Punch (62.1872)

April 6, 1872 j PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 147

ECCLESIASTICAL ATTITUDE.

A capital subject for a Pre-Raphaelite picture, or a
memorial-window in a " pro-cathedral," is suggested
by a telegram from Berlin, which follows :—

" The German Catholic Bishops will assemble in April to con-
cert a common attitude towards the Government."

It is well known that the German Catholic Bishops
have nearly all of them accepted the Dogma of Papal
Infallibility; and, in so doing, many of them eaten
their own words. It is also known, to some perhaps by
whom it is denied, that the Dogma of Papal Infallibility
is a pretence first put forward in the Middle Ages.
Furthermore it is evident that the attitude which those
Bishops will assume towards the Government will, what-
soever one they adopt, be an attitude which will have
been determined by the promulgation of that Dogma.
The attitude, therefore, of the German Catholic Bishops,
pictorially represented, should correspond to the
medievalism which it will signify, and be very stiff and
angular ; the Bishops being delineated all more or less
wry-necked, standing on tip-toes, and holding their
crooks between the palms of their open hands, as Mr.
Punch,, in his street drama, wields his cudgel. Thus
they will be portrayed in a mediaeval attitude of menace
towards their Government, intended to frighten it.

THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.

" "Women's Disabilities Eemoval Bill. — Mr. Jacob
Bright's Bill proposes to enact that in all Acts relating to the
qualification and regi.-tration of voters in the election of Mem-
bers of Parliament, wherever words occur which ' import the
masculine gender,' the same shall be held to include females for
all purposes connected with, and having reference to, the right
to be registered as voters."—Times,

We give this without note or comment, except the
expression of a hope that at last the strong-minded
females will be satisfied. The Italics are ours, nobody
else's.

A Suggestion to Secretaries.

Do not ask a poor Curate to subscribe to Charities. It
is quite as much as he can afford to put down his sub-
scription to the Thirty-nine Articles.

ZOOLOGICAL.

Little Tommy Trout {who has never seen a Respirator before). " Does that Old

Genkleman Bite, Mamma?"

DECORATIONS IN DOUBT.

Le Follet, which Le Punch studies with unrelenting avidity,
continues to be as instructive as usual; only there is an ambiguity
in certain of its statements which makes them uncertain. In de-
scribing a " Dinner dress, of black faille, with long trained skirt,"
our elegant contemporary says of the flounce :—

" In front it is looped up to about half its width in two wide scallops by
three bunches of gold wheatears—one in the centre and one on each side of
the front breadth."

As to the tunic also :—

" It is edged all round with gold lace, slightly fulled at each side; where
the back breadths are fulled to the front, is a handsome bunch and trailing
spray of wheatears and gold grass."

Lastly, as touching body and head-dress respectively, that they
are decorated with :—

" Bouquet of wheatears in front. Tiara of wheatears with black feather,
spangled with gold."

Wheatears? What does Le Follet mean by wheatears? Not
necessarily ears of wheat. For there is also a bird named a Wheat-
ear {Saxicola cenanthe), and Le Follet may be well enough supposed
to mean that, now that ladies have taken to wear stuffed birds.
The context of "wheatears" in the foregoing quotations by no
means makes it clear that they are intended to be taken for cereal
and not passerine. What are we to make of "wheatears with
black feather " ? An image quite naturally suggested by " a bunch
of wheatears" is similar to that which we picture of a bunch of j
larks. Some ornithologists class the Wheatear among the Sylviadce
or warblers ; and it is said to sing away finelv, in custody, all the
year round. But the gift of song has not protected the rest of the
pretty warbling choir from being hushed, and stuffed to embellish
chignons, or damsels' wigs. For aught, therefore, that appears to 1
the contrary, Le Follet may really mean to tell us that the " Fash-
ions " do, in point of fact, include, amongst the ornaments of female

dress proper to the present time, stuffed specimens of the bird
common during part of the year on our South Downs, and called the
Wheatear—very good eating. This supposition is all the more likely
for that the Wheatear is a bird of passage, which visits these, shores
early in the spring. Now the present spring is remarkably early.

LITTLE BETHEL AND LORD BYRON.

A lately published Life of Lord Byron has revived the contro-
versy as to the Noble Poet's principles and opinions. It is too
commonly supposed that Byron was a heathen. Childe Harold,
however, contains a passage which clearly proves him to have been
a mystic, a recluse in the bent of his inclination, and a Dissenter:—

" 0 that the Desert were my dwelling-place,
With one fair spirit for my Minister! "

Tf thus appears that Lord Byron was a Nonconformist; only,
instead of a Stiggins or a Chadband to sit under, he wanted an
Angel.

Royalty at Rome.

There were, last week, at Rome, no less than a dozen Royal
Personages, including the Emperor and Empress of Brazil, the
Queen oe Holland, and the King and Queen of Denmark, besides
the Grand Duke of Nassau, and many other "mediatised" Sove-
reigns of German States. In the Eternal City what a glut of Sove-
reigns ! The Pope, however, would probably prefer one single
Sovereign, with several Triple-hatfuls of Peter's Pence.

Verily O!

The prevalent supposition that Quakerism is on the decline,
appears to be disproved by the frequent obituary request that
" Friends will please to accept this information."