DOI Heft:
June 26, 1875
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16940#0277
June 26, 1875.]
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
271
‘‘DIVISION OF LABOUR.”
First Swell. “ Deuced Hot, Fwank. ! Call a Cab.”
Second Swell. “ ’Tell you what, Old Fellow. You Shout, and I ’ll hold up
’Umbwellab. ’Get through it that way.” [Plan adopted.
Il6 0lA artll.lery arguments brought up, pro and con—the old Division taken, of more
tnan 4 to 1 in favour of liberty, even if it be the liberty of drinking, subject to the not
uiHrequent contingency of drinking too much. John Bull, thus far says, emphatically,
_Eyen this I will permit, and not prohibit.” A. shall not be debarred from his moderate
glass because B. will insist on making a beast of himself. It is a balance of evils. Which
is the more grievous mischief, the abuse of drink due to opening the public-house, or
the interference with personal liberty involved in shutting it? John Bull is, as yet,
more willing to put up with the former evil than the latter; and Mr. Punch, much as
he hates excessive drinking, and deplores its prevalence, is of the same mind with John
Bull. It is a case for Police supervision, not for Prohibitory Law. Let tne public-house
be properly regulated, and there should be no need to shut it up.
It is an old proverb, that though one man can take a horse to the water, a score can’t
® him drink. It is just as true that once get an ass to the brandy-and-water, and
f^ iaws ^he world won’t keep him from drinking. And the ass will find his way
to the brandy-and-water, however tight you try to shut the public-house door. There
is a Maine Liquor Law ; but all the Maine
force of police, penalties, and public opinion
united cannot keep the sot from his liquor.
Your Maine toss-pot will “kiss the baby” in
spite of all the Law may say or do to prevent
him. And though Sir Wilfrid may try to
laugh that fact down, it remains still a great
fact against his Permissive Bill.
Thursday (Lords.)—Lord Rosebery delivered
himself of a long and carefully-prepared dis-
course on the Artisans’ Dwellings Bill—to
what issue, or with what intention, it is not
easy to see. But his Lordship is a rising and
industrious young Peer, and if he likes to hear
himself talk,
Say, shall Punch damp such rare desire,
Upon young eloquence’s fire
Cold water dropping ?
No ! Out-talk lordlings of thy years,
As Yorkshire hills one hill o’er-peers—
Rosebery Topping!
(Commons.) After a good deal of “confused”
question and answer, the Attorney-General
moved the Norwich Corrupt Practices Inquiry
Commission, amid some murmurs from that
“ par nobile fratrum ” Whalley and his
Doctor. This drew forth an edifying revela-
tion from Mr. Bright of how Norwich elec-
tions used to be—and, no doubt, still are—at
the mercy of a residuum of a few hundreds,
who in that venerable borough uphold the
ancient British elector’s birthright—his bribe
and his beer—that right over which Big Ben
has still the solitary courage to toll a regretful
requiem.
When the House should have got into Com-
mittee on the Merchant Shipping Bill, Mr. E.
Smith set the bad example—in which half-
a-dozen talkers were ill-advised enough to
follow him—of delivering himself, at much
length, of his opinions on the Bill, which
had better have been kept for Committee.
So Progress, having been unduly impeded,
was reported at Clause 8, on the vexed ques-
tion of advance-notes, which appear to be
now used—not for the profit of wives and
children, as they were meant to be, but of
crimps, liquor-sellers, and the other harpies
who “ keep watch for the coin of poor Jack.”
The Doctor then got an innings on Trien-
nial Parliaments, and the House, instead of
Counting him Out again, definitely refused
him leave to bring in his Bill, by 68 to 11, at
ten minutes past three in the morning !
Friday.—The Lords were glad to be assured
by Lord Salisbury that the Government
means to stick to the existing system of Irish
National Education. If they would only give
National Schoolmasters a living stipend, and
a decent roof over their heads, and so convert
them from fire-brands into friends of order,
from foes, to forces, of Government!
(Commons.) Another grind at the Merchant
Shipping Bill. After a strong defence of
Clause 9, abolishing advance notes, from Sir
Charles Adderley and Sir Stafford North-
cote, Mr. Disraeli, finding the House still
boggling over the Clause, coolly threw it
over, slap in the teeth of his colleagues. Talk
of “ advance notes ”—never was a note of re-
treat more coolly sounded! Poor dear Sir
Charles ! Poor Sir Stafford ! The House
quite felt for them.
Mr. Reginald Yorke dashed off a very
striking sketch of Turkey “ en noir,” and
was followed up by several amateur-artists,
who each put on his own touches of black,
and all black, till the key of the picture was
lowered “from the depths of Yorke’s deep,
to a lower deep still.”
Mr. Bourse could not do much to relieve it,
though he tried his best with the Foreign-Office
“sweetener”—that best of all brushes for
lightening shadows and softening harsh out-
lines.
PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.
271
‘‘DIVISION OF LABOUR.”
First Swell. “ Deuced Hot, Fwank. ! Call a Cab.”
Second Swell. “ ’Tell you what, Old Fellow. You Shout, and I ’ll hold up
’Umbwellab. ’Get through it that way.” [Plan adopted.
Il6 0lA artll.lery arguments brought up, pro and con—the old Division taken, of more
tnan 4 to 1 in favour of liberty, even if it be the liberty of drinking, subject to the not
uiHrequent contingency of drinking too much. John Bull, thus far says, emphatically,
_Eyen this I will permit, and not prohibit.” A. shall not be debarred from his moderate
glass because B. will insist on making a beast of himself. It is a balance of evils. Which
is the more grievous mischief, the abuse of drink due to opening the public-house, or
the interference with personal liberty involved in shutting it? John Bull is, as yet,
more willing to put up with the former evil than the latter; and Mr. Punch, much as
he hates excessive drinking, and deplores its prevalence, is of the same mind with John
Bull. It is a case for Police supervision, not for Prohibitory Law. Let tne public-house
be properly regulated, and there should be no need to shut it up.
It is an old proverb, that though one man can take a horse to the water, a score can’t
® him drink. It is just as true that once get an ass to the brandy-and-water, and
f^ iaws ^he world won’t keep him from drinking. And the ass will find his way
to the brandy-and-water, however tight you try to shut the public-house door. There
is a Maine Liquor Law ; but all the Maine
force of police, penalties, and public opinion
united cannot keep the sot from his liquor.
Your Maine toss-pot will “kiss the baby” in
spite of all the Law may say or do to prevent
him. And though Sir Wilfrid may try to
laugh that fact down, it remains still a great
fact against his Permissive Bill.
Thursday (Lords.)—Lord Rosebery delivered
himself of a long and carefully-prepared dis-
course on the Artisans’ Dwellings Bill—to
what issue, or with what intention, it is not
easy to see. But his Lordship is a rising and
industrious young Peer, and if he likes to hear
himself talk,
Say, shall Punch damp such rare desire,
Upon young eloquence’s fire
Cold water dropping ?
No ! Out-talk lordlings of thy years,
As Yorkshire hills one hill o’er-peers—
Rosebery Topping!
(Commons.) After a good deal of “confused”
question and answer, the Attorney-General
moved the Norwich Corrupt Practices Inquiry
Commission, amid some murmurs from that
“ par nobile fratrum ” Whalley and his
Doctor. This drew forth an edifying revela-
tion from Mr. Bright of how Norwich elec-
tions used to be—and, no doubt, still are—at
the mercy of a residuum of a few hundreds,
who in that venerable borough uphold the
ancient British elector’s birthright—his bribe
and his beer—that right over which Big Ben
has still the solitary courage to toll a regretful
requiem.
When the House should have got into Com-
mittee on the Merchant Shipping Bill, Mr. E.
Smith set the bad example—in which half-
a-dozen talkers were ill-advised enough to
follow him—of delivering himself, at much
length, of his opinions on the Bill, which
had better have been kept for Committee.
So Progress, having been unduly impeded,
was reported at Clause 8, on the vexed ques-
tion of advance-notes, which appear to be
now used—not for the profit of wives and
children, as they were meant to be, but of
crimps, liquor-sellers, and the other harpies
who “ keep watch for the coin of poor Jack.”
The Doctor then got an innings on Trien-
nial Parliaments, and the House, instead of
Counting him Out again, definitely refused
him leave to bring in his Bill, by 68 to 11, at
ten minutes past three in the morning !
Friday.—The Lords were glad to be assured
by Lord Salisbury that the Government
means to stick to the existing system of Irish
National Education. If they would only give
National Schoolmasters a living stipend, and
a decent roof over their heads, and so convert
them from fire-brands into friends of order,
from foes, to forces, of Government!
(Commons.) Another grind at the Merchant
Shipping Bill. After a strong defence of
Clause 9, abolishing advance notes, from Sir
Charles Adderley and Sir Stafford North-
cote, Mr. Disraeli, finding the House still
boggling over the Clause, coolly threw it
over, slap in the teeth of his colleagues. Talk
of “ advance notes ”—never was a note of re-
treat more coolly sounded! Poor dear Sir
Charles ! Poor Sir Stafford ! The House
quite felt for them.
Mr. Reginald Yorke dashed off a very
striking sketch of Turkey “ en noir,” and
was followed up by several amateur-artists,
who each put on his own touches of black,
and all black, till the key of the picture was
lowered “from the depths of Yorke’s deep,
to a lower deep still.”
Mr. Bourse could not do much to relieve it,
though he tried his best with the Foreign-Office
“sweetener”—that best of all brushes for
lightening shadows and softening harsh out-
lines.