubans to rise on his side. How very common is
a Lopez that won't " draw 1"

PANORAMA OF THE INGLESE—AN INGLESE

FAMILY.

{From the Beyrout Banner, Joppa Intelligencer, and Jerusalem Journal.)

The renowned and learned Sage and Doctor of Beyrout, the excellent
Hadjee Aboo Bosh, has just returned to his beloved country from his
wonderful travels in distant lands, having visited most of the cities and
people of Eranghistan. He is familiar with all languages, and has
deeply studied the customs and manners of the Infidels. He has caused
skilful limners amongst them, at the expense of many millions of
piastres, to paint pictures representing the chief towns of the Franks;
which works are so wonderful, life-like, and resembling nature, that
true Believers, without leaving the cushion of repose, or the pipe of
meditation, may behold the towns of Europe presented before them,
and have the mountains to come to them, which would not advance in
former ages, no, not even to meet the Prophet.

The famous and skilful Hadjee has arranged, near the Bazaar, by
the Rope-makers' quarter, in the large vacant hall formerly occupied by
the baths of El Thawer, a vast chamber, in which he exhibits the
wonders which he has brought from foreign countries. Having paid
money to a negro at the door, you are introduced through obscure
passages into a chamber as dark as Gehenna, and into a place which
they call a pit, where you sit in expectant terror, before an awful
curtain, lighted but by a few faint lamps.

Many of the stoutest Agas and EffVndis in Beyrout entered this
gloomy apartment not without awe. The women of the hareem of
Papoosh Pasha were placed in a box, guarded by a gilt cage ; as were
the ladies of the establishment of Bluebeard Bey, and the three wives
of the Grand Mollah. Women's curiosity, indeed, will go any-
where. As the poet has sung—

There is no secret so dark, but the eye of Zutulbe will pene-
trate it.

There is no tangled skein, but the finger of Leila will unravel it.
There is no lock so cunning, but the crooked nose of the old hag,
Eatima, will pick.it.

—Indeed, a vast audience of the officers, lords, and topping merchants
of Beyrout were present to behold the Aboo Bosh's wonderful
pictures.

Before the curtain drew aside, and our eyes were dazzled, our ears
were diverted by a dexterous slave, who executes the barbarous music of
Europe, and the favourite songs of the unbelievers, by merely turning
the handle of a small chest, called a Hurridee Gurridee. The handle
operates upon a number of bulbuls who are confined within the box,
each of whom at his signal comes forward and pipes in his turn. One
sings the hymn of the French Feringhees; he is called the Parees Yenn :
when he is tired, another warbles the war-song of the English ; he is
called the Roolbretawnia : this over, a third nightingale begins to pipe
the delicious love-song of the Yangkees, who are a kind of Ingleez, and
the name of this song-bird is Yangkeedoodool. The sweetest of all the
songs is this, and fills the heart with delight.

When the birds are tired, he who turns the handle of the box stops
turning, and the music ceases with a melancholy wail. And then, as
in a blaze of splendour, the pictures begin to pass before the astonished
beholders.

The city represented yesterday was the City of Lundoon, which lies
upon a river called the Tameez: over which are twenty thousand
bridges, each twenty hundred parasangs in length, and to which there
come daily a hundred thousand ships.

I n one quarter of Lundoon, during the winter months, it is always
night. It is illuminated, however, with fire, which gushes out of the
bowels of the earth, and affords a preternatural brilliancy. This
quarter is called Stee; twenty thousand carriages rush thither every
minute, each carriage holding forty persons : the drivers and grooms
crying out Stee, Stee ! In this quarter the Shroffs and principal
merchants reside. The palace of the Lord Cadi is here, and each
ward of the City has an Eldermanwho becomes Cadi in bis turn.
They are all fat in this district, drinking much of an intoxicating liquor
made of citrons and rakee, called Panj, or Poonj, and eating of a stew
of tortoises, of which they take many platesfull. Aboo Bosh owned to
having tasted and liked the stew, but about the liquor he was silent.

After seeing the Merchants' quarter, the view changed, and exhibited
to us the great Mosque of Paul, whereof the dome is almost as high as
Mount Lebanon. The faithful pay two paras to enter this Mosque;
whicli sum goes to the support of the dervishes. Within, it is sur-
rounded by white images of captains, colonels, and effendis; whose
figures show that the Ingleez were but an ill-favoured people. In the
court is an image of a beloved Queen : the people say " Queen Ann
is dead," and tear their beards to this day, so much do they love htr
memory.

The next view was that of the building in which the Councillors and
men of law of the kingdom meet for their affairs. In all StambooJ
there is not such a palace. It is carved without, and gilt within. The
Chambers of Council are endless : the chair of the Queen is a treasure