Punch (37.1859)

December 10, 1859.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

233

This is Young Dawcllemore, the artist. Not that he is idle, 0 dear, no, “hut he is
obliged to think a great deal before he begins to work.”

N.B. It is 6 pm., and he has been thinking ever since he got up at 11 a m., and now
thinks he should dress for dinner.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Why do all the foreign nations
Rage so loud against our own,

Loading us with execrations,

When we let them all alone,

Whilst we hail their rare advances
In the path that’s good and true.

And lament the sad mischances
They are always coming to ?

Victims of their mad distractions
Here, in turn, asylum find,

Exiles of all foreign factions,

Refugees of every kind ;

Forced from home by revolutions,

^ British liberties they share,

Under British institutions,

Dwelling safe in Leicester-square.

What can be their great objection
To the Island of the Free,

Which affords them all protection,

Shows them hospitality ?

Evil they for good return us,

And with curses kindness pay,

Want to rob, lay waste, and burn us,

Why and wherefore who can say ?

We decline their lead to follow

Through the fog, and mud, and fire,

They think fine what we think hollow.

We despise what they admire. _

Of the monstrous creed which bridles
Them, derision we avow.

Laugh aloud at all the idols
Which command at least their bow.

They detest our cool sedateness,

Envy our Constitution’s health,

And the evergrowing, greatness
Of our mere material wealth.

Hate us for the scorn of trifles
Which they value, or adore;

Therefore need we muster rifles,

From them to defend our shore.

SHALL OUR VISCOUNT HAVE A STATUE?

Too long have we waited for some worthier pen than ours to be
nibbed and dipped to moot this most momentous question. We can
wait no longer. Our feelings fairly overcome us. We have bottled
t hem down somehow for we can’t tell how long; but we feel our bosom
bursting, and we must give them vent. Shall oar Viscount have a
Statue! There! The cork’s out now, and we can calmly breathe
again.

Would the public wish to know whence comes this sudden outburst,
we refer them to the speech delivered last week to his constituents by
the noble, because not ennobled, Member for Lambeth. The speech
was made at the Horns Tavern; and it was in this way that the
speaker blew his trumpet

*' Mr. Williams (who was warmly received) said he had no doubt that his consti-
tuents looked pretty sharply after him, and he wished the constituencies of England
would do the same with regard to every member, for depend upon it this was the
way to keep them honest and to make them d'scharge their duty. He attended
the House of Commons throughout the whole of last Session, without the omission
of a single day or night; and no question of the least importance was brought
before the House in which he did not take part.”

Hearing this affecting flourish, who will say that Williams should
not have a Statue ? Lulce et decorum est, aud so forth, we all know;
but the patriot who lives such a life as has our Viscount lias made
more sacrifice for bis country than he who merely dies for it. Just
conceive the mental bore, not to say a word of the personal fatigue, of
sitting day and night on the stuffed seats of St. Stephen’s, listening to
the ceaseless stream of talk which flows there.

“ Williams cxpectat dum defluat amnis, at ille
Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis Hansard.”

Full sure the labour is as great, in hearing speeches as to speak ; and
we wonder the fine mind and the fine person of our Viscount could
have survived the torture to which they were seif-doomed.

It remains now for the country to recognise his services, in a manner
that shall be befitting to the man. As he has not spared himself in his

labours for the nation, there is nothing which the nation ought not
cheerfully to spare for him. Contentusparvo is however probably his
motto. Let then a subscription be commenced, in sums of not more
than one penny, as the Economist would doubtless prefer such small
amounts. It can be no slight task to sit for days and nights with one’s
face turned to the Speaker, Nocturnd versare manu, versare diurnd.* *
One good turn proverbially deserves another. Let us statuefy the
patriot, if we can’t ennoble him. But who is there can design a pose
that shall befit him ? There is but one mind equal to it. The nation
points to Punch. In the name then of the nation, Punch savs let the
statue of our Viscount WTlliams be carved after the thought of him
called the “Divine Williams.” Let us chisel him as Patience sitting
in a Parliament, and sadly smiling at the grief to which his patriotism
lias brought him. Be i he motto underwritten: “ Sedet ceternumque
sedebit Ivfelix Williams,” until by hook and crook he can catch the
Speaker’s eye. Being as he is by far too venerable a bird to he caught
with the chaff of the offer of a title, his statue clearly should be
modelled after the antique. We would have him represented wrapped
up in his virtue (the “ Wiscount, Wirtue Wrapper” would sell well,
Messieurs Moses), aud holding in his hand the mouthpiece ot Fame’s
trumpet, which, in his own praise he has shown how he can blow.
Kismet! We have spoken. Be his Horns exalted ! May the shadow
of his Statue be cast ere next Recess!

* We really must apologise for these hackneyed old quotations. From parlia-
mentary associations we somehow can’t help using them. By the way, what a
number our Viscount must have heard last Session, sitting as he did daily and
nightly in the thick of them !

Novel Eclipse of the Moon,

Sir Francis Graham Moon has been receiving from the Emperor
of tub French some fresh decoration, connected this time with the
Legion of Honour. If it goes on at this rate, our gentle Moon pro-
mises to be totally eclipsed in time by a quantity of stars.

An Odd Fellow.—Morpheus, for he is undeniably a Nod fellow.