Punch (67.1874)

Vol. LXVII.]

INTRODUCTION.

[July to December, 1874.

PAGE

tions or omissions. After receiving such a representation,
the Bishop is empowered to hear the case, if the parties
interested will submit to his directions without appeal. If
his hearing is not accepted then the representation is trans-
mitted to the Archbishop of the Province, who is to require
the Lay Judge appointed by the Act to hear the matter.
From his decision there is an appeal to the Privy Council.
The Judge appointed under the Act was Lord Penzance,
formerly Judge of the Probate and Divorce Court.

An event which caused some excitement, both in France
and elsewhere, was the escape of Ex-Marshal Bazaine
from St. Marguerite, a small island off Cannes on the
Mediterranean Coast. He had been tried the previous year
by a Court Martial for military incapacity in the surrender
of Metz, and the capitulation of his army, and also for a
treasonable design of making himself independent of the
Government of National Defence in France. On this
latter charge the Court returned no direct verdict, but they
found him guilty of having failed to do all that was required
by duty arid honour. Bazaine was accordingly con-
demned to death, but the President of the Republic (Mar-
shal MacMahon) commuted this sentence into confinement
for twenty years in a fortress. The island of St. Marguerite
was selected as his place of detention. He escaped in the
night, a rope being found hanging down from the parapet
of the fortress one morning in August. Madame Bazaine
was waiting for her husband in a boat which conveyed
him to a ship lying near, and by this means he made his
way to Italy.

PACK

Civil war continued in Spain this half year as in the pre-
ceding one, but it was not prosecuted with vigour until the
months of November and December.

The Government of Madrid derived an unexpected political advantage
from an incident which occurred immediately upon the death of General
Concha (killed in action against the Carlists the previous June). The
Carlists captured and shot a newspaper correspondent, who held the Com-
mission of Captain in the German Army, and there was some reason to
believe that their ferocity was stimulated by his character as a foreigner
and a Protestant. Prince Bismarck afterwards told the German Parlia-
ment that he would, by choice, have adopted stringent measures of retalia-
tion; but ultimately he decided, as a reproof to the Carlists, to accord to
the Government of Madrid the recognition which had been withheld since
the establishment of the Republic.”—“ Annual Summary” of the Timet.

In Germany ‘1 * 3 4 5 universal surprise was excited by tbe arrest
and prosecution of Harry, Count von Arnim, lately Ger-
man Ambassador at Paris. Tbe Count, wbo was charged
with embezzling official documents of various kinds, was
acquitted by the Court of First Instance of the graver
offence, but found guilty of a breach of a statutory pro-
hibition against the removal of documents. In the course
of the proceedings the publication of a portion of Prince
Bismarck’s correspondence on French affairs proved to be
more interesting than the litigation itself.”--1'Annual
Summary ” of the Times.

Great Britain enlarged her Colonial Empire this half-
year by the completion of the projected annexation of the
Fiji Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Sir Hercules
Robinson, Governor of New South Wales, conducted the
negotiations on the part of the British Government,

NOTES.

1 Arch and Keystone.—A large deputation of agricul-
tural labourers, representing the men locked out in the
Eastern Counties on account of their connection with the
Labourers’ Union and the Federal Union, visited Man-
chester, with the object of obtaining help in their agitation

for increased wages. Mr. Joseph Arch (President of
the Labourers’ Union) was one of the principal speakers at
the Manchester meeting.

3 A Fashionable Love Song.-—A mania for old china—

chinamania—was raging amongst fashionable collectors.

3 r Rival Pronouns. \ In his speech at a Oonser-

4 ' Magus among the Mer- > vative banquet, given by

t chant Taylors. ) the Merchant Taylors, the

Prime Minister (Mr. Disraeli) referred to that time when
“the Tory party had not been in due relation with the
people of England on three subjects which mainly interest
them—Liberty, Industry, and Religionand spoke of
Mr. Pitt “ arriving at conclusions upon these three sub-
jects, which the nation had since accepted.” The Prime
Minister then went on to say—“ We have contrived to
solve the three great political problems. We have combined
religious equality with a National Church, &c.”

5 The Great “ Trick Act ” {Cartoon).—For Mr. Gross’s
new Licensing Act, the Licensed Victuallers, and their
connection with the Conservative party, see “ Introduction ”
to last Volume.

Election Puzzles.—Refers to the Election Petitions, 8
and the various forms of disguised bribery which they
brought to light.

Leicester Square—Renovate. — Leicester Square 11
Inclosure, turned into an ornamental garden by the libe-
rality of Mr. Albert Grant, was opened to the public on
the 2nd of this month (July). Sir Isaac Newton, Sir
Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (“ Plympton’s dear Knight”),
William Hogarth, and John Hunter, whose busts are
set up at the four corners of the garden, were all connected
by residence or otherwise with the locality.

Home-(Rule)-Opathy {Cartoon). — See “Essence of 15
Parliament,” p. 12 {Tuesday)—“In the Commons.” Mr.
Butt, M.P. for Limerick, was the leader of the Home-
Rule party.

The Episcopate.—The allusion is to Bishop Browne 22
(of Ely), and Bishop Basil Jones, who succeeded Bishop
Thlrlwall in the See of St. David’s.

The Comet.—This was Coggia’s comet, first discovered 25
by that astronomer at Marseilles.

The Forsyth Franchise.—Mr. Forsyth, M.P., was 25
an advocate for female suffrage, but not for giving it to
married women.

The Awaking of Achilles {Cartoon).—Mr. Gladstone 27
quitted his retirement and his Homeric studies to oppose
the Public Worship Bill, introduced into Parliament by