Punch (44.1863)

SI PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [February 28, 1863.

Officious Little Gent. “ Hollo, Cabby, what’s the Matter with your ’Orse?”

Cabby. “ Well—that’s just what I don’t know, and 1 bred him. You’re always wanting to be Behind the Scenes, you
are ! Suppose you get Inside and See ! ”

A NON-NATURAL PROSECUTION.

The followin'? extract in a letter wliicli has appeared in the Times is
rather good:—

“ Yet there has been of late a most large and systematic claim put forth that we
clergy not only should inquire, hut that, although our inquiries should, unhappily,
in the case of any of us, end in the loss of our faith, wo should still continue to act
as clergy. A claim has been made to affix new meanings to words, and so to
subscribe our formularies in senses which they will not bear.”

The name subscribed to the epistle which contains the foregoing
complaint is that of E. B. Ptjsey ; date, Christ Church. What! Can
this be the reverend and celebrated Dr. Pusey, after whom mankind
have nicknamed a sect ? Is this the Pusey supposed to have originated
the Puseyites P And is it the Puseyite Pusey who complains that “ a
claim has been made to affix new meanings to words, and to subscribe
our formularies in senses which they will not bear ? ” There may pos-
sibly be a coolness exceeding that of the Gracchi complaining of
sedition. Surely we seem to remember that there were certain per-
sons who used to stickle for the right of signing certain articles in a
non-natural sense. Is Pusey of the Puseyites the Pusey who so
speaks of this subterfuge as if he now considered it humbug P

E. B. Pusey writes to the Times in justification of the part which he
has taken as one of the prosecutors of Professor Jowett on account
of that Professor’s theological opinions, raked up out of a book pub-
lished several years ago. But, surely, there was a Pusey, who, not
much longer ago, was suspended at Oxford for teaching false doctrine.
Was not that an E. B. Pusey, too? Is Jowett’s prosecutor only a
namesake of that Pusey, or has Dr. Pusey suffered persecution and
not learned mercy ? In that case, has Dr. Pusey recanted his errors P
Has he cried peccavi ? If not, how can he walk into Professor
Jowett, and why does he not walk out of the Church ?

Unhappily there is no way out of the Church that leads anywhere
except to the workhouse—if, even, a Clergyman is eligible as an inmate
of that asylum. Once a parson always a parson, though stripped of his
preferment, and forbidden to get any other living. If Jowett could
legally get called to the Bar of judicature, or instai himself behind that

of a public-house, or indeed take to any honest line of secular business,
then Pusey, before prosecuting him, should invite him to adopt that
course, and set him the example of so doing.

LENTEN DINNERS v. LENTEN DANCES.

(Apropos of Clerical denunciations of Balls on the Prince of Wales’s

Marriage.)

Unless the meat were very hign,

Or very low the Eater,

Churchmen had best be guided by
The experience of St. Peter.

Nor common or unclean declare.

Aught that’s of God’s good making,

Including joy, when England’s Heir
A charming wife is taking.

The fasting Saint may countenance,

But not the wraltzing Sinner,

Doctrine that bars the Lenten dance,

But grants the Lenten dinner.

On none the Gates of Mercy shut,

Erom pulpit or from paper :

Nor, blessing hands that capons cut,

Ban feet that cut a caper.

Raising’ the Wind.

We hope that the Pneumatic Despatch Company, whose existence
promises to be so highly beneficial to the Metropolis, will not, on ac-
count of internal disagreements, be unable to continue their operations.
It is reported that at Euston Square they have already come to blows.