Punch (58.1870)

April 16, 1870.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAEJVARL

147

10 PiEAN !

Talk of the ties of family,

The ties of blood, or place !
What are they to those light-blue ties
And dark—the ties of race !

Pinned fast unto that darker blue

How loug hath victory been !
No chastening shade of grayer hue,
No Oxford-mixture seen!

Through nine long years of hopes and fears

One flag a winner flew,
Till all distinction disappears
Of colours 'twixt the two.

Whate'er the shade that Cambridge necks

Or Cambridge boats might grace,
A darker blue eacti Cantab grew
With each successive race.

let with stout heart still Cambridge kept

Her course, that weary while :
At victory still vainly leapt,
Ere she came to the style.

Selwin might preach, George Den man teach,

Egan example show,
Still—"reverend sire"—through Corney Reach,
" Camus came footing slow."*

In vain for spring, and catch, and swing,

His sons strove dauntless still;
Tried, for recovery, Morrison—
The coach, and not the pill.

Winds might be long, backs might be strong,

Hopes high, to prove more fond—
Failure within their reach sat long,
But victory, beyond.

Ill-luck the bravest hearts to cow,
Most patient pluck o'erwhelm !
Youth might be stroke as well as bow,
Pleasure had left the helm.

Polks asked, "When will the old ties be seen

That once were 'twixt the blues ?
Must Oxford always row to win,

PARLIAMENTARY WORK AND WAGES. And C*M*° row to lose ?"

,. ,. ,, . m , n ,, , "Must the race aye be to the swift,

Une obvious objection to Mr. Jr. A. Iaylous motion tor the payment ot The victory to the stron1*

Members, with a view to putting workmen in Parliament is that the payment That Oxford's eight each year can lift

required would be more than the working classes could stand to subscribe, j ^ conquering boat along ?"

Suppose any skilled workman, say a journeyman bootmaker, is earning two or '
three pounds a week, he would be a very great fool to give up his employment in
order to accept a seat in the House of Commons on a salary of £150, or £200 a
year. How long could he depend upon retaining it, and, failing to be re-elected,
how soon could he hope to get re-employed after having, for some years, given
up bootmaking for legislation ? He would find himself in the position of one
who had lost his all, and had no longer his leather and bristles to fall back upon.
If a prudent bootmaker, he would decline to take work above his last, like parlia-
mentary labour, unless his constituents would insure him a yearly competence
for life.

What must tax the mind of every man devoid of vanity is to imagine how any-
body bat a self-sacrificing patriot can, unless concerned to defend the interests
of some railway or other joint-stock company against those of the public, be
otherwise than utterly indisposed to undertake the drudgery of serving in Parlia-
ment. To any philosopher, except a most, uncommonly moral one, having to serve
as a Member of Parliament would be very much worse than having to serve on a
jury. It would be by so much worse by how much the Parliamentary Session is
longer than that of the Central Criminal Court, or the Assizes. The philosopher
wonders he does not see lists of persons liable to be elected Members of
Parliament posted on the Church doors.

DRAWING IT MILD.

Customer. " La, Miss ! if you wasn't so Weak in the Wrist, what a
Lot more Beer yoct'd Sell !"

The Sort of Justice for Ireland.

At length the wheel of time hath turned ;

Patience its work hath done :
'Gainst the nine wreaths by Oxford earned,

Cambridge hath scored her one !

Prom carriage, bridge, and roof-tree ridge,
Wharf, window, path, and barge,

Swells with one note the million's throat,
Along four miles of marge !

E'en dark-blue flags the triumph grace,
And from the boat-house mast

Proclaim their rival's waiting race
A winning race at last!

A long chase that stern chase has been,

But, lo, the prize is gamed !
The turn that ends the longest lane,

At last hath been attained i

The question lately raised about the remission of sentences has recalled to
mind the case of Kirwan, who was convicted in December, 1852, of having
murdered his wife at Ireland's Eye, in Dublin Bay, and condemned to death,
but whose sentence the Irish Government of the d*v commuted to transportation
for life, on the ground that his guilt was insufficiently proved. This mitiga-
tion of punishment was illogical, but exemplifies a way of reasoning, which if
Governments were to proceed upon, their acts would no doubt be in general
satisfactory to the Irish mind.

Once more light blue is victory's hue,

A_nd " Cambridge" is the cry !
Good speed to luck, due crown of pluck
That never would say die !

* See Lycidas.

Change oe Name —The name of the American Cap-
tain to whom we are indebted for the latest account of an
interview with the great Sea Serpent is Slocum—for
Slocdm, read Joke 'em.