DOI Heft:
December 7, 1867
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16880#0243
232
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI,
[December 7, 1867.
“ 8RIC A BRAC.”
Mamma
Daughters
together \. “Goodness, Gracious, j '>
/ ( IA !
Papa (who has a passion for Antiques).
Stairs, eh?”
(
“ My DEARS, I THOUGHT IT WOULD DO SO NICELY FOR
the Landing at the Top of the
THE ADMIRALTY AS USUAL.
Permit me, Mr. Punch, to suggest the propriety of considering
whether steps should not be taken for the presentation of testi-
monials to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Wherefore ?
Read the following statement
“ To the Editor oj the Morning Post.
“Sir,—Recently the public has been informed that between twenty and thirty
smart lads havejoined the Royal Navy during the last few days from the Chichester, 50,
training-ship in the Thames for destitute boys, and have been received on board the
Eonnidable. This information, at the time, was perfectly correct, but I regret now
to inform you that every one of these fine lads has been rejected by the Admiralty,
as they could not produce their certificates of birth.”
Thus commences a letter signed “ W. M. B.,” who further writes
himself, “ One of the Committee of the Chichester." He goes on to
say that the Admiralty requires a number of boys for the Navy, and
prefers those accustomed to boats; that the Committee of the
Chichester accordingly sent twenty-two of their destitute boys as
candidates, of whom twenty were passed by Captain Prattent,
of the Formidable, as well as by the doctor, and reported as most
desirable for Her Majesty’s Service. Further, W. M. B. testifies that
the report was approved of and forwarded to the Admiralty by the
Commander-in-Chief, Sir Baldwin W. Walker, K.C.B.; yet the boys
were all rejected and struck off the books of the Admiralty for the one
sole but insuperable reason that certificates of their birth were not
forthcoming. Honour, Mr. Punch, to My Lords.
It is all very well to say. Sir, that good materials for sailors ready to
hand, are not as plenty as blackberries, that to man Her Majesty’s
Navy, or if you had rather 1 should say so, boy Her Majesty’s Navy,
and in so doing find employment as British tars for boys, who, for
want of it, might, be tempted to relapse into street Arabs, is to accom-
plish two desirable objects by one operation; as they say in the ver-
nacular, kill two birds (well worth the killing) with one stone. It
may seem all very sensible to add, that there could have been no
real doubt about the boys’ age, that the doctor must have been quite
able to estimate it by an inspection as infallible, and not so objection-
able, as looking a gift-horse in the mouth.
Yes, Mr. Punch, but there was the regulation, which My Lords were
bound by, that a certificate of birth shall be the requisite condition for
admittance into the Royal Navy. There they were tied hand and foot
in the indissoluble bond's of red tape. Was it for My Lords to burst
their bonds asunder like Samson in the hands of the Philistines P They
will answer that the ligatures which made them fast were such as
Samson himself could not, or ought not to have been able to break.
Should their Lordships have wriggled out of those ligatures, like the
Brothers Davenport? Their reply will be that they are no conjurors.
Most true. Therefore, and because they hold red tape in reverence,
are officially enamoured of it, and for that reason cannot, for the lives
of them, rid themselves from its restrictions, the testimonial which
seems due to them should be one suitably adorned with it. Let My
Lords have each a conical white cap trimmed with bows and roses of
red tape, and tipped with a tassel or topknot of the same material,
presented to them in public with fitting ceremony. Unfortunately
they could not be compelled to wear the caps thus decorated while
transacting business, as it is to be wished they could, whenever the
business they transact is that of rejecting good candidates for the
naval service of Her Majesty for the reason that moved them to
reject the boys from the Chichester.
Those caps, moreover, would particularly well become all those Red
Tapeists of the Admiralty that have seats in Parliament, only then it
would be desirable that they should not sit, but stand in them, upon
the Treasury benches, with the eye of admiration directed to them by
Index.
Rating of Charitable Institutions.
One class of our Charitable Institutions is already the subject ol
very heavy rating—and that is our Union-infirmaries.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI,
[December 7, 1867.
“ 8RIC A BRAC.”
Mamma
Daughters
together \. “Goodness, Gracious, j '>
/ ( IA !
Papa (who has a passion for Antiques).
Stairs, eh?”
(
“ My DEARS, I THOUGHT IT WOULD DO SO NICELY FOR
the Landing at the Top of the
THE ADMIRALTY AS USUAL.
Permit me, Mr. Punch, to suggest the propriety of considering
whether steps should not be taken for the presentation of testi-
monials to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Wherefore ?
Read the following statement
“ To the Editor oj the Morning Post.
“Sir,—Recently the public has been informed that between twenty and thirty
smart lads havejoined the Royal Navy during the last few days from the Chichester, 50,
training-ship in the Thames for destitute boys, and have been received on board the
Eonnidable. This information, at the time, was perfectly correct, but I regret now
to inform you that every one of these fine lads has been rejected by the Admiralty,
as they could not produce their certificates of birth.”
Thus commences a letter signed “ W. M. B.,” who further writes
himself, “ One of the Committee of the Chichester." He goes on to
say that the Admiralty requires a number of boys for the Navy, and
prefers those accustomed to boats; that the Committee of the
Chichester accordingly sent twenty-two of their destitute boys as
candidates, of whom twenty were passed by Captain Prattent,
of the Formidable, as well as by the doctor, and reported as most
desirable for Her Majesty’s Service. Further, W. M. B. testifies that
the report was approved of and forwarded to the Admiralty by the
Commander-in-Chief, Sir Baldwin W. Walker, K.C.B.; yet the boys
were all rejected and struck off the books of the Admiralty for the one
sole but insuperable reason that certificates of their birth were not
forthcoming. Honour, Mr. Punch, to My Lords.
It is all very well to say. Sir, that good materials for sailors ready to
hand, are not as plenty as blackberries, that to man Her Majesty’s
Navy, or if you had rather 1 should say so, boy Her Majesty’s Navy,
and in so doing find employment as British tars for boys, who, for
want of it, might, be tempted to relapse into street Arabs, is to accom-
plish two desirable objects by one operation; as they say in the ver-
nacular, kill two birds (well worth the killing) with one stone. It
may seem all very sensible to add, that there could have been no
real doubt about the boys’ age, that the doctor must have been quite
able to estimate it by an inspection as infallible, and not so objection-
able, as looking a gift-horse in the mouth.
Yes, Mr. Punch, but there was the regulation, which My Lords were
bound by, that a certificate of birth shall be the requisite condition for
admittance into the Royal Navy. There they were tied hand and foot
in the indissoluble bond's of red tape. Was it for My Lords to burst
their bonds asunder like Samson in the hands of the Philistines P They
will answer that the ligatures which made them fast were such as
Samson himself could not, or ought not to have been able to break.
Should their Lordships have wriggled out of those ligatures, like the
Brothers Davenport? Their reply will be that they are no conjurors.
Most true. Therefore, and because they hold red tape in reverence,
are officially enamoured of it, and for that reason cannot, for the lives
of them, rid themselves from its restrictions, the testimonial which
seems due to them should be one suitably adorned with it. Let My
Lords have each a conical white cap trimmed with bows and roses of
red tape, and tipped with a tassel or topknot of the same material,
presented to them in public with fitting ceremony. Unfortunately
they could not be compelled to wear the caps thus decorated while
transacting business, as it is to be wished they could, whenever the
business they transact is that of rejecting good candidates for the
naval service of Her Majesty for the reason that moved them to
reject the boys from the Chichester.
Those caps, moreover, would particularly well become all those Red
Tapeists of the Admiralty that have seats in Parliament, only then it
would be desirable that they should not sit, but stand in them, upon
the Treasury benches, with the eye of admiration directed to them by
Index.
Rating of Charitable Institutions.
One class of our Charitable Institutions is already the subject ol
very heavy rating—and that is our Union-infirmaries.