Punch (71.1876)

July 15, 1876.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 23

' ON HOSPITABLE THOUGHTS INTENT."

Mr. -. "Don't you think, Love, that you'd better give them a longer Invita-
tion than a "Week ? "

Mrs. -. "My Love! They'd all come/"

YOUTH AND AGE.

(On the Centennial Anniversary of American
Independence.)

" We have to confess that England is old and
the United States young."—Times.

Punch sees no harm in that confession.

Age is a thing comparative :
In History's immense procession

Some realms than others longer live.
"What diagnosis marks the time
"When any State is in its prime ?

America is young, no doubt,
And keeps her hundredth birthday
merrily:

Her cannon roar; her speakers spout;

Her toasts and sentiments ring cheerily;
And how tall talk in fyttes has flowed
In Bayard Taylor's long-drawn Ode !

Hail we the democratic Maid
Self-crowned with Freedom's deathless
laurel:

Nor her large Liberty upbraid,

Because its winning cost a quarrel.
Prosperity and social health
To the colossal Commonwealth!

Yet is Old England quite so old
As the Chronologer maintains,

"Wbose oldest, noblest blood is rolled
Through the wide Union's youthful
veins ?

In all things good, beneath the sun,
John Bull and Jonathan are one.

Long centuries of stately life
Are England's birthday gift to her :

Columbia's youth, with vigour rife,
Is felt in England's heart astir.

In Young America's Centennial

Old England feels herself perennial.

A Leg to Stand On.

Subscriptions are being raised for the
benefit of the newly-elected Professor of
Chinese at Oxford—Dr. Legge. It is satis-
factory to think that the Celestial language
and literature have at last got one Legge at
all events, if not as yet a firm footing, in
Oxford.

SIR SALAR'S ODD OFFERING.

The Standard has the following curious piece of news in its
Court Circular of a few days ago :—

"Sir Salar Jong was presented to the Queen by the Marquis of
Salisbury, and offered his Muggur as a token of allegiance, which Her
Majesty touched and returned."

Shakspeare's Hindustani Dictionary gives "Muggur" as the
Hindu for an alligator. Why the Indian Statesman should have
chosen this offensive and_ voracious animal as a token of his
allegiance_ we cannot conceive—unless he meant it as a delicate way
of conveying that his loyalty was ready to swallow anything. How
ever did he manage to bring it alive from the banks of the Godaveri
to "Windsor Castle—to say nothing of the shorter railway transit
from Paddington ? We presume it was not a stuffed specimen that
Sir Salar presented to Her Majesty. All this will, let us hope, be
explained in the " Journal " which is pretty sure to see the light on
Sir Salar Jung's return to Hyderabad.

Her Majesty "touched and returned" this choice "token."
"Would it not have been better taste on the part of Her Majesty's
advisers if they had suggested that she should retain it, as the
nucleus of a Windsor collection of Indian reptiles, in rivalry to the
zoological establishment recently set up by H.R.H at the Regent's
Park for the present, with a view to Sandringham in the future.
Boom might surely have been found about the Castle for a tank,
where Sir Salar Jung's "Muggur" might have been bestowed;
or, if Her Majesty did not desire to retain so ugly a creature in her
own neighbourhood, a habitation could have been found for it in one
of the many opposition Aquaria that have lately come into existence.
In the Westminster Aquarium it might have given a fillip to the

prosperity of the undertaking, and a better claim than it now has to
the title u Royal."

Perhaps Her Majesty hesitated to set a precedent by accepting
this offering. Some future Indian visitor might have thought him-
self justified in bringing a cobra or korait into the Royal Presence !
Happy Thought!—can it have been that the Standard has made
a misprint^ and that the "muggur" was after all a "nuzzur,"
which we find in our Shakspeare means '' an offering made by an
inferior when interviewing a superior."

OUR INTEREST IN TURKEY.

Britain, Great Powers, whilst you the field leave clear,
'Twixt Turk and Slav will never interfere.
Stamboul made safe beneath a neutral hand,
We care not if the Moslem faU or stand.
Then, Christian Slavs, for freedom stoutly fight!
'Gainst Turks and tyrants Heaven defend the right!
Time was when Moslem's faith high credit bore ;
But Britons now believe in Turks no more.
Their due per-centage since Turks ceased to pay,
We've lost our interest in the Sultan's sway.

Hindoos and Heroics.

A remarkable appeal from the High Court of Judicature at
Bengal came the other day before the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council—the case of—

"Bam Goomar Coondoo v. Chunder Canto Mookerjee."
The point of interest for the Public to be noted in connection
with this suit is, that its heading reads like a hexameter verse.