DOI Heft:
August 10, 1861
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16868#0065
PUNCH, OH THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
August 10, lti61.j
53
ABOVE BRIDGE BOAT AGROUND OFF CHiSWSCK.
Gallant Member of the L. R. C. “ Can I put you Ashore, Mum ? ”
PUNCH’S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
July 29th, Monday. Lord Derby—we should like to hear what his
family said, orlooked, at his perseverance in wasting the fine weatherin
London when he might just as well have been off—took an opportunity
afforded by the Appropriation of Seats Bill to make some fun of the
Ministers. He complimented them on this little harmless Reform Bill,
to which he saw no objection, now that the Commons had entirely
altered it into something else than what Government had proposed, and
as soon as further revision should have made it “ sense ” and “ English,”
he saw no reason for opposing it. But it was not all fun on the part
of the artful descendant of Joan of Aldithley. There have been ru-
mours that the Constable is meditating another attempt at a Reform
Act, and though most people believe that he is just as likely to be medi-
tating a walk on the electric wire that so horribly disfigures the archi-
tecture in the Strand, the Earl thought he would try to get the story
disavowed. So he declared that of course he himself had seen the folly
of promising Reforms which the country did not ask for, and he hoped
it would be understood that the Government felt themselves equally
exonerated from attempts at Reform. Lord Granville made a
safe answer, agreed with Lord Derby that people should not intro-
duce Bills that they had no chance of carrying, but he would not pledge
himself to finality notions, as he was inclined to occasional extension of
the suffrage in a “ Conservative ” way.
But perhaps the most amusing part of Lord Derby’s address was
his allusion to the expected advent of Lord John—now Earl—
Russell. Lord Derby spoke of his old friend’s elevation to the Lords,
in the spirit in which a dweller on Olympus might welcome the arrival
of a new demi-god. Up here, said his Lordship, in this “ quieter,
calmer and. he trusted, purer atmosphere,” the nobleman whom we
shall all delight to see, can occupy his peaceful hours in giving the final
improvements to his old Reform Bill. Here
“ Where the blest Gods the genial day prolong.
With feast ambrosial and celestial song,”
here John Russell, having shuffled off his mortal coil, having, like
Christian, seen his burden of House of Commons frailties slide from
his shoulders, to be replaced by the mantle of aristocratic dignity^
would be a sort of beatified spirit, walking in rapture among the gilded
fretwork of our Walhalla, and bending kindly and unfathomable eyes
upon the inferior beings over whom he, now far above them, would
continue to watch with affectionate vigilance. We never truly knew
before what was comprised in Elevation to the Peerage.
The blest Gods, though so great, deem nought beneath their care,
and proceeded to deal with Salmon and the Poor, forwarding the Bills
for preventing the improper removal of both.
Let ns descend to Earth, and observe that though Government had
three times written to the Ryde Magistrates to know why they had
committed one Carter for three weeks, for sleeping under a tree, no
answer had been sent. The worthy magnates were busily trying to
find out something else against Carter that should justify a retro-
spective sentence, and late in the week they wrote to say that he had
frightened two women by jumping into the road near them. Sir G.
Lewis did not think that even this horrible crime deserved all the ven-
geance that had been inflicted, and ordered that the ferocious slumberer
and jumper should be released. Lord Palmerston said enough on the
Galway business to make it quite clear that a certain pleasant compro-
mise long ago expounded by the keen-sighted Ptmch, -will be carried out
with due decorum. Then came the ever welcome Appropriation Bill,
the ratification of the finance work of the Session. V ulgar and ill-bred
people (and Ladies are the chief offenders in this respect) rise up about
three minutes before the fall of the curtain at play or opera, and insult
the artists and annoy better behaved spectators by moving away, in
order to be early in the scramble for carriages. When the Commons
arrive at the Appropriation Bill, a similar bolt is generally made, but
it is not offensive, because it annoys nobody. However, Lord Robert
Montagu wished to linger over this formal Bill, and even opposed its
passing; but after a short discussion, in which Lord Palmerston
administered some parting slashes at “ independent ” Members who had
wasted the tune of the House by their interference with the estimates,
the Bill was read a Second Time, and now we see the end of the
Session.
British subjects abroad will be able to make Wills with some chance
August 10, lti61.j
53
ABOVE BRIDGE BOAT AGROUND OFF CHiSWSCK.
Gallant Member of the L. R. C. “ Can I put you Ashore, Mum ? ”
PUNCH’S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
July 29th, Monday. Lord Derby—we should like to hear what his
family said, orlooked, at his perseverance in wasting the fine weatherin
London when he might just as well have been off—took an opportunity
afforded by the Appropriation of Seats Bill to make some fun of the
Ministers. He complimented them on this little harmless Reform Bill,
to which he saw no objection, now that the Commons had entirely
altered it into something else than what Government had proposed, and
as soon as further revision should have made it “ sense ” and “ English,”
he saw no reason for opposing it. But it was not all fun on the part
of the artful descendant of Joan of Aldithley. There have been ru-
mours that the Constable is meditating another attempt at a Reform
Act, and though most people believe that he is just as likely to be medi-
tating a walk on the electric wire that so horribly disfigures the archi-
tecture in the Strand, the Earl thought he would try to get the story
disavowed. So he declared that of course he himself had seen the folly
of promising Reforms which the country did not ask for, and he hoped
it would be understood that the Government felt themselves equally
exonerated from attempts at Reform. Lord Granville made a
safe answer, agreed with Lord Derby that people should not intro-
duce Bills that they had no chance of carrying, but he would not pledge
himself to finality notions, as he was inclined to occasional extension of
the suffrage in a “ Conservative ” way.
But perhaps the most amusing part of Lord Derby’s address was
his allusion to the expected advent of Lord John—now Earl—
Russell. Lord Derby spoke of his old friend’s elevation to the Lords,
in the spirit in which a dweller on Olympus might welcome the arrival
of a new demi-god. Up here, said his Lordship, in this “ quieter,
calmer and. he trusted, purer atmosphere,” the nobleman whom we
shall all delight to see, can occupy his peaceful hours in giving the final
improvements to his old Reform Bill. Here
“ Where the blest Gods the genial day prolong.
With feast ambrosial and celestial song,”
here John Russell, having shuffled off his mortal coil, having, like
Christian, seen his burden of House of Commons frailties slide from
his shoulders, to be replaced by the mantle of aristocratic dignity^
would be a sort of beatified spirit, walking in rapture among the gilded
fretwork of our Walhalla, and bending kindly and unfathomable eyes
upon the inferior beings over whom he, now far above them, would
continue to watch with affectionate vigilance. We never truly knew
before what was comprised in Elevation to the Peerage.
The blest Gods, though so great, deem nought beneath their care,
and proceeded to deal with Salmon and the Poor, forwarding the Bills
for preventing the improper removal of both.
Let ns descend to Earth, and observe that though Government had
three times written to the Ryde Magistrates to know why they had
committed one Carter for three weeks, for sleeping under a tree, no
answer had been sent. The worthy magnates were busily trying to
find out something else against Carter that should justify a retro-
spective sentence, and late in the week they wrote to say that he had
frightened two women by jumping into the road near them. Sir G.
Lewis did not think that even this horrible crime deserved all the ven-
geance that had been inflicted, and ordered that the ferocious slumberer
and jumper should be released. Lord Palmerston said enough on the
Galway business to make it quite clear that a certain pleasant compro-
mise long ago expounded by the keen-sighted Ptmch, -will be carried out
with due decorum. Then came the ever welcome Appropriation Bill,
the ratification of the finance work of the Session. V ulgar and ill-bred
people (and Ladies are the chief offenders in this respect) rise up about
three minutes before the fall of the curtain at play or opera, and insult
the artists and annoy better behaved spectators by moving away, in
order to be early in the scramble for carriages. When the Commons
arrive at the Appropriation Bill, a similar bolt is generally made, but
it is not offensive, because it annoys nobody. However, Lord Robert
Montagu wished to linger over this formal Bill, and even opposed its
passing; but after a short discussion, in which Lord Palmerston
administered some parting slashes at “ independent ” Members who had
wasted the tune of the House by their interference with the estimates,
the Bill was read a Second Time, and now we see the end of the
Session.
British subjects abroad will be able to make Wills with some chance