Punch (49.1865)

July 8, 1865.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

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A WORD WITH FINSBURY.

Electors,

You have several Candidates before you. There is Alderman
Lusk.. There is Mr. Torrens. There is Mr. Phillips. There is
Mr. Cox.

Mr. Punch recommends you to vote for Cox.

Mr. Cox has brought an action against Mr. Punch. Mr. Cox, alleging
that some of Mr. Punch's remarks upon him are injurious, demands
£50 as the price of such injury. Mr. Punch means to fight him for it.

You need hardly be told that there is no foundation for Mr. Cox’s
action. Mr. Punch's words are ever and always those of legitimate
criticism, a function he exercises in the interest of the nation. That
they might damage Mr. Cox’s election prospects was possible, but we
propose to remove the possibility.

Mr. Punch has no personal feeling against Mr. Cox, and indeed
never saw him. Mr. Cox is an Attorney, but Mr. Punch is not aware
that Mr. Cox ever served a writ, at the suit of Mr. Flight, or any-
body else, upon any friend of Mr. Punch. The castigation which Mr.
Punch has administered to Mr. Cox has been on public grounds only.

Mr. Punch considers that, as a general rule, an Attorney is not an
eligible Candidate. If he have had a large practice, its pursuit must
have disqualified him for the studies which befit a statesman, and if he
be a small Attorney-is it necessary to finish the sentence ?

But there are exceptional cases in which able and large-minded
men discard professional shackles, and become valuable Members of
Parliament.

Is Mr. Cox one of the exceptions ? Is not the House of Commons
usually in a laughing mood when he is oratorical ? Has he ever shown
anything like a statesman’s mind P Hoes lie not deal in exaggeration
and absurdity ? There is no personality here—a general election
demands that the claims of every Candidate shall be fairly weighed.

Did not Mr. Cox mightily assist the Tories in their persecution of
Mr. Stanspeld, whereby an able man was turned out of the Ministry ?
Mr. Cox may have believed that he was right in thus aiding the Tories,
but does Finsbury think so P

You have elected, in other days, the noble Sir Robert Grant, Mr.
Thomas Dun combe, who was an ornament to the Commons, and who
made Finsbury respected, and Mr. Waicley, who, with divers short-
comings, was a man of mark. Now, Finsbury is known by Cox, the
Attorney.

Mr. Punch respect fully requests you to elect Mr. Cox. The latter,
though he knew his action to be bosh, hoped to silence Mr. Punch
during the election, considering that Mr. Punch would be deterred from
speaking while an action pended. This fear of Mr. Punch showed good
sense. The idea of silencing Mr. Punch was a good Attorney’s-idea,
but Mr. Punch has a soul above xAttorneys. He is not silenced. On the
contrary, he proclaims his ideas in regard to Mr. Cox, and begs the
electors not to deprive him, Mr. Punch, of a favourite type of what a
Member of Parliament, for a great and important constituency, ought
not to be.

Mr. Lusk is a rich, upright, sensible gentleman. Mr. Torrens is a
statesman. Mr. Phillips is a very respectable candidate. But,
Electors, please to consider how useful Mr. Cox is to Mr. Punch, and
do me the favour to re-elect Cox the Attorney.

Yours respectfully,

85, Fleet Street. __

ARISTOCRATIC INTfM1DATION.

(Communicated.)

We had hoped that Manchester was tolerably free from aristocratic
dictation, but the curse of the cold shade is upon us, and the Upas-tree
is ineradicable. We had intended to elect a worthy citizen, one who is
respected by all, and who has done good service to, and suffered for the
cause of Liberalism. But Mr. A. Heywood is suppressed by lordly
dictation. Lord Bright has ordered Manchester to elect his brother,
the Hon. Mr. Jacob, and the fiat having gone forth, the Liberal
organs apprise Mr. Heywood that the sooner he gets out of the way
the better. It is haughtily added, that Manchester “owes something
to the name of Bright.” This means that his Lordship, in ’57, and
before his elevation to the Peerage, was rejected at Manchester for
opposing a popular Premier. We know nothing of the Hon. Mr,
Jacob, but he has Jacob’s ladder to political eminence, and, of course,
will climb it. May the day come when the haughty tyranny of the
Aristocracy shall be at an end !

Bankruptcy Officials under Loud Westbury.—The Miller and,
his Men.

Vol. 49.

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