Punch (32.1857)

June 27, 1857.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

255

LIVING MONUMENTS.

A Conversation, calculated to awaken thought, took place, the
other evening, in the House of Commons. Sib F. Baring called
attention to the expenditure on improvements in St. James's Park,
amounting to £11,000 incurred irrespectively of any parliamentary
vote : whereupon Mr. Mowrrat remarked that this was not the only
instance of a large expenditure without the previous sanction of the
House; thousands having been spent last year upon fireworks. As to
the fireworks, the Chancellor or the Exchequer reminded the
House that their expense was defrayed out of the Civil Contingencies
—a gross amount placed at the disposal of the Government. The first
question suggested by these statements and observations to the
thoughtful mind is, how much the better anybody now is for the ten-
thousand-pounds-worth of fireworks burnt last year, except the pyro-
technists and their men, who were paid to make them and to let them
off ? The next is, whether the quantity of pleasure distributed over the
London multitude by the display of the fireworks was not, for each

individual, exceedingly small? We then naturally ask, whether it
would not have been much better to concentrate the happiness to
be had for £10,000 by bestowing the amount upon one individual?
An individual then beatified with that sum might be living now,
and might survive for many _ years, and his life, _ whilst it lasted,
would be one prolonged rejoicing for the conclusion of last year's
peace with Russia. He would be a living monument of that event;
and we recommend the idea of such living monuments to Govern-
ment. We are very glad to hear that, in the Civil Contingencies,
they have a gross amount placed at their disposal, and we entreat tnem
to consider, whether they could dispose of it better than in the insti-
tution and endowment of living monuments, in the persons of deserving
individuals at present hard up, made at the earliest opportunity, com-
fortable for life.

Plans for such monuments may be obtained by Ministers (or anybody
else) gratuitously at 85 Fleet Street,

A SHORT WAT WITH A LUNATIC. TRANSATLANTIC TIGERS.

Any medical man who wants to get rid of an insane patient, or
who knows anybody that wants to get rid of an insane relation, will
perhaps find the means of accomplishing his object, or that of the
other party, by the help of the subjoined advertisement: for which he
is recommended to search the recent numbers of all the daily papers ;
in one of which it is quoted from a medical journal:—

I

NSANITY.—Twenty per cent, annually on the receipts will be

When General Henningsen, the accomplice of Gener al Walker
— Generals in the like service with that wherein the celebrated
Macheath was Captain—landed the other day, with a number of other
scoundrels at New York, the rascaldom of that city expressed their
sympathy with the General of Filibusters by giving him three cheers,
and, by the account of the New York Herald, " repeated the number in
tigers." What our American contemporary means by tigers we do

guaranteed to any Medical man recommending a quiet Patient of either sex, to n°t know, but we are at no loss t.O conjecture ; and we conclude that

a First-Ciass Asylum, with tbe highest testimonials. Address — ,— ' j the tigers in which the New York ruifians redoubled their cheers of

Twenty per cent, on the receipts for the board, lodging, and care of
the unhappy lunatic, screwed out of the lunatic's board and lodging,
would probably represent a considerable abridgment of the patient's
natural life. On the other hand, to be sure, the advertising madhouse-
keeper would have an interest in prolonging the existence of his
unfortunate charge: and, moreover, he might easily cheat the medical
man out of the guaranteed twenty per cent., which surely would be a
consideration secured by a no more valid bond than a contract entered

their hero Henningsen were notes or keys resembling in tone and
quality the revolting yells and howlings of the ferocious beasts sc
denominated.

Petticoat Government.

The Estaffette informs us that the Prefect of the Seine has appointed

female searchers at all the barrieres of Paris to examine all females

...... , ,. "------ wearing Crinoline, as these voluminous petticoats are extensively

lino iOi cUiimmordi purpose. » i -i /• v mi • • i ±. r j m j i i • j_-

x r employed tor smuggling, ilus might be described by our euphemistic

An Old Friend Decapitated.

The poor dear old Sea-Serpent's head having been cut off in Algoa
Bay, he can only figure henceforward, as a mere tail. An idiot of our
acquaintance suggests that Algoa Bay must be his Natal ground.—
(N.B. For'the point of this degrading pun consult the Map of Southern

Africa.)

friend, Le Follet, in the following modish terms :—
" Crinolines continue to be worn, with the addition of visites—a la barriire."

We trust that the Dover and Folkestone custom-houses will not be
invaded by the right of search " in this form at all events.

Roman Cement—The French Army; for it has been sticking in
Rome now ever so long, and the Pope finds it impossible to remove it.