Punch (36.1859)

january 22, 1859.J

31

HISTORY OF A CITY COMPANY.

he Ironmongers' Com-
pany is governed by a
master, two wardens,
and a livery of eighty-
four assistants, who
on admission pay a
fine of fifteen pounds,
which a civic wag has
described as a fine way
of getting into office.
The same incorrigible
offender has also in-
quired why the Master
of the Company re-
sembles Dean Swift?
—assigningfor reason,
" Because he was a
master of irony." The
Ironmongers possess
a large estate, out of
which they lay out
about £1,800 in cha-
rity; but how much
they expend in eating
and diinking is known
oidy to themselves.
They do not by any
means live upon mere
iron, although the di-
gestion of some of
them has been com-
pared to that of the

strich. The iron railing round St. Paul's was the last great work of the Company. Of
late they have ceased to show any metal; but they displayed some spirit in resisting an
excessive demand of money made upon them by Charles the First ; although they were
soon afterwards forced to come down on the nail. They formerly drove a considerable
trade in pigs, and are celebrated for having constructed the mail of the original hog-
in-armour, supposed to have been an uncommonly stout Lord Mayor. The Long Far-
liament levied a contribution on them, which they were obliged to pay, when their Master
for the time being took the liberty of remarking, that they dealt in iron, and that Parliament,
had no business to come down upon them for tin. Por making this observation, he was put
in the pillory.

"THE INITIALS."

A Paragraph which has been lately in the
papers, states that at the Opera in Florence, the
cry of "Viva Verdi!" is forbidden by the
Government, on the ground that the init lals of
those two harmless words are also the init ials of
"VivaVittorio" (Emmanuele), and might imply
a sympathy with that free-spoken monarch, and
with the cause of liberty which he so nobly has
espoused.

Now, supposing that our Government were,
as some wish, more despotic, we should prepare
ourselves to hear that the like order had been
issued. While Englishmen speak English, the
cry of " Viva Verdi!" is not likely to be heard
here: nevertheless, in then: great wisdom, the
Government might deem it needful to forbid
it, on the ground that the "initials would stand
for " Viscount Villiams," the defier of patri-
cians and defender of the plebs. In the same
way at the theatres our Clowns might be prohi-
bited to sing the song " Hot Codlins," on the as
reasonable plea, that the first letters of those
words might, in lower class orthography, be used
for "Hextensionof the Suffrage;" while at places
like the Eagle it would be wise to stop the people
from crying "Brayvo, Rouse!" on the plea that
a Reform Bill agitation is in prospect, and by
reversing the initials of the two words "Brayvo,
Bouse," a sympathy with the Beform Billites
would too clearly be shown. The cry might also
be forbidden on still more alarming grounds,
inasmuch as its initials stand for Berkeley and
the Ballot, and Boebuck and Revolution—
which latter calamity, some politicians think,
would to a certainty soon follow on the former.

Hit 'em Again.

"The Law Times is in eostacies because the Attorneys of •
England have resolved to wear robes in Court."

Lf they'd go one step further, oh! what a good job,
And, beginning to robe, would begin not to rob.

THE OXFORD LADDIE.

Oh !_ where, and oh! where, is your Oxford Laddie gone ?

He is gone to the Greek Isles from the Queen upon her throne,

And it's oh! how much rather we would he'd stayed at home.

Oh! what, and oh! what, will your Oxford Laddie do ?
He '11 deliver sundry speeches to the people of Corfu,
And the rest of the Ionians who for Otho's rule halloo.

What end, and what end, will your Oxford Laddie gain ?

We believe he '11 waste his eloquence and talk to them in vain,

For the Greeks prefer a tyranny to a mild and gentle reign.

How can you, with only one Oxford Laddie go ?

That's just the thing we ask ourselves, just what we want to know,

And all we can do is to write and tell him so.

Suppose, and suppose, that your Laddie can't reply,

Another representative to find we then must try,

And our Gladstone ask to resign his seat for the University.

GEOLOGICAL TWELFTH-CAKES.

Contemplating, with benevolent interest, a lot of children devour-
ing a quantity of Twelfthcake, we were suddenly inspired with an idea
which we publish for the benefit of confectioners, enlightened parents,
and promising youth. Let cakes be made to illustrate the science of
geology—composed of strata resembling those of the earth except in
then relation to the sense of taste. Cluldren might thus be crammed
at once with cake and geological science, and acquire a knowledge of
the crust of the earth in eating the model of it. It would be pleasing
to the parental and preceptorial mind to overhear the juvenile geologists
of the play-ground exclaiming, " I say, give us a bit of horneblende,"

Have a slice of has ? " " Let's have some of that oolite." " Here's
some riiagnesian limestone for you." "Oh, what a jolly ooal form-
ation !' " Here's a plummy lump of gneiss," &c What with
glaciers of sugar-candy, boulders of chocolate or almond-rock, and
extinct mammalia and reptiles, and other fossils, formed of saccharine

matter, and metallic veins imitated with candied peel, a competent
artist might compose a capital cake which would combine food for the
mind with prog for the palate, and even if the latter were to disagree
with the devourer, the former might be retained.

We confidently expect very soon to see the idea of a geological cake
realised in the windows, and to realise it in person at the first break-
fast we are invited to on the occasion of a wedding in high life. For
this notion would be peculiarly suitable for a wedcling-cake; since _ the
conjunction of Geology and Cake, or the Intellectual and the Physical,
would be strikingly typical of the union of Husband and Wife. Which
is the Intellectual and which is the Physical ? Whichever you please,
my little dear. Moreover, as a honeymoon is generally spent at the
sea-side, a portion of the wedding-cake exhibiting the geological
formations would be an agreeable as well as an instructive companion
in a ramble among the rocks.

AN EMPEROR AND A SUBJECT.

Some thanks are due to Louis Napoleon for creating a little
excitement at the present generally dull season. By the utterance of
a few words, he has caused Europe to look alive with apprehension of
a war. To the British mind especially, oppressed at this time with a
weight of beef and pudding, of which the due digestion takes some
weeks, the Emperor op the French has administered a sharp but
salutary stimulant; and he has repaid the abuse which he has received
from the_ Press of England by giving it something to talk about besides
the singing of blackbirds and the blossoming and bearing of straw-
berries. "Tis an ill wind, as we are truly informed by one proverb,
that blows nobody good; and let us, as we are properly admonished by
another, give the devil his due.

Pull Away.—So there is to be a second judge in the Divorce Court,
Mr. Justice Willes, whose name, however, points him out nil lier for
Probate cases. However, this is right. The matrimonial knot oughv
to be at least as hard to break as to tie, and it takes the united
strength of two parsons to marry folks.