DOI issue:
November 20, 1858
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16622#0216
November 2U, 1858.J
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARJ.
INTELLECT ON THE GROUND.
^, amartine, in a recent letter
to the Brussels Congress,
calls Belgium "intellectual
ground, par excellence."
We can only say, then,
that the soil has not -been
particularly fertile. Not-
withstanding all its " excel-
lence," the ground has
only been rich in trans-
planting. All its intellect
has been transplanted, root
and branch, from France
and other countries. They
have scarcely a literary slip
that they can call their
own. The only intellect
displayed has been in steal-
ing the choicest fruit out of
their neighbours' gardens,
and grafting them on to
their own stunted trees, so
as to make the world
believe what a beautiful
crop they had. Brussels,
for years past, has been
nothing better than a Field
Lane of Literature, where
the valuable wares, of
which French and English authors' pockets had been picked, were
openly exhibited for sale. Lamartine must have been laughing in
his clever sleeve when he called such a monster literary fence "intel-
lectual ground." He can only have meant it in a certain facon—and
that is, the contrefacon. We should like to send a specimen of the
"intellectual" soil to some smart agricultural chemist to have it
analysed. His report probably would be:—"Natural Quality extremely
barren; whatever intellectual properties are found in it have been
imported from other countries." Besides, granting that the ground
is as " intellectual" as it is reported to be, what a shame then to build
nothing but houses for the reception of stolen goods upon it!
FROM GAY TO GRAVE, FROM LIVELY TO
SEVERE.
" Capstera. Death, Sir, I shall not part with Mexico, so easily.
" Hacker. "]
" Outlast. I N T
"Laguerre. f JNorI-
" Culverin. J
" Hacker. Draw, then, and let the survivor take it. [Thty flgfU."
The book dropped from Mr. Punch's hands, and he slept, and
dreamed a dream. And behold, there came unto him a .Yankee, who
took the book and read the above passage, and spoke as follows :—
" Calculate, strainger, that air coon of a play-writer of yourne is
squinting his eye in a fine frenzy rolling at the free and galliant sons
of our immortal B,epublic, and that the crittur has made his best jumps
to show that we are pirates, because we fulfil the destiny of natur, in
aggregating them outlying tracts to the immortal Union. Lucky for
him that he ain't promulgated that air upon this here free and enlight-
ened soil, or I'd bet a red cent he'd be fitted with a clean new shirt,
of tar, and an elegant waistcoat of feathers. Jerusalem! Snakes ! "
Mr. Punch jumped up in a cold fright, and waked himself by a des-
perate but unsuccessful effort to explain to his American friend that
thieving was one thing and annexation another.
Everybody knows the Beggars' Opera, with its wicked wit and
pretty music. But everybody does not know that Mb. John Gay
was pleastd to write a sequel to the opera, and to call it Polly; and
tiuly, for the credit of the pleasant fabulist, the fewer people who
know it the better. The author was displeased that the worldwas j animals : one, of whom you might"feel"indined to lay,"with fiac'duff,
He has no children"—and add, "He has pet terriers." The man
HUMANITY AND CANINITY.
At the Clerkenwell Police Court the other day occurred a case,
reported in the Morning Post under the head of " Horrible Cruelty
to a Do&—Infliction of the Full Penalty." It was briefly
this. Some children were at play with a small terrier, which bit one of
them, whose father rushed out of the house and stabbed the dog, which
escaped, and ran away howling. In a quarter of an hour it came back;
and he then seized it, took it in-doors, and in three minutes afterwards
threw it into the street, with its throat cut from ear to ear. It crawled
to its owner's door, and died. The defendant, said, "the dog had
bitten his child, and he thought he was justified in killing it. He
denied being guilty of intentional cruelty to the animal." Me. Tyk-
whitt " dwelt at some length on the gravity of the offence."
Punch is not inclined to palliate cruelty to animals, especially dogs ;
for does he not appreciate the fidelity of Toby?—but is it so grave an
offence for a father to cut the throat of a cur that has bitten his child ?
The magistrate dwelt on the fact, that the defendant renewed hit
attack upon the dog. " Had he killed the animal outright in the fixfat.
instance, so much could not have been said." Nothing, Punch wouU
suggest, could justly be said more than that the father did a very natural
thing. "But," continued Mr. Tyrwhitt, "the fact of his having
stabbed the dog in the first place, and then waiting till it returned to
its owner's door to commit a further atrocity upon it, was a most
unjustifiable and barbarous act, for which he should inflict the full
penalty of £5 and the costs, or two months' imprisonment, and order
him to pay a further sum of 15*,, as a compensation to the owner of
the dog, or be further imprisoned for seven days."
The man was a letter-carrier; so that this was a severe sentence.
The remarks and judgment of the worthy magistrate seem to in-
dicate an animals' friend, a little too friendly, comparatively, to
convinced he had been aided in the first opera by stronger and bitterer
pens than his own, and he probably determined to let the world see
that he could do something without aid. He made a mess of it: he
sent poor Polly to the West Indies, in boy's clothes, in search of
Machealh, who had broken prison and turned pirate, taking Miss Jenny
Diver witli him, and finally Mb. Gay let Machealh be put to death by
some virtuous blackamores, whose Prince falls in love with Polly, and
is promised his reward as soon as time shall have assuaged her sorrows,
and permitted her to marry again. On the 7( h December, 1728, which
was a Saturday, Mr. Gay called on the Lord Chamberlain to read
this piece to him, but was requested to leave it, and on the following
Thursday, the Devonshire dramatist was 1 old that Polly must be
suppressed. Why, it is difficult to guess, for nothing can be more
harmless and stupid than the piece; and we must suppose, either that
the then Lord Chamberlain had a care for the poet's reputation, or
that Lord Chamberlains in those days were as great fools as they
are now.
But Mr. Punch, happening to take up the book, detected, with his
usual keenness, one bit of dialogue which lie is inclined to reproduce,
the rather that nobody but an omni-observant party like himself will
ever discover a scrap of gold amid so much rubbish. He lighted upon
a scene where certain of the pirates, Macheath's companions, were
squabbling over the territories which they intended to conquer. And
thus do the thieves talk :—
" Hacker. And then, brother, the Kingdom of Mexico shall be mine.
" Capstern. Who talks of Mexico? I'll never give it up. If you outlive me,
brother, and 1 die without heirs, I '11 leave it you for a legaey.
•' Laguerre. The Island of Cuba, methinks, brother, might satisfy any reasonable
man.
: Cutlass. That I had allotted for you. Mexico shall not be parted with without
does not appear to have tortured the dog. That it survived the division
of its carotids, was not his fault; and surely "unjustifiable and har-
barous" are rather too strong terms to apply to the simple, though
deliberate, destruction of an animal, prompted by a perfectly natural
motive., Many people believe, that if a dog that has bitten anybody
goes mad, the person bitten will go mad too—sufficient reason for
killing any dog that has bitten anybody. If we are to stand on much
ceremony about killing snapping curs, must we not take care how we
destroy rats, and other vermin? Had Mr. Punch been in the place of
Mr. Tyrwhitt, the plaintiff would have been told, that if he had
wished his dog not to get killed, hs should have kept it at home, and
not let it loose on the street to bite children.
MILK AND WATER EE FLECTIONS.
by a thorough "blue."
The Whole Duty of Man is frequently only to please himself.
Many a man, who tries to be eccentric, only makes himself ridiculous.
When two men dispute, you may be sure that there is a fool upon
one side or the other ; and the man who interferes between the two is
generally a greater fool than either.
If the men did not encourage coquettes so much, there would not be
so many of them.
There are some men whose opposition can be reckontd upon against
everything that has not emanated from themselves.
There is scarcely a man who does not inveigh against the scandal of
i women, but they all of them listen to it.
my consent. Captain Morano (Macheath), to be sure will choose Peru—that s tne i T i • ,1 _,.,,+„_f +u„f Q,,u;„i,„n.„ j ~c 4„,. .ofnom.i
country of gold, and all great men love gold. Mexico hath only silver. Governor I Ingratitude IS the pretext that Selfishness Seizes hold Ol toi retllSmg
of Carthogena, brother, is a title I shall not dispute with you. 1 to do a favour.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARJ.
INTELLECT ON THE GROUND.
^, amartine, in a recent letter
to the Brussels Congress,
calls Belgium "intellectual
ground, par excellence."
We can only say, then,
that the soil has not -been
particularly fertile. Not-
withstanding all its " excel-
lence," the ground has
only been rich in trans-
planting. All its intellect
has been transplanted, root
and branch, from France
and other countries. They
have scarcely a literary slip
that they can call their
own. The only intellect
displayed has been in steal-
ing the choicest fruit out of
their neighbours' gardens,
and grafting them on to
their own stunted trees, so
as to make the world
believe what a beautiful
crop they had. Brussels,
for years past, has been
nothing better than a Field
Lane of Literature, where
the valuable wares, of
which French and English authors' pockets had been picked, were
openly exhibited for sale. Lamartine must have been laughing in
his clever sleeve when he called such a monster literary fence "intel-
lectual ground." He can only have meant it in a certain facon—and
that is, the contrefacon. We should like to send a specimen of the
"intellectual" soil to some smart agricultural chemist to have it
analysed. His report probably would be:—"Natural Quality extremely
barren; whatever intellectual properties are found in it have been
imported from other countries." Besides, granting that the ground
is as " intellectual" as it is reported to be, what a shame then to build
nothing but houses for the reception of stolen goods upon it!
FROM GAY TO GRAVE, FROM LIVELY TO
SEVERE.
" Capstera. Death, Sir, I shall not part with Mexico, so easily.
" Hacker. "]
" Outlast. I N T
"Laguerre. f JNorI-
" Culverin. J
" Hacker. Draw, then, and let the survivor take it. [Thty flgfU."
The book dropped from Mr. Punch's hands, and he slept, and
dreamed a dream. And behold, there came unto him a .Yankee, who
took the book and read the above passage, and spoke as follows :—
" Calculate, strainger, that air coon of a play-writer of yourne is
squinting his eye in a fine frenzy rolling at the free and galliant sons
of our immortal B,epublic, and that the crittur has made his best jumps
to show that we are pirates, because we fulfil the destiny of natur, in
aggregating them outlying tracts to the immortal Union. Lucky for
him that he ain't promulgated that air upon this here free and enlight-
ened soil, or I'd bet a red cent he'd be fitted with a clean new shirt,
of tar, and an elegant waistcoat of feathers. Jerusalem! Snakes ! "
Mr. Punch jumped up in a cold fright, and waked himself by a des-
perate but unsuccessful effort to explain to his American friend that
thieving was one thing and annexation another.
Everybody knows the Beggars' Opera, with its wicked wit and
pretty music. But everybody does not know that Mb. John Gay
was pleastd to write a sequel to the opera, and to call it Polly; and
tiuly, for the credit of the pleasant fabulist, the fewer people who
know it the better. The author was displeased that the worldwas j animals : one, of whom you might"feel"indined to lay,"with fiac'duff,
He has no children"—and add, "He has pet terriers." The man
HUMANITY AND CANINITY.
At the Clerkenwell Police Court the other day occurred a case,
reported in the Morning Post under the head of " Horrible Cruelty
to a Do&—Infliction of the Full Penalty." It was briefly
this. Some children were at play with a small terrier, which bit one of
them, whose father rushed out of the house and stabbed the dog, which
escaped, and ran away howling. In a quarter of an hour it came back;
and he then seized it, took it in-doors, and in three minutes afterwards
threw it into the street, with its throat cut from ear to ear. It crawled
to its owner's door, and died. The defendant, said, "the dog had
bitten his child, and he thought he was justified in killing it. He
denied being guilty of intentional cruelty to the animal." Me. Tyk-
whitt " dwelt at some length on the gravity of the offence."
Punch is not inclined to palliate cruelty to animals, especially dogs ;
for does he not appreciate the fidelity of Toby?—but is it so grave an
offence for a father to cut the throat of a cur that has bitten his child ?
The magistrate dwelt on the fact, that the defendant renewed hit
attack upon the dog. " Had he killed the animal outright in the fixfat.
instance, so much could not have been said." Nothing, Punch wouU
suggest, could justly be said more than that the father did a very natural
thing. "But," continued Mr. Tyrwhitt, "the fact of his having
stabbed the dog in the first place, and then waiting till it returned to
its owner's door to commit a further atrocity upon it, was a most
unjustifiable and barbarous act, for which he should inflict the full
penalty of £5 and the costs, or two months' imprisonment, and order
him to pay a further sum of 15*,, as a compensation to the owner of
the dog, or be further imprisoned for seven days."
The man was a letter-carrier; so that this was a severe sentence.
The remarks and judgment of the worthy magistrate seem to in-
dicate an animals' friend, a little too friendly, comparatively, to
convinced he had been aided in the first opera by stronger and bitterer
pens than his own, and he probably determined to let the world see
that he could do something without aid. He made a mess of it: he
sent poor Polly to the West Indies, in boy's clothes, in search of
Machealh, who had broken prison and turned pirate, taking Miss Jenny
Diver witli him, and finally Mb. Gay let Machealh be put to death by
some virtuous blackamores, whose Prince falls in love with Polly, and
is promised his reward as soon as time shall have assuaged her sorrows,
and permitted her to marry again. On the 7( h December, 1728, which
was a Saturday, Mr. Gay called on the Lord Chamberlain to read
this piece to him, but was requested to leave it, and on the following
Thursday, the Devonshire dramatist was 1 old that Polly must be
suppressed. Why, it is difficult to guess, for nothing can be more
harmless and stupid than the piece; and we must suppose, either that
the then Lord Chamberlain had a care for the poet's reputation, or
that Lord Chamberlains in those days were as great fools as they
are now.
But Mr. Punch, happening to take up the book, detected, with his
usual keenness, one bit of dialogue which lie is inclined to reproduce,
the rather that nobody but an omni-observant party like himself will
ever discover a scrap of gold amid so much rubbish. He lighted upon
a scene where certain of the pirates, Macheath's companions, were
squabbling over the territories which they intended to conquer. And
thus do the thieves talk :—
" Hacker. And then, brother, the Kingdom of Mexico shall be mine.
" Capstern. Who talks of Mexico? I'll never give it up. If you outlive me,
brother, and 1 die without heirs, I '11 leave it you for a legaey.
•' Laguerre. The Island of Cuba, methinks, brother, might satisfy any reasonable
man.
: Cutlass. That I had allotted for you. Mexico shall not be parted with without
does not appear to have tortured the dog. That it survived the division
of its carotids, was not his fault; and surely "unjustifiable and har-
barous" are rather too strong terms to apply to the simple, though
deliberate, destruction of an animal, prompted by a perfectly natural
motive., Many people believe, that if a dog that has bitten anybody
goes mad, the person bitten will go mad too—sufficient reason for
killing any dog that has bitten anybody. If we are to stand on much
ceremony about killing snapping curs, must we not take care how we
destroy rats, and other vermin? Had Mr. Punch been in the place of
Mr. Tyrwhitt, the plaintiff would have been told, that if he had
wished his dog not to get killed, hs should have kept it at home, and
not let it loose on the street to bite children.
MILK AND WATER EE FLECTIONS.
by a thorough "blue."
The Whole Duty of Man is frequently only to please himself.
Many a man, who tries to be eccentric, only makes himself ridiculous.
When two men dispute, you may be sure that there is a fool upon
one side or the other ; and the man who interferes between the two is
generally a greater fool than either.
If the men did not encourage coquettes so much, there would not be
so many of them.
There are some men whose opposition can be reckontd upon against
everything that has not emanated from themselves.
There is scarcely a man who does not inveigh against the scandal of
i women, but they all of them listen to it.
my consent. Captain Morano (Macheath), to be sure will choose Peru—that s tne i T i • ,1 _,.,,+„_f +u„f Q,,u;„i,„n.„ j ~c 4„,. .ofnom.i
country of gold, and all great men love gold. Mexico hath only silver. Governor I Ingratitude IS the pretext that Selfishness Seizes hold Ol toi retllSmg
of Carthogena, brother, is a title I shall not dispute with you. 1 to do a favour.