Punch (73.1877)

August 25, 1877.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 75

CULTURE FOR THE WORKING CLASSES.

Philanthropic Employer {who has paid his Workpeople's expenses to a neighbouring F ine-Art Exhibition). "Well, Johnson, what did

YOU THINK of it? TlCK dp AN idea or two?"

Foreman. " Well, yeb see, Sir, it were a this Wat. When ds got therf, we was a considerin' what was best to

be donf, SO we app'lNTED a deppertation o' ThP.EE on ds to SEE what it were like ; an' when they come odt ax' said it
were only PlCTURS an* such, we '1h0ught IT a pity TO spend OUR SelLLINS ON 'em. So we west to the TEA-gardens, and

wkry Pleasant it were, too. Thakk yer kindly, Sir ! "

them,"—in other words, that the question of Peace or War is for
Queen's decision, not Parliament's, and so can more easily be
answered when the Collective Wisdom is dispersed to the four winds,
which ought to blow wisdom far and wide as her scattered Members.

It was more comforting to be reminded that the Government has
defined our "interests," and has undertaken that nothing but an
attack on them shall move England from her neutrality. This
would be quite satisfactory, " if "—as the Spartan said. A great
deal in an ' if.' "

House adjourned to Tuesday at half-past one, its last day.
Never did a Legislature on the edge of Dissolution more cheer-
fully contemplate its latter end. It has saved its St. Grouse after
all. Thanks to that holiest of holy days falling on a Sunday, the
most conscientious of Members may be on his moor on Monday,
and not have shirked a stroke of his Parliamentary work, or missed
a screed of his Parliamentary talk.

[Tuesday).—The usual closing performance of the favourite
Constitutional Interlude, "The Queen's Speech," by Her Majesty's
servants, the united Companies of both Houses. Here is the cast:—

The Queen.—By the Lobd Chancellor, the Duke of Richmond
and Gordon, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Harrowby,
and Lord Skelmersdale.

The Opposition.—By seventeen Ladies.

The Ministerial Majority.—By the Earl of Redesdale, the Earl
of Longford, Lord Fobbes, and Lord Sudely.

Chaplain.—By the Bishop of Ely.

Black Rod—By Sir W. Kj?ollys.

Ugly Rush.—By Members of the House of Commons.

Costume.—For Her Majesty's Commissioners, cocked hats and
Peers' robes. For the Ministerial Majority, morning dress of the
period. For the Ladies, tie-backs of the time.

We cannot say much that is favourable of the performance. It
was as wordy in style as usual, and even more than usually unsub-

stantial in matter, grammatical however, and making the most that
is possible of the very little that has been done during the Session.

The curtain falls on as ghastly a tableau as it has ever been our
lot to assist at—its principal figures, War, attended by even more
than its usual horrors and atrocities, Famine with a gaunt hand
griping the throat of a gigantic but gaunt and ghastly Southern
India, a confused dance of Kaffres, Dutch Boers, and British
Colonists, and, crouching in the back-ground, a group of four miser-
able little Bills, blushing under a sense of their miserable insuffi-
ciency to represent " the achievements of the Session."

Strange to say, the most prominent feature of the Session was
not reproduced in this closing performance. Biggar, Parnell, and
O'Donnell did not figure on the programme.

So ends the Session of Seventy-Seven :
Mny we see few of the Sf lf--ame haven !
Of Acts 'twas empty, of words 'twas full:
"Write o'er it, " Much cry, and little wool ! "

FORBIDDEN CARGO.

We read with pleasure in the Times of the 15th inst., under the
heading of "The Canal Boats Act," that, by that Act, already law, but
not coming into force till January 1st, 1879, no canal boat will, after
that date, " be allowed to carry about infectious diseases." Who
shall say after this, that the Session of 1877 has been a fruitless
one? To be sure, it is rather startling to know that such cargoes
may be carried until the 1st of Jan., 1879, and worse still, that the
Act does not extend to Ireland or Scotland. You may still, even
after January twelvemonth, ship, or rather boat, fever, small-pox,
and measles, per Canal, in those quarters of the British Isles with
impunity, like coals, timber, corn, or any other equally wholesome
commodity.