Punch (58.1870)

ne PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARfVAftf. [March 19, i«70.

ENCOURAGEMENT.

Rustic {with his soul in the Chace). " 'Oonds 'a' been Gone by about Three Minutes. Now then, Srn ! Over you go ! "

[But it's Bucklesbury s first Rim, and he doesn t know about that.

CHIESA BTJFFA, HOLBORN.

The performances at the Theatre Ritual, St. Alban's, Holborn, still
continue "without alteration, notwithstanding the monition issued
against the Manager of that establishment by the Privy Council. Cer-
tainly that gentleman is to be credited with a vast deal of the quality
■which in a good cause is called perseverance. According to a contem-
porary :—

" On a former occasion the petition was that Mr. Mackonochie had not
obeyed the monition as to the elevation of the consecrated elements and as to
prostration before them. He was directed to pay the costs, and warned as to
the alleged prostration. The petition to their Lordships now is on the ground
that he permits by his curates such elevation and prostration, and it is sub-
mitted that the monition of their Lordships has not been obeyed."

What power has the Privy Council to enforce its monition against
the Manager of St. Alban's ? That reverend gentleman may be in a
position to set the Privy Council, as he sets the (Ecumenical, whose
rites he burlesques, at defiance. The Lokd Chamberlain, perhaps,
could effectually deal with him, and might therefore be applied to by
persons who are displeased by the St. Alban's exhibitions with a
petition to interdict them. That his Lordship surely must have power
to do, on the ground that being adaptations of the Roman Catholic
Mass and other offices, played in character and costume, with spoken
dialogue, and music, they come within the description of theatrical
entertainments, enacted in a building not duly licensed for the purpose.

From a Bookworm.

How useful it is to know something of bibliography ! If Ganderson
had possessed but a smattering of it, he would have been saved from
making the unlucky remark, that he was convinced great collectors
opened very few of their books to read them, because he had noticed
that the catalogues of their libraries, when offered for sale, contained
numerous "uncut" copies.

IMPERIAL ECONOMY.

We live in wonderful times. Only look at this :—

" It has been remarked that the Empress Eugentr this year sometimes-
appears twice in the same day in the same dress, which was never the case
before."

This unparalleled economy the French papers attribute to the pressure
of reform which has been put upon the Emperor. His Majesty has-
made certain liberal professions, and deems it constitutional to be a
little stingy. So the Empress is obliged to wear her dresses twice,
and who can tell what pangs this retrenchment may have cost her F
We hope her self-denial may largely bear good fruit, and that ladies
generally may imitate her prudence. The Empress sets the fashions,
and ladies love to copy her as nearly as they can, but it is new for
them to learn from her a lesson in economy. If the Empress con-
descends to wear the same dress twice in four-and-twenty hours,
Mrs. Smith may sutely be satisfied in future with only ordering a I
new dress not more than once a week, and Mrs. Brown may some- j
how even manage to exist for as long as a whole fortnight without
baying a new bonnet.

Light Literature.

We see advertised among the latest batch of novels a story with the
title of The Baronet's Sunbeam. If this should prove successful, we
may expect to see it followed by The Marquis's Moonshine, and indeed
a further sequel may wi'h safety be anticipated, entitled somewhat
similarly, The Countess's Starlight.

a short way with the gallicans.

If the Pope is, and has notoriously been, any time these 1S37 yep.1"?,,
infallible, why does not the Pope say so, and leave the Council to eon-
tradict hmi if it can ?

Stibri>"g Evekt.—Mixing a Plum-pudding.