Punch (71.1876)

August 5, 1876.]

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

47

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

eavily hang pains and pleasures ;

Would that Parliament were dumb !
Slowly drag the Session's measures,
Or to Fate succumb.

v^\\ «^fe==. ^^Sit Yet neither House has heard a solider night's talk than that of

i , ^ the Lords {Monday, July 24), in which three lights, or ex-lights, of

v ^ ■ * — the Foreign Office were turned on to the question of Extradition,

now darkened with much dispatching, under the Treaty at present
unhappily suspended between John and Jonathan".
The question lies in a nutshell. Is John—having caught one of Jonathan's gaol-birds, and handed him over to Jonathan under
terms of an Extradition Treaty, on such evidence as would warrant his committal for trial here—hound to bind Jonathan over not to
try his gaol-bird-in-hand, now he has got him, on any but the charge on which John handed him over ? " Yes," maintains Loed
Derby. "jSTo," argues Secretaby Fish. And Lobds Geanville, Ejmbebley, Hamond, Colebidge, and Gbey—great lights, diplo-
matic and legal—say something very like ditto to Me. Fish. So does Punch, under stress of common sense as well as argument,
first catch your rogue ; but leave the Cooks at home to dress him. The right of political sanctuary once secured, every rogue arrested
is a good riddance of bad rubbish to be thankful for, and there an end.

Britannia does not bear her a)gis to shelter gaol-birds. The sooner the rogue-net is re-set between John and Jonathan the better.
Loed Deeby must feel by this time that he has been needlessly solicitous about rascaldom. " Give and take " should be the standing
rule between us and our American Cousin in all things, most of all in the case of each other's law-breakers. Eeitannia keeps a
political, not a criminal, asylum. That must be a bad construction of law or treaty which turns the one into the other. The restoration
of the criminal-catcher is henceforth only a question of time and terms. The sooner Me. Pieeeepoint and Loed Derby set about it
the better. While honest men remain fallen out, thieves are coming by what is not their own. Who knows but the theft of the
" Duchess " may be due to the suspended Extradition Treaty ?

{Commons.)—Me. E. Jenkins, having asked Me. Disraeli an ill-judged question, Me. Diseaeli gave Me. E. Jenkins an uncivil
answer. Both are to be regretted, but Me. Disraeli ought to have known better. His reputation for courtesy and good breeding is
worth more than the turning of the laugh against Me. E. Jenkins.

On Education Bill—another night added to the two already wasted in stirring the fires of polemic strife with Pell's poker.
" Your Clause I drn't like, Mr. Peli, , Loed Sandon's Bill was going well

The reason why I'm free to tell: Till your Clause marred it, Mr. Pell."

vol. lxxi.