Punch (65.1873)

August 9, 1873.] PUNCH, OR- THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

59

POETRY EOR PETER TAYLOR.

0 ungracious P. A. Taylor,

Chieftain of the frugal clan !

Would yon stint our Royal Sailor ?

Most unsympathetic man !

Were he nothing to the nation
But an ornamental Prince,

Discontent at his dotation
You with reason might evince.

But e’en then, and though his Mother
On her People claim had none,

One with feeling for another
Would enrichment vote her son.

Could you, for a single minute,

Put yourself in Alfred’s place,

And just think how you’d feel in it,
Peter !—but you’ve not the grace.

Else would happiness and pleasure
Thrill throughout vour heart and soul,
With such force, and in such measure,
As you scarcely could control.

0 what bliss, ere on the shady
Side of thirty, should be life
To the lord of a young lady,

With enough to keep his wife !

To confer that bliss on any
Who ’d not vote, at loss above
Scarce a fraction of a penny ?

Peter, were you e’er in love ?

For a trifle, whilst we never
Grudge all Princes can require,

Let the labourer be, however,

Held as worthy of his hire.

Must the State, which full provision
Makes for children of the Crown,

Close, with cynical precision,

Cut its clerks and postmen down ?

With a happy Prince though sweeter
Sympathy must ever be,

With contented workmen, Peter,

Sweet it were in some degree.

MILLIONNAIRESSES.

Mrs. A. “ Well, good-bye, Dear. You must Come and See my new Dresses from
Paris—one charming Morning Dress, among others, quite simple, and only Cost Sixty-
Seven Guineas ! You ’ll come, won’t you ? and Tell me what you Think of it ! ”

Mrs. B. “0, my Dear, J’m no Judge of Cheap Clothing, you know! ”

Tea-cup Time.—If you invite people to
afternoon tea, do your best to make it
lively and agreeable. You would not like
your guests to go away protesting that the
entertainment had been a humdrum affair.

LIBERAL CONSERVATION OE COMMONS.

Chelsea is represented by a very advanced Liberal, who yet may
in one particular be accounted a thorough Conservative. But herein
he commends himself to every true Liberal. The name of Sir
Charles Dllke stands next after that of Mr. Cowper-Temple on
the Committee of the Commons Protection Society, whose signatures
are appended to an appeal in the Times for contributions in aid of
the conservation of Commons. Especially they ask assistance to
enable the labouring people at Westerham and Gerrard’s Cross to
contest the stoppage of their immemorial habit of cutting gorse and
heather for their own use ; a prohibition effected at Westerham by
the success of legal proceedings taken before a Bench of the Great
Unpaid by a Colonel, and at Gerrard’s Cross by the agency of the
rural police invoked by the Lord, of the Manor—a Parson.

The truly Liberal Conservatives, who represent the Society above
named, in a previous communication addressed to the Times, enu-
merated upwards of nine instances in which the rights of the
country people had been invaded by the little tyrants of their Helds.
These, under the pretence of being Lords of the Manor, had com-
mitted various acts of tyranny. Prosecuting people for cutting
gorse and turf to boil their pot withal after the manner of their
forefathers, Lords of the Manor had got their pals the County
Magistrates to fine the poor. They had summoned boys for playing
cricket; had perpetrated several abominable enclosures ; had erected
fences across paths to stop the public ; had cut down trees on public
land. In attempting some of these atrocities, however, they were
successfully resisted. As, for instance, in the course of cutting
down trees on a village-green in Hertfordshire, the scene of an
annual fair, and the venerable site of the parish stocks around which

the trees had been planted. Some of these, which had been felled,
the villagers cut in pieces, which they took away, and defended the
rest by main force. Sued in the County Court, though the defend-
ants were declared by the Judge to have no right to approjiriate the
trees which had been cut down, the plaintiff, on the other hand, was
decided to have had no right to cut them down. So a brute was
baffled. There is scarcely anything that affords keener gratification
to a well-constituted mind than the successful enforcement by com-
moners of rights against an encroaching Lord of the Manor, espe-
cially when they tear down a fence with the law on their side; or
do him any other legal damage which puts him to great expense ;
the greater the more delightful to think upon. This pleasure can
be purchased by forwarding subscriptions to the Commons Protec-
tion Society. The address of 1, Great College Street, S.W., is given
by those public-spirited Conservative Liberal gentlemen. Who,
that can, will not contribute his mite to the defence of Right F

A Short Way with Savages.

The Ashantees are giving us a great deal of trouble. We have
had much ado with theMaories, and with the native tribes of Africa.
The Dutch are worried by the Atcheenese ; the Yankees bothered
with the Red Indians. By-and-by, perhaps, philanthropists of
enlarged views will set up an Aborigines Extermination Society.

Speechless !—It is whispered that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer and the Chlee Commissioner of Works are not on speak-
ing terms. On such terms with each other, only suppose those two
amiable Ministers were on the same terms with the House!