Punch (71.1876)

August 26, 1876.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

79

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

ee the Ends of Sessions (as the late Benjamin" Diseaeli assured us
the other day) really fertile in compromises ? Is this weather
[Saturday, August 12) a compromise ?—or the last fierce fight
over the Education Bill P—or this day's mutiny of Jenkins and Dilke against
the majesty of the Chair—two small talkers against the Great Speaker?—or this
wail of Whallex's over the gradual downfall, at the hands of Parliament, of
the Common Law, and the recklessness of reporting in the small hours ?—or this
last assault of the Ship-owners on the Lords' Amendments of the Merchant
Shipping Bill, and Plimsoll's final protest ?

Surely not. The Session dies [Monday) not quietly like a good man in the
evening of his days, after a well-spent life, hut fiercely in fight and foam, like
a whale in its flurry—amidst obtestation of Lords, forced to accept Commons'
Amendments undiscussed, and Commons, compelled to bolt Lords' Amendments
undigested: and angry interchange of Lords' Amendments of Commons' Amend-
ments of Lords' Bills,—and Commons' Amendments of Lords' Amendments of
Commons' Bills—all alike in the rough and unconsidered state in which they are
passed into Law—and a general hustling and hurrying, bustling and worrying
through Third Reading of the laggard Bills of the Session.
But all's well that ends well. They sra all at last through the perilous passage of the Twelfth, so big with the fate of birds that it
has no room for care about the fate of Bills; and [Tuesday, Aug. 15) the Session has eeached its Close !

"When the House meets again, it will know the Bight" Hon. Benjamin Diseaeli no more—but, in another place, the Eael of
Beaconseield ; to whom Punch, with pen and pencil, pays, in this Number, his due tribute of honour.

And so the Session with a Title ends, All own a fighter who has fairly won That Title, hardly forced at the sword's point,

That with a Title ope'd; but how unlike The meed of honour which now crowns his age : From England's grudging throat—for that her

This Title unto that! This Title given, Like some gr eat argosy, that after years life

Of buffetting with winds and waves and wars, Of loyalty would none of a new name

Crowned with the memories of conflicts past, For the old majesty of England's Queen,

Passes from high seas' strife to harbour's calm. Law-based, Law-consecrate, and Law-enthroned!

-*- *—1 w J. U1U X-tU. \j\J U-LLd-U ; J.fPf/0 plllj

TJngrudged and uncontested, unto one
Whom, howsoever dirfering men and minds
May differ in their judgment of the man,

LUNAR FARMING.
It is rather surprising that the somewhat unusual occurrence of

reasonable inference that agricultural pursuits are as much in favour
in the Moon as they have been from time immemorial on our own
planet. It would be interesting to know whether wheat and barley

an inhabitant—a very distinguished one, it would seem—of the and wild oats ripen as weU under moonshine as they do under sun-
Moon paying a visit to our Earth should not have attracted more shine; what description of implements our neighbour's farmers
attention. We refer to the " Geand Duchess de Ltjne," who is I employ, and whether they still stick to the sickle ; and what diffi

reported as having been present at the Northumberland Agricultural
Society's Show. Astronomers cannot fail to deduce, from this visit
of the Grand Duchess to one of our important Cattle Parades, the

culties they have J with ground game, and whether they are in
the habit of grumbling about the seasons, the crops, and the
times.

VOL. LXXI.

I