Punch: Punch (75.1878)

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14

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[July 20, 1878.

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

GREAT CONGRESS MEETING, 3 878.—BEACONSFIELD, WINNER OF THE CYPRUS CUP.

transcribed into choice Tancredian in the Daily Telegraph, which
has been rewarded for its loyalty to its Lord—and ours—by being

" Humpty-Dumpty sat on a wall;
Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall

JJizzy with Cyprus, and all the Queen s men, eh as th t { this startling "communique" to the

Hopes to set Humpty-Dumpty up again. world •_■

So Punch, in his Cartoon, embodies the startling news of the
week which, on the morning of Monday, July 8, burst on England, like
a thunder-bolt from a serene sky, out of the high firmament of the
Daily Telegraph. Let Punch record the day, for it should be
memorable.

Tancred's Asian dreams have taken shape and substance. Our
great Mystery-Man has linked the living John Bull to the lifeless
Ottoman ; has bound England in alliance with the Sultan for the
defence of his Asian dominions, taking; Cyprus as a tete du pont and
place d'armes whence to command the Levant, and cover the Canal.

It cannot be ? Yes. So it is. Let John Bull shake himself up,
open his eyes wide, pull himself together, and nerve himself to a
sense of his responsibilities.

The trick is done. The coup is played. The compact is con-
cluded. The Plenipotentiaries at Berlin have received the tidings

" England has concluded a Defensive Treaty with Turkey for the main-
tenance of the strict integrity of the Sultan's Asiatic dominions.

" In view of this fact, the Porte has accorded to Great Britain the right to
occupy the island of Cyprus, and this right Her Majesty's Government will
immediately carry into effect.

" Asia Minor will henceforth be, to all intents and purposes, under the
immediate Protectorate of England, and the British Government will become
responsible for the just and efficient administration of a country rich and
varied in resources, and vast in extent and geographical importance.

" No further Russian encroachments will be possible in this direction. So
far as Asia is concerned, England and Turkey will hereafter practically form
one Power."

"We have italicised the statement of England's newly assumed re-
sponsibility, the gravest fact in this agglomerate of grave facts—the
tumbling of which upon him, per Daily Telegraph, Punch is ready

with what feelings remains to be seen. There is the Treaty, thus | to confess has taken his breath away, knocked him out of time, in