DOI Heft:
February 18, 1865
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16875#0071
February 18, 1865.]
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
63
PUNCH’S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
UESDAY, February 7th, 1865, began the
last Session of the Parliament evoked by the
Conservatives for their own extrusion from
office. The weather showed itself equal to
the melancholy occasion. “ A trouble, both of
clouds and weeping rain Engendered, hung
o’er Barry’s triple height, Spirits of power
assembled there, did plain Of bodies splashed,
and all in muddy plight.” Ask you why
senatorial faces gloomed ? Dissolving views
of Dissolution loomed.
This Parliament has lived to an unnatural
old age, and has assumed somewhat of an
awful character. It remembers events that
have long passed out of the memory of the
oldest inhabitant. It has weird whisperings and mutter-
ings, and hints about some great thing which is going to
happen. It has a painful consciousness of its own time
having been mis-spent, and therefore it abuses all around
it for not being in a frenzy of energy. Also, it is a great
bore. But it must be borne with until released, and this
day was the Beginning of the End. The Poet Punch
shows his sense of the solemn character of the day, and
chronicles it in an
JftmU of tfre @ttten.
A storm was coming, but the times were still.
When Westbury, from Welsh Ap Ithell sprung,
Who keeps the conscience of the blameless Queen,
Spoke to Her Peers and Commons in Her name,
And duly mindful of his oes and aes.
c With satisfaction doth the Queen recur
Once more to your assistance and advice.
The Austrian and the Prussian with the Dane
Have made a treaty. What is done is done.
Nought bodes the stirring of war’s embers now.
Still in death grapple writ he Columbia’s sons,
Still sternly neutral doth Britannia stand.
Still for their reconcilement prays the Queen.
In far Japan a rebel Daimio’s rage
Infringed a treaty, and his powerless liege
Failing to right the wrong, our cannon spoke,
Echoed by French and Dutch and Yankee guns,
His forts are ashes, and all seems serene,
Whereof shall documents inform you more.
Not quite submissive yet on earth is laid
The tattooed brow of the New Zealander,
But he hath learned a lesson, learned as well
The easy terms might bring him to our grace.
On Abraham’s heights grave delegates have met
Scheming to link in one grand Federal bond
Our North American dependencies.
The project likes us much, and if it fadge
Your solemn sanction shall be surely sought.
India is tranquil, but the Bhootanese
Have had to feel the British boot can kick.
Dread was the hurricane that lately swept
O’er our Palatial city in the East,
And direful was the slaughter. All that gold
And British energy could do was theirs
Who mourn their thousands, and with whom we mourn! ’
Projecting on a level next his glance
Where the tall Denison stood Ml in view
Heading a band of Commons, Westbury said:
‘ The Estimates for the ensuing year
Are ordered to your table by your Queen :
They have been framed with economic care.
But due attention to the public weal.’
Again enfolding in one general gaze
That whole august Assembly, he resumed:
c The country’s case is satisfactory,
Up to the estimate the income springs.
Distress in manufacturing homes abates,
And the late labour law you gave works well.
The last Hibernian harvest-time was good.
And Erin’s commerce soars on emerald wings:
Statements her sons of course will contradict.
To useful legislation we shall ask
Your willing help. A Temple must be reared
Where the twin gods of Equity and Law,
Those Dioscuri of the British state.
May smile their costly smiles beneath one roof.
The Statutes must be cleared of all their trash.
And so condensed, that (as your Sovereign hopes)
A Code Victoria may one day be born.
The patient, thoughtful sage, whose painful toil
Strikes out some grand invention, now is left
At the no-mercy of a Patent law
By which the shallow greedy quack’s enriched;
This must be mended. To those sordid Courts
(Named from the County) where, proverbially,
The retail tradesman bears tyrannic sway,
Some Equity must now be taught. _ The Poor
Should be relieved from the Relieving churl,
Nor treated worse than felons, and the Schools,
Endowed by the great dead, must be reformed
Till fit to train the living to be great.’
Thus, ending gravely with the accustomed prayer,
Spoke Westbury, from Welsh Ap Ithell sprung,
Who keeps the conscience of the blameless Queen.
PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
63
PUNCH’S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.
UESDAY, February 7th, 1865, began the
last Session of the Parliament evoked by the
Conservatives for their own extrusion from
office. The weather showed itself equal to
the melancholy occasion. “ A trouble, both of
clouds and weeping rain Engendered, hung
o’er Barry’s triple height, Spirits of power
assembled there, did plain Of bodies splashed,
and all in muddy plight.” Ask you why
senatorial faces gloomed ? Dissolving views
of Dissolution loomed.
This Parliament has lived to an unnatural
old age, and has assumed somewhat of an
awful character. It remembers events that
have long passed out of the memory of the
oldest inhabitant. It has weird whisperings and mutter-
ings, and hints about some great thing which is going to
happen. It has a painful consciousness of its own time
having been mis-spent, and therefore it abuses all around
it for not being in a frenzy of energy. Also, it is a great
bore. But it must be borne with until released, and this
day was the Beginning of the End. The Poet Punch
shows his sense of the solemn character of the day, and
chronicles it in an
JftmU of tfre @ttten.
A storm was coming, but the times were still.
When Westbury, from Welsh Ap Ithell sprung,
Who keeps the conscience of the blameless Queen,
Spoke to Her Peers and Commons in Her name,
And duly mindful of his oes and aes.
c With satisfaction doth the Queen recur
Once more to your assistance and advice.
The Austrian and the Prussian with the Dane
Have made a treaty. What is done is done.
Nought bodes the stirring of war’s embers now.
Still in death grapple writ he Columbia’s sons,
Still sternly neutral doth Britannia stand.
Still for their reconcilement prays the Queen.
In far Japan a rebel Daimio’s rage
Infringed a treaty, and his powerless liege
Failing to right the wrong, our cannon spoke,
Echoed by French and Dutch and Yankee guns,
His forts are ashes, and all seems serene,
Whereof shall documents inform you more.
Not quite submissive yet on earth is laid
The tattooed brow of the New Zealander,
But he hath learned a lesson, learned as well
The easy terms might bring him to our grace.
On Abraham’s heights grave delegates have met
Scheming to link in one grand Federal bond
Our North American dependencies.
The project likes us much, and if it fadge
Your solemn sanction shall be surely sought.
India is tranquil, but the Bhootanese
Have had to feel the British boot can kick.
Dread was the hurricane that lately swept
O’er our Palatial city in the East,
And direful was the slaughter. All that gold
And British energy could do was theirs
Who mourn their thousands, and with whom we mourn! ’
Projecting on a level next his glance
Where the tall Denison stood Ml in view
Heading a band of Commons, Westbury said:
‘ The Estimates for the ensuing year
Are ordered to your table by your Queen :
They have been framed with economic care.
But due attention to the public weal.’
Again enfolding in one general gaze
That whole august Assembly, he resumed:
c The country’s case is satisfactory,
Up to the estimate the income springs.
Distress in manufacturing homes abates,
And the late labour law you gave works well.
The last Hibernian harvest-time was good.
And Erin’s commerce soars on emerald wings:
Statements her sons of course will contradict.
To useful legislation we shall ask
Your willing help. A Temple must be reared
Where the twin gods of Equity and Law,
Those Dioscuri of the British state.
May smile their costly smiles beneath one roof.
The Statutes must be cleared of all their trash.
And so condensed, that (as your Sovereign hopes)
A Code Victoria may one day be born.
The patient, thoughtful sage, whose painful toil
Strikes out some grand invention, now is left
At the no-mercy of a Patent law
By which the shallow greedy quack’s enriched;
This must be mended. To those sordid Courts
(Named from the County) where, proverbially,
The retail tradesman bears tyrannic sway,
Some Equity must now be taught. _ The Poor
Should be relieved from the Relieving churl,
Nor treated worse than felons, and the Schools,
Endowed by the great dead, must be reformed
Till fit to train the living to be great.’
Thus, ending gravely with the accustomed prayer,
Spoke Westbury, from Welsh Ap Ithell sprung,
Who keeps the conscience of the blameless Queen.