Punch (69.1875)

July 17, 1875.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

13

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

biestly authority in
Ireland sets its face
against the Dublin
Training School, for
National Teachers.
A plan has been sug-
gested for boarding-
out Roman Catholic
pupil - teachers in
houses approved by
their clergy. The
Government {Lords,
Monday, July 5),
don't see their way
to this, and give
various reasons quite
wide of the real one,
which is no doubt an
unwillingness to of-
fend certain sections
of their supporters
by anything that
looks'^' like concession to
priestly power in Ireland.
" Thus bad begins, and
worse remains behind.'' The
Church and the School are
at loggerheads, and School
goes to the wall.

The Duke of Richmond
is seriously thinking of strik-
ing the " Knowingly " out of
his Adulteration Bill. The
absurdity of throwing upon
the buyer the proof that the
seller knows what he is selling
has proved too much even for
the contentedness of that most contented
and Conservative public whose remon-
strances reach Richmond. There must be
at least ten miles of them!

(Commons.) LevSe en masse of the Com-
mon Lawyers in the House, against the Con-
stitution of the Intermediate Court of Appeal, botched up by the Government to save the rest of the Judicature Act. " Hawks should
na' pike out hawks' een." The Lawyers of both bars ought to imitate the Scotch Members, and wash their legal linen in private. Their
fighting powers should be reserved for their cases and their clients.

Let Q.C.s fight to prove black white—
Their briefs are marked thereto :

Let Counsel in the cause-lists fight—
'Tis what they 're paid to do.

But, Lawyers, in the House ne'er let

Your angry passions rise :
Tour brace of bars were never meant

To bar each other's rise.

When thieves fall out," says the proverb, " honest men come by their own." If the disagreement of Lawyers involve the same
consequence, there should be every prospect of a satisfactory Court of Intermediate Appeal.

The Judicature Act would have reduced the Judges from eighteen to fifteen. " The Government has been convinced by the commu-
nications it has received " that it would be undesirable to lessen the number of judicial nests for the callow brood in bombazine and
horsehair who aspire to those calm retreats, built high above the disturbance of political winds, and the catastrophes of parties. So

" Hush-a-bye, Q.C., upon the tree-top !
As the Judges are now so the Judges shall stop !"

The Judicial Committee of Privy Council is not to be starved to furnish forth the new Court of Appeal. That, at least, seems a
change for the better. The rules and orders to be made by the Judges under the new Act are not to overrule Common or Statute Law (so
likely they would!); but are to be confined to "pleading, practice, and procedure."

Lords {Tuesday).—Public Health Bill (300 clauses) passed through Committee in a jiffey. Punch feels he cannot too much commend
the wisdom of their Lordships. Take example, ye contentious Commons! That is the way to deal with a Consolidation Bill. If
you would imitate the wisdom of your betters—it would be a shame to call them your Peers—every branch of the Law which has got
into Statutory Chaos—and what branch has not ?—might have its Chaos reduced to Order by Consolidation preparatory to real amend-
ment only possible when the want to be supplied, or the blunder to be rectified, is clear to the meaner capacities of common lay minds.
Of Statute Law, unlike liquids, it may be said it never is clear until consolidated.

(Commons.) Civil Service Estimates. Me. Goest tried to get rid of the examiners of criminal accounts, who have occasionally made
the Treasury odious by penny-wisdom leading to miscarriage of justice.

It is to be hoped that this kind of penny-wisdom, in so serious a matter as the conduct of criminal prosecutions, will henceforth be as
systematically snubbed as there is reason to fear it has, at times, been systematically encouraged (in common with much other penny-
wisdom) at the Treasury.

An hour was devoted to the grievances of Thomas Dotty, ex-canteen keeper at the Curragh, turned out by the "War Office for
selling drink to the military at illegal hours. Who dares say the House of Commons is not the Grand (and petty) Inquest of the
Nation ? Mighty enough to measure the designs of Russia, it is not too great to weigh the grievances of Dotty !

What followed (on Me. Bailete Cochbane's speech, calling attention to the progress of Russia in Central Asia), in these days
of military manoeuvres, Punch takes the liberty of condensing into a brief dialogue in the camp and barrack style :—

English Sentry (to Puss Outpost, moving towards Afghanistan). Q,ui va la?

Puss Outpost. Friend!

English Sentry (after looking to Foreign Office and India Office for instructions, and getting none). Pass, Friend—
Sir G. Campbell. And all's well!

vol. 1xix.