Punch (58.1870)

February 5, 1870.] PUNCH, OK THE LONDON CHAKIVARI.

THE LAST 'BUS.

Landlord. "What are yer Goin' to 'ave, Gen'lemen ?"

Driver {shivering). " Well—'Bless'd if I ain't Famished! I should Like- Is there Time for a ' Rabbit? ' Who 'ave

yer got Inside, Bob ? "

Conductor (aloud). " Oh, all Respectable, 'Igh-Minded, Well-to-Do People ! 'Wouldn't 'ave no Objection, I'm sure ! !"

[Who could be " disagreeable" after this?

THE ERMINE IN SIGHT OP SPRING.

The Judges met yesterday, and settled the Spring Circuits."—Newspaper.

Bright, blithesome announcement! Enlivening news !
Hilarious intelligence, joy to peruse !
Cheer up, moody mopers! Glad tidings I bring.
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

The Law's jocund Sages, they point to foregleams,
Already, of sunshine returning which seems
A light on our path and our prospect to fling.
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

There's ice in the ditches, there's frost on the wold ;
But now the days lengthen in spite of the cold :
The term of thy reign's in view, Winter, old King!
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

There's snow still about, may be more snow to come,
The groves are yet silent, the songsters are dumb.
But the hedge-sparrow soon, and the chaffinch, will sing.
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

Almost the sole flower in the garden that blows,
You see the white hellebore, called Christmas rose ;
But snowdrop and crocus will soon mark Time's wing,
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

Beside purple violets hepaticas pink
Will peer out, and blue periwinkles will wink,
And wild wood anemone blush, modest thing 1
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

With Oyer and Terminer come daisies pied,
Kingcups follow Crown Courts where culprits are tried,
While barristers' tongues Nisi Prius make ring.
The Judges have settled the Circuits of Spring.

The little birds pair, the buds swell, the sap rises ;
The Judges crack jokes at the vernal Assizes.
May no one be sus. per coll. sentenced to swing,
My Lud, when you go this next Circuit of Spring.

ROMAN LAMBS AND ROMAN SHEPHERDS.

Among the recent Roman ceremonies described by "Oar Own"
Council Correspondents, not the least pretty and significant is that of
St. Agnes. Before the altar of her Basilica, in the Nomentan Way, are
blessed two bttle lambs, whose innocent mutton figures afterwards on
the Pope's own dinner-table—the Pope's-eyes of their respective legs
twice as large and lustrous, we presume, as usual—and out of whose
fleeces are woven the pallia sent by the Holy Father to Patriarchs,
Archbishops, and certain favoured Bishops.

We are told how the pretty animals are brought in, bound, on crim-
son silk cushions, their mouths tied up with red ribbons, to prevent
bleating. What wonder if scoffers persist in seeing ia them a symbol
of the Romish episcopate—in Council assembled—gracefully disposed
on the cushions of their aula, but bound all the time in the chains of
Monsignore Fessler, and gagged by the vow of silence and secresy,
which some of them have lately been " wigged" for breaking.

A Trade that Never Fails.—No miller need ever be out of
employment, for he can always grind his teeth.