SEPTEMBER 29, 1866.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
129
^ \HSe^\pTlQH
IMPROVED
HINTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LEICESTER SQUARE
BY THE ARTIST WHO WHITEWASHED THE STATUE.
A GOOD OLD ATROCITY.
Not long ago a man suspected of murder, committed suicide. A
coroner’s jury returned him ftdo de se. With reference to this case, the
Times states that “ a memorial is about to be presented to the Crown
that the claims to the property of the deceased may be waived by Her
Majesty for the benefit of the children.” Of course the claims of
Her Majesty will be waived. But how is it that the law which
punishes the widows and orphans of suicides for a crime committed
principally against themselves, has been allowed to survive the laws
that burned witches and disembowelled traitors alive ? The present
punishment of wilful suicide is no less barbarous than that which was
appointed for treason and witchcraft, and much more unreasonable;
for the persons who were burnt or eviscerated were the witches ana
traitors, and not their relations. When the law in regard to self-murder
was altered, the Legislature did away with the least absurd and least
brutal part of it only. They abolished the burial in cross-roads, and
transfixion with a stake, of senseless corpses, and they retained the
infliction of beggary on innocent survivors.
THE SCHOOLMISTRESS ABROAD.
What slipslop ladies, “educated” ladies even, write ! See, here is
a queer specimen:—
O RIGHTON.—A lady of education, having a luxurious HOME (fo:
JJ the first time) is desirous of meeting with an elderly gentleman and his wife
or two ladies to join the family table (if slightly invalided not objected to).
Eor whom, we wonder, does this lady intend the covert taunt that
it is “ for the first time ” that her home is now luxurious? And what
advantage can there be to her in mentioning the fact ? Of course she
cannot mean to say it is her table which is “ slightly invalided;” but
after having boasted about her education, she might as well have taken
the pains to write correctly the half-score words of English her adver-
tisement required.
A CULINARY QUESTION.
My dear Mu. Punch,
I understand there is nothing you don’t know, from comets
to cookery. Will you help me in a little difficulty ? I am sure you
will. Bernard and I have not been long married—indeed, we have only
just returned from our wedding tour—and I am most anxious to have
everything very nice for him for breakfast before he goes to the office.
Now, I hear there is a book called A Century of Potting, and I want to
know whether it tells you how meat, and game, and fish have been
potted for the last hundred years, or only gives a hundred receipts for
doing veal, and grouse, and lobster, and other good things, like the
books that instruct you how to cook eggs, or apples, or rabbits in three
hundred and sixty-five different ways ?
Tell me this, and I will have anything potted for you that you like
to choose, from peacock to partridge, from salmon to shrimps, and sent
to your address, carriage paid. Ever yours, Bertha.
[Mr. Punch would have been delighted to answer this note, and
receive the promised dainties, but unfortunately Bertha, accustomed
he supposes, to sign her letters to Bernard as above, has forgotten to
give either her surname or address. Mr. Punch, therefore, can only
recommend her to look carefully into the works of the learned Potter.]
A SMILE EOR THE SERIOUS.
Respecting a deceased clergyman, who was a leader of the Ritualists,
the Church and State Review says :—
“ It is intended that his friends—and they are legion—shall pay their tribute to
his memory by completing the work which he loved best.”
Yery good ; but what a name is Legion for the friends of any Clergy-
man to give themselves and each other ! Legion, as the Church and State
Review knows, is a noun of multitude, signifying many. Many what ?
Has our Ritualistic contemporary never considered who they were
whose mouthpiece, on a certain occasion, named them Legion ? The
adoption of that word by a party of High Churchmen will no doubt be
what is vulgarly called nuts for the opposite party.
Vol. 51.
5
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
129
^ \HSe^\pTlQH
IMPROVED
HINTS FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LEICESTER SQUARE
BY THE ARTIST WHO WHITEWASHED THE STATUE.
A GOOD OLD ATROCITY.
Not long ago a man suspected of murder, committed suicide. A
coroner’s jury returned him ftdo de se. With reference to this case, the
Times states that “ a memorial is about to be presented to the Crown
that the claims to the property of the deceased may be waived by Her
Majesty for the benefit of the children.” Of course the claims of
Her Majesty will be waived. But how is it that the law which
punishes the widows and orphans of suicides for a crime committed
principally against themselves, has been allowed to survive the laws
that burned witches and disembowelled traitors alive ? The present
punishment of wilful suicide is no less barbarous than that which was
appointed for treason and witchcraft, and much more unreasonable;
for the persons who were burnt or eviscerated were the witches ana
traitors, and not their relations. When the law in regard to self-murder
was altered, the Legislature did away with the least absurd and least
brutal part of it only. They abolished the burial in cross-roads, and
transfixion with a stake, of senseless corpses, and they retained the
infliction of beggary on innocent survivors.
THE SCHOOLMISTRESS ABROAD.
What slipslop ladies, “educated” ladies even, write ! See, here is
a queer specimen:—
O RIGHTON.—A lady of education, having a luxurious HOME (fo:
JJ the first time) is desirous of meeting with an elderly gentleman and his wife
or two ladies to join the family table (if slightly invalided not objected to).
Eor whom, we wonder, does this lady intend the covert taunt that
it is “ for the first time ” that her home is now luxurious? And what
advantage can there be to her in mentioning the fact ? Of course she
cannot mean to say it is her table which is “ slightly invalided;” but
after having boasted about her education, she might as well have taken
the pains to write correctly the half-score words of English her adver-
tisement required.
A CULINARY QUESTION.
My dear Mu. Punch,
I understand there is nothing you don’t know, from comets
to cookery. Will you help me in a little difficulty ? I am sure you
will. Bernard and I have not been long married—indeed, we have only
just returned from our wedding tour—and I am most anxious to have
everything very nice for him for breakfast before he goes to the office.
Now, I hear there is a book called A Century of Potting, and I want to
know whether it tells you how meat, and game, and fish have been
potted for the last hundred years, or only gives a hundred receipts for
doing veal, and grouse, and lobster, and other good things, like the
books that instruct you how to cook eggs, or apples, or rabbits in three
hundred and sixty-five different ways ?
Tell me this, and I will have anything potted for you that you like
to choose, from peacock to partridge, from salmon to shrimps, and sent
to your address, carriage paid. Ever yours, Bertha.
[Mr. Punch would have been delighted to answer this note, and
receive the promised dainties, but unfortunately Bertha, accustomed
he supposes, to sign her letters to Bernard as above, has forgotten to
give either her surname or address. Mr. Punch, therefore, can only
recommend her to look carefully into the works of the learned Potter.]
A SMILE EOR THE SERIOUS.
Respecting a deceased clergyman, who was a leader of the Ritualists,
the Church and State Review says :—
“ It is intended that his friends—and they are legion—shall pay their tribute to
his memory by completing the work which he loved best.”
Yery good ; but what a name is Legion for the friends of any Clergy-
man to give themselves and each other ! Legion, as the Church and State
Review knows, is a noun of multitude, signifying many. Many what ?
Has our Ritualistic contemporary never considered who they were
whose mouthpiece, on a certain occasion, named them Legion ? The
adoption of that word by a party of High Churchmen will no doubt be
what is vulgarly called nuts for the opposite party.
Vol. 51.
5