Punch (65.1873)

October 25, 1873.]

PUNCH, OP THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

163

A LAW FOR THE LOWER ORDERS.

ormerly, in more
serious times than
these, it was be-
lieved possible to
make people re-
ligious by Act of
Parliament. An
Act, wisely intend-
ed for that excel-
lent purpose, was
passed in the reign
of our most religi-
ous and gracious
King, Charles the
Second. It is still
occasionally en-
forced, at the in-
stance of pious
informers, by de-
vout Magistrates,
at the expense of
nobody but cads;
chiefly small green-
grocers and the
poverty - stricken
populace of low
neighbourhoods. A
case, however, has
lately occurred in
which a Bench has been placed in trying circumstances by having
been invoked to punish, not the transgression, but the observance,
of this good old statute. Witness the newspaper paragraph which
follows:—

“ Sailors Refusing to Work on Sunday.—Ten sailors were charged
before the Southampton Magistrates on Saturday, by the Royal Mail Steam-
Packet Company, with combining to disobey the lawful orders of their
officers, in refusing to work on Sunday on board the steamer Liffey, on her
voyage from Brazil to Southampton. The defence was that, under an Act of
Charles the Second, they were prohibited from following their employment
on the Lord's Day. The Bench sentenced each man to seven days’ imprison-
ment. Notice of appeal was given.”

It is to he hoped, in the interests of respectability, that the con-
viction of these seamen will he sustained, even although the work
they refused to perform on Sunday should be shown to have been
quite unnecessary. The Sunday Act of Charles the Second was
never meant to justify disobedience to orders received on that sacred
day from a superior officer on hoard a vessel in a great Mail Com-
pany’s line of packets. The aim of that enactment was to enforce
respect for the Sabbath on the lower orders ; it was not framed to
incommode their betters called to a superior station of life. Should
the conviction of those sailors be quashed on appeal, the law it was
obtained under will have to he rescinded, or else the consequences
will he dreadful. Suppose the Court above should rule that no
servant is bound to do any work on Sunday for which there is no
absolute necessity. Is it necessary to drive a lady who is in perfect
health, and has the use of her limbs, a mile to Church when she can
walk, and it would do her good to ? Is there any real necessity for
cleaning hoots on a Sunday, or even for cooking a dinner at the
request of those who can dine quite as well as they need to on cold
meat and bread ? But, on the other hand, in case the performance
of these offices on Sunday shall he decided to he unnecessary, and,
not only that, hut to constitute an offence under Charles the
Second’s Sunday Act, the greatest inconvenience and discomfort
will he entailed on the superior classes. The repeal of the statute
which forbids small tradesmen and common labourers and mechanics
from following their employment on Sunday will enable them, by
so doing, to fly in the face of the Clergy with impunity, and to
offend the feelings of numerous respectable persons on their way to
Church.

PAROCHIALISM AT ST. PAUL’S.

St. Paul’s Cathedral has for some time had the reputation of
being, in a peculiar sense, extra-parochial. It is generally credited
with standing out of the hounds of Beadledom. But the City Press
states that the Rev. W. Rogers, who has abolished the “ mob
caps ” that were wont to he worn by charity-school girls in his
parish, was therefore “denied admission for the children of the
Bishopsgate Schools to the Cathedral at the annual gathering on
Thursday, the reason being, it is said that uniformity in the
appearance of the children would he destroyed.” This idea of
uniformity is distinctively a Beadle’s. Mob caps are part of the
uniform of “ charity ” school-girls in the view of the typical Beadle’s

mind. They are a specialty of the full dress of degradation which
the regular Beadle regards as indispensable for the recipients of
charity. This Beadle’s notion of propriety is the cause which per-
petuates the yellow stockings, girdle, and gaberdine of the “ Blue-
coat ” boys; and, to be sure, there is this to he said for it, that it
makes the genuine Beadle hug himself in the ignominy of his own
blazing apparel. There is no Beadle externally of this gorgeous
description at St. Paul’s; but, unless our Civic contemporary has
been misinformed, there must be a personage in some authority about
that Cathedral, who orders matters quite after the fashion of the
thoroughgoing parochial Bumble, although officially attired in plain
clothes, or in nothing else more ornamental than, perhaps, canonicals;
hut, let us hope, in plain clothes only.

Pio.

HISTORICAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Obligingly made easy by “ History's Muse, as memorial for keeping.'

Pius to William.

Your Majesty should he aware,

For ’tis a terrible affair,

That Bismarck and his atheist crew
Are making quite a tool of you,

And struggling hard, by force or tricks,

To extirpate your Catholics.

Sire, really you must mind your eye,

Or down your throne comes, by-and-by.

1 speak the truth to great and small,

Heretics, Catholics, and all;

For all who’ve been Baptised, you see,

Belong, or more or less, to Me.

You ’ll come to grief, judicio meo,

So, bless you much, dear William.

Vatican, August 7.

William to Pius.

Your Holiness must have been drugged,

Or, say the least of it, humbugged.

No Minister of mine can go
A step ahead if I say No.

But, Holiness, your blessed Priests,

Joining with Communistic beasts,

Have lit fierce fire, and wildly fanned it;

And dash my buttons if I stand it!

How Christian Clergymen can dare
Such things, I neither know nor care,

But since they choose to put me to it,

I’m to keep order—and 1 ’ll do it.

The best course you can take ’s to frown,

And bid your priests to knuckle down.

As for belonging to a Pope,

I’m duly grateful for soft soap,

But only know one Mediator
Between myself and my Creator.

But, notwithstanding credo, still I am,

Your peaceful and devoted

Berlin, September 3.

William.

THE POPE AND HIS SLIPPERS.

We learn this little bit of highly interesting news from a para-
graph describing the Pope’s Wardrobe, which (the paragraph, not
the wardrobe) has lately been travelling upon the journalistic circuit,
or, in commoner phrase, going the round of the papers :—

“ The slippers, of fine red cloth, embroidered with fine gold, and ornamented
with a cross, are worth from 120 francs to 140 francs. The Pope requires six
of these for the year ; twenty-four pairs are, besides, always kept in the
wardrobe, and the Chamberlains are forbidden to give them away when cast
off, though many eagerly covet the honour of their possession.”

What in the world, then, can become of them ? Are they sold to
the old clo’ men, or are they laid up in lavender, as scented, we
mean sainted, relics of His Holiness ? If the latter be the case,
what a number of old slippers must he treasured in the Vatican !
Supposing five or six pairs have been put by every year since the
Pope began to reign, one would think there must, by this time, be
a roomful of his slippers. Certainly, if His Holiness feel the need
of an amusing pastime to enliven his seclusion, he will find at hand
abundance of materials for a game of Hunt the Slipper.

Promotion.—If the price of fuel continues to rise, Coal will soon
he entitled to take higher mineralogical rank, and to be classed with
precious stones.