Punch: Punch (75.1878)

138

PUNCH, OB, THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[September 28, 1878.

CAUTION AND LOVE.

" Oh, Edwin, love, here's the Announcement'of our Wedding. Listen ! " (Heads)—" ' On the 16th inst., at St. George's,
Hanover Square, Edwin Gold more Tomktns, Esq., M.P., of Goldmore Park, Suffolk, and 248, Prince's Gate, to Lady
Angelina, Twelfth Daughter of the Earl of Silverlacke. ' "

"Read on, my own sweet Love. There's another Paragraph—in Brackets, I think.''

"Oh yes." {Reads on.) " 'Mr. E. G. Tomkyns takes this opportunity to intimate that he will not be responsible tor
any Debts contracted by his Wife, without his Written Authority.' "

" THE BEST OF EMENDS MUST PABT."

Punch to Lord Dufferin.

Must part! Punch protests it seems almost a pity,

And yet such a muster of fairly-won friends
As bade you farewell in Quebec's famous city,

For parting's sharp pang make most pleasant amends.
Young Canada gave you a warm-hearted vale,

And tribute of praise seldom better deserved
Than by him who has governed as wisely as gaily,

In tact never failed and from sense never swerved.

An Irishman ! Yes ; and few Sons of Old Erin

Show more of the best of that nimble-brained race ;
And rare is the Saxon who '11 prove him your peer in

The right Celtic mixture of gumption and grace.
With the flow of warm feeling, the skill at tine fooling,

As native as nous to the Sheridan blood,
You 're a type of the people whose powers of ruling

You merrily vaunted in whimsical mood.

The man who can graciously brag is a master

Of chords dull mock-modesty never may move;
The sprightly-thrasonic binds spirits the faster

In fun-spangled fetters of fancy-fed love.
The fuss of the proser, the whine of the canter,

Are foreign as falsehood and fudge to the tongue,
Which has lent a fine charm e'en to blarney and banter,

And glamour of grace o'er formalities flung.

Yet serious business has found you no fumbler,
Fun. 's dear at the figure when toil it would shirk ;

But who would be such an inveterate grumbler
As chide a good workman who sings at his work ?

Small wonder that Canada sorrows at losing
A chief who can rule and not bungle or bore,

Who, working or playing, is aye found suffusing
The wisdom of Monck with the fancy of Moore.

Whilst pinchbeck Imperialism is posing

As England's new idol, 'tis pleasant indeed
To find one who contrives, without gammon or glosing,

To bind branch with branch of our old Island breed.
Heart ties, after all, form the only safe tether,

If we and our stout Western scion agree,
In fair or foul weather, to foot it together,

Large thanks will be due to such bricks as Lord D.

Punch swells the full chorus that sounds from Ontario,

He '11 welcome him home, from our Colony far,
Who, steadfast as Douglas while gay as Lothario,

Good jest will not mull and tough task wiU not mar.
Let us hope your successor in brain's not behind you,—

He '11 find it no trifle to stand in your shoes,—
But John Bull a fresh berth must right speedily find you,

For in faith, my dear Lord, you are too good to lose !

Self-Coronation.

At a meeting lately held at Savona, in Italy, to celebrate the
anniversary of the Genevan Alabama Award, Signor Filtpanti, a
Deputy, was loudly applauded on declaring that Germany "would
cover herself with glory if she allowed Alsace-Lorraine to elect by
plebiscite between France and Germany." Prince Bismarck, per-
haps, is of opinion that if he permitted Germany to do any such
thing, he would be covering himself with a fool's cap.