DOI issue:
July 28, 1860
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16866#0045
July 28, i860,]
PUNCH. OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
0*7
said, begins at home, but there is eo reason addueible that charity
should end there • and where the cause is so good, as in the present
instance, there 'will surely be no need to say more than one good word
for it.
GILES SCROGGINS’S JOURNAL.
Y some persons the following state-
ment in the Spiritual Magazine for
July may be thought to require
confirmation:—
“ A few evenings ago, during the month
of June, some remarkable spirit mani-
festations took jilace at the mansion of
the French Ambassador, Albert Gate.
Amongst a large number of influential
persons who witnessed them were tbs Due
ana Duchesse de Malakoff, Count Per-
signy, and Lord Ward, who all expressed
their great satisfaction and delight to
Madame Louise Besson, who was the
medium present.”
The same number of the same
periodical also contains the sub-
joined announcement:—
“ Spirit Medium and Clairvoyance.—
Madame Louise Besson, King Street, Soho
Square, has stances daily, and is open to
private engagements.”
Some ladies have doubles,—if we may credit Spiritualism.—like the
youua: person mentioned by Robert Dale Owen in his Footfalls on
the Boundaries of Another World, the Livonian Governess, who lost
nineteen situations by her extraordinary duplicity. Madame Louise
Besson may also possess, or be possessed with, a duplicate ; and,
whilst she was astonishing the natives and foreigners at the Trench
Ambassador’s, her counterpart, or counterfeit, may have been prac-
tising professional necromancy at King Street, Soho Square. If
the medium of Albert Gate and the advertising seeress are one and the
same person, then, albeit she may be describable as a “wise woman,”
the less that is said the better about the wisdom of Count Persigny,
the Duke and Duchess of Malakoff, Lord Ward, and a large
number of influential persons—or else about the accuracy of the
Spiritual Magazine. The veracity of our credulous contemporary is
not in question. But when the above-named personages complimented
Madame Besson on her “ spirit manifestations,” did they congratulate
her as a witch or an artist ?
If Madame Besson is really in a position to accept engagements as
a “ Spirit Medium and Clairvoyante,”—just as she might hire herself
out as a corn-cutter,—she must be able to command spiritual mani-
festations nearly whenever she pleases. . Old Sam Wesley told the
rapping spirit of Epworth to come into his study if it had anything to
say to him. Couldn’t Madame Besson, come to Bunch's Office, and
get a spirit to rap out a spirited communication for this periodical on
the counter ?
Perhaps not. Like Lord . Mamsberry, Bunch is not particular
about spelling, because that is corrigible; but erroneous orthography
and bad composition are apt to be conjoined. Of bad writing, in com-
bination with bad grammar, an instance may he quoted from this same
number of the Spiritual Magazine, in the following message represented
as having been transmitted by a departed spirit through the hand of a
medium, in a backward scrawl:—
“ Ye are sorrowing as one without hope.”
The SDirit substitutes Ye are for Thou art. If we are to believe the
supernatural origin of the foregoing sentence, we may suppose it to have
emanated from an illiterate Methodist parson. The passage in question
will remind most of our readers of a very similar piece of spiritual
English, occurring in a familiar metrical legend:—
“ When, standing all by the bed-post,
A figure tall her sight engrossed.
And it cried, ' I betz Giles Scroggins’s ghost;
Ri tol de riddle lol de ray ! ”
Exactly so. Ri tol de riddle lol de ray ! What else is there to be
said in either case? Nothing but that some spirits, like most rogues,
write, and probably read, imperfectly, and might be classified, as the
logues are, under the head of “R. & W. Imp.” Bunch is credibly
informed—credibly, because spirit-writing bears the information out,
that at a recent necromantic seance the spirits were summoned by an
old female party with the invocation, “ Is there any sperrits present ? ”
On the same occasion Bunch's informant says that he put his hand
under the table to be grasped by any other that might dare to take
hold of it, fully prepared to drag that other up to the light. The
experiment proved unsuccessful.
Mr. Bunch recommends Ills spiritual contemporary to remember that
the ridicule of truth should be regarded with serene contempt, and
refuted by demonstration ; that experiments which cannot he performed
except under certain conditions which are among those of jugglery are
inconclusive, and that it is the peculiarity of all quacks and enthusiasts,
whether religious or scientific, to resent derision of their impostures
cr delusions. “Let those laugh who win,” is the maxim of the sure
philosopher. Lords Lyndhurst and Brougham are believers in
spiritualism, are they ? Brougham and Lyndhurst also among the
spirit-rappers! So the Spiritual Magazine asserts; but Incredulity
whispers “Walker ! ” What, are the odds that any alleged spiritual
manifestation is. genuine ? Who will bet on the head of Madame
Besson ; who will back her to obtain one rap on a table ? There is an
oracle that may settle this question ; a point on which we would advise
our spiritual to consult our sporting contemporary. Bell’s Lite is at
least as likely as any other human medium to give a correct answer to
any inquiry touching the life beyond the grave!
GOLDSMID’S DESERTED VILLAGE.
“ Mr. White, a Radical, has been returned for Brighton, beating Mr. Moore, n
Tory, and Mr. Goldsmid, a Jew.”—Weekly Paper.
To the above concise narrative Mr. Bunch would have had nothing
to add, but that from reports of the election, aud from correspondence,
it .would appear that Mr. Moore may complain of being bracketed
with Mr. Goldsmid, as beaten. Mr. MopRE was beaten—Brighton
polled 1565 Whites and 1239 Moores, and the Tory went, down in fair
fight. But Mr. Goldsmid retired in the middle of the contest, after
polling only 177 votes. Aud he retired, because he had no chance of
winning. And he had no chance of winning, because he, or his agents,
had endeavoured to bring to bear upon Mr. White a Jew Screw
which is not generally approved by English mechanics. Mr. White
stated upon the hustings that the Hebrew’s agent had called upon the
Radical’s agent, and told him that something which happened in con-
nection with the pecuniary affairs of Mr. W hite, twenty-three years
ago, had come to Mr. Goldsmid’s knowledge, aud that, if Mr
White did not retire, those particulars should be made known to every
elector of Brighton. The threat was carried out, and the fact that
Ms. White had been unsuccessful in business at Plymouth nearly a
quarter of a century back, aud had not cleared away all his debts, was
promulgated by handbills throughout Brighton. The answer of
Brighton was to vote for the. Tory and the Radical, and the Jew had
to retire with a splendid minority of 177 votes, which must be con-
siderably under the number of Mosaic jewellers and cigar-shopkeepers
at Brighton, ^who would naturally support their fellow-believer.
Mr. Bunch fought the cause of the Jews for years and years, and
finally brought them into Parliament. He has also supported the
honourable aud amiable, if not very brilliant, representatives whom
Israel has sent to the House. But he begs to warn Jewry generally not
to fall into the mistake of imitating such Christians as work the money
screw, either in the way of bribery or of intimidation, and sometimes get
convicted by Yorkshire juries. It would be a bad day for the British
Jew should Mr. Bunch withdraw his countenance from that party—in
fact the sooner he took, in such an emergency, a non-return ticket, for
Palestine the better. Mr. Bunch believes that the majority of his
Hebrew friends would disapprove as heartily as he and Brighton have
done of the mean attempt to damage Mr. White ; but it is just as well
to let Jewry know that what Mr. Bunch would denounce in a Christian
he is not disposed to pardon in a Jew. Equality of privileges implies
an equal standard of what is just and gentlemanly.
QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.
IN RE EROADSTAIRS BOATMEN.
The atrocious working of our still abominable law of imprisonment
for.debt is cruelly exemplified by the case of the ten gallant Broad-
stairs Boatmen now lying in Maidstone Gaol for the amount of a bill
of costs incurred through au unsuccessful action to recover salvage for
having helped to rescue from destruction a vessel nearly wrecked on
the Goodwin Sands. This exploit was performed at the imminent
peril of their lives. Their lugger, appropriately called the Dreadnought,
their only property, which had cost £9U0, they had the misfortune to
lose simultaneously with their lawsuit. The attorney to whom, or to
whose employers, they stand indebted, claps them in quod. Neither
Cafias nor his clients are to be condemned for screwing out of people
who owe them money every farthing they can get. But they can’t get
blood out of a post, and the Broadstairs Boatmen, being utterly desti-
tute, are to Capias aud their other detaining creditors as posts to
horseleeches.
What object, then, can be gained by the incarceration of these poor
brave fellows? That of wringing, not their empty pockets, but the
purses of a public who compassionate their sufferings, and commiserate
their unworthy treatment. Surely the privilege of applying pressure
PUNCH. OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI
0*7
said, begins at home, but there is eo reason addueible that charity
should end there • and where the cause is so good, as in the present
instance, there 'will surely be no need to say more than one good word
for it.
GILES SCROGGINS’S JOURNAL.
Y some persons the following state-
ment in the Spiritual Magazine for
July may be thought to require
confirmation:—
“ A few evenings ago, during the month
of June, some remarkable spirit mani-
festations took jilace at the mansion of
the French Ambassador, Albert Gate.
Amongst a large number of influential
persons who witnessed them were tbs Due
ana Duchesse de Malakoff, Count Per-
signy, and Lord Ward, who all expressed
their great satisfaction and delight to
Madame Louise Besson, who was the
medium present.”
The same number of the same
periodical also contains the sub-
joined announcement:—
“ Spirit Medium and Clairvoyance.—
Madame Louise Besson, King Street, Soho
Square, has stances daily, and is open to
private engagements.”
Some ladies have doubles,—if we may credit Spiritualism.—like the
youua: person mentioned by Robert Dale Owen in his Footfalls on
the Boundaries of Another World, the Livonian Governess, who lost
nineteen situations by her extraordinary duplicity. Madame Louise
Besson may also possess, or be possessed with, a duplicate ; and,
whilst she was astonishing the natives and foreigners at the Trench
Ambassador’s, her counterpart, or counterfeit, may have been prac-
tising professional necromancy at King Street, Soho Square. If
the medium of Albert Gate and the advertising seeress are one and the
same person, then, albeit she may be describable as a “wise woman,”
the less that is said the better about the wisdom of Count Persigny,
the Duke and Duchess of Malakoff, Lord Ward, and a large
number of influential persons—or else about the accuracy of the
Spiritual Magazine. The veracity of our credulous contemporary is
not in question. But when the above-named personages complimented
Madame Besson on her “ spirit manifestations,” did they congratulate
her as a witch or an artist ?
If Madame Besson is really in a position to accept engagements as
a “ Spirit Medium and Clairvoyante,”—just as she might hire herself
out as a corn-cutter,—she must be able to command spiritual mani-
festations nearly whenever she pleases. . Old Sam Wesley told the
rapping spirit of Epworth to come into his study if it had anything to
say to him. Couldn’t Madame Besson, come to Bunch's Office, and
get a spirit to rap out a spirited communication for this periodical on
the counter ?
Perhaps not. Like Lord . Mamsberry, Bunch is not particular
about spelling, because that is corrigible; but erroneous orthography
and bad composition are apt to be conjoined. Of bad writing, in com-
bination with bad grammar, an instance may he quoted from this same
number of the Spiritual Magazine, in the following message represented
as having been transmitted by a departed spirit through the hand of a
medium, in a backward scrawl:—
“ Ye are sorrowing as one without hope.”
The SDirit substitutes Ye are for Thou art. If we are to believe the
supernatural origin of the foregoing sentence, we may suppose it to have
emanated from an illiterate Methodist parson. The passage in question
will remind most of our readers of a very similar piece of spiritual
English, occurring in a familiar metrical legend:—
“ When, standing all by the bed-post,
A figure tall her sight engrossed.
And it cried, ' I betz Giles Scroggins’s ghost;
Ri tol de riddle lol de ray ! ”
Exactly so. Ri tol de riddle lol de ray ! What else is there to be
said in either case? Nothing but that some spirits, like most rogues,
write, and probably read, imperfectly, and might be classified, as the
logues are, under the head of “R. & W. Imp.” Bunch is credibly
informed—credibly, because spirit-writing bears the information out,
that at a recent necromantic seance the spirits were summoned by an
old female party with the invocation, “ Is there any sperrits present ? ”
On the same occasion Bunch's informant says that he put his hand
under the table to be grasped by any other that might dare to take
hold of it, fully prepared to drag that other up to the light. The
experiment proved unsuccessful.
Mr. Bunch recommends Ills spiritual contemporary to remember that
the ridicule of truth should be regarded with serene contempt, and
refuted by demonstration ; that experiments which cannot he performed
except under certain conditions which are among those of jugglery are
inconclusive, and that it is the peculiarity of all quacks and enthusiasts,
whether religious or scientific, to resent derision of their impostures
cr delusions. “Let those laugh who win,” is the maxim of the sure
philosopher. Lords Lyndhurst and Brougham are believers in
spiritualism, are they ? Brougham and Lyndhurst also among the
spirit-rappers! So the Spiritual Magazine asserts; but Incredulity
whispers “Walker ! ” What, are the odds that any alleged spiritual
manifestation is. genuine ? Who will bet on the head of Madame
Besson ; who will back her to obtain one rap on a table ? There is an
oracle that may settle this question ; a point on which we would advise
our spiritual to consult our sporting contemporary. Bell’s Lite is at
least as likely as any other human medium to give a correct answer to
any inquiry touching the life beyond the grave!
GOLDSMID’S DESERTED VILLAGE.
“ Mr. White, a Radical, has been returned for Brighton, beating Mr. Moore, n
Tory, and Mr. Goldsmid, a Jew.”—Weekly Paper.
To the above concise narrative Mr. Bunch would have had nothing
to add, but that from reports of the election, aud from correspondence,
it .would appear that Mr. Moore may complain of being bracketed
with Mr. Goldsmid, as beaten. Mr. MopRE was beaten—Brighton
polled 1565 Whites and 1239 Moores, and the Tory went, down in fair
fight. But Mr. Goldsmid retired in the middle of the contest, after
polling only 177 votes. Aud he retired, because he had no chance of
winning. And he had no chance of winning, because he, or his agents,
had endeavoured to bring to bear upon Mr. White a Jew Screw
which is not generally approved by English mechanics. Mr. White
stated upon the hustings that the Hebrew’s agent had called upon the
Radical’s agent, and told him that something which happened in con-
nection with the pecuniary affairs of Mr. W hite, twenty-three years
ago, had come to Mr. Goldsmid’s knowledge, aud that, if Mr
White did not retire, those particulars should be made known to every
elector of Brighton. The threat was carried out, and the fact that
Ms. White had been unsuccessful in business at Plymouth nearly a
quarter of a century back, aud had not cleared away all his debts, was
promulgated by handbills throughout Brighton. The answer of
Brighton was to vote for the. Tory and the Radical, and the Jew had
to retire with a splendid minority of 177 votes, which must be con-
siderably under the number of Mosaic jewellers and cigar-shopkeepers
at Brighton, ^who would naturally support their fellow-believer.
Mr. Bunch fought the cause of the Jews for years and years, and
finally brought them into Parliament. He has also supported the
honourable aud amiable, if not very brilliant, representatives whom
Israel has sent to the House. But he begs to warn Jewry generally not
to fall into the mistake of imitating such Christians as work the money
screw, either in the way of bribery or of intimidation, and sometimes get
convicted by Yorkshire juries. It would be a bad day for the British
Jew should Mr. Bunch withdraw his countenance from that party—in
fact the sooner he took, in such an emergency, a non-return ticket, for
Palestine the better. Mr. Bunch believes that the majority of his
Hebrew friends would disapprove as heartily as he and Brighton have
done of the mean attempt to damage Mr. White ; but it is just as well
to let Jewry know that what Mr. Bunch would denounce in a Christian
he is not disposed to pardon in a Jew. Equality of privileges implies
an equal standard of what is just and gentlemanly.
QUOD ERAT DEMONSTRANDUM.
IN RE EROADSTAIRS BOATMEN.
The atrocious working of our still abominable law of imprisonment
for.debt is cruelly exemplified by the case of the ten gallant Broad-
stairs Boatmen now lying in Maidstone Gaol for the amount of a bill
of costs incurred through au unsuccessful action to recover salvage for
having helped to rescue from destruction a vessel nearly wrecked on
the Goodwin Sands. This exploit was performed at the imminent
peril of their lives. Their lugger, appropriately called the Dreadnought,
their only property, which had cost £9U0, they had the misfortune to
lose simultaneously with their lawsuit. The attorney to whom, or to
whose employers, they stand indebted, claps them in quod. Neither
Cafias nor his clients are to be condemned for screwing out of people
who owe them money every farthing they can get. But they can’t get
blood out of a post, and the Broadstairs Boatmen, being utterly desti-
tute, are to Capias aud their other detaining creditors as posts to
horseleeches.
What object, then, can be gained by the incarceration of these poor
brave fellows? That of wringing, not their empty pockets, but the
purses of a public who compassionate their sufferings, and commiserate
their unworthy treatment. Surely the privilege of applying pressure