Punch: Punch (75.1878)

December 14, 1878.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 267

A BIT FROM BUXTON.

Mr. Blades, from Slveffield {affably to Noble Lord with the hereditary gout). " 'Ope tour Lordship's better this Morning. I can

just manage to 'op about a bit-"

Noble Lord {severely). " Aw—I was not aware that People of your Class were subject to my Complaint !''

"We 're bound by law to tell you this, and as we must have supplies,
The sooner you find them for us, the sooner you can rise.
Apropos of the Berlin Treaty—there's no reason to be dejected;
It's going on, like everything else, as well as can be expected.
Of the Bills to be passed—not those to be paid—we '11 speak when you've cut
and come again;

And we wish you a Merry Christmas when you've all got safe home again."

The first night's debate in the Lords was like a Cook's tour—
personally conducted."
It turned—not on the policy of the Government in making1 war on
Afghanistan—but on the candour of Lord Cranbrook's Despatch,
and the veracity of Lord Salisbury's assurance—"miserable per-
sonalities," as both Lord Salisbury and Lord Beaconsfield called
them. As a matter of course, Lord Granville put these unplea-
sant charges as pleasantly as possible ; and equally, as a matter of
course, Lord Cranbrook repelled the imputation against him with
heat, and Lord Salisbury with haughty aggressiveness.

This is a matter, however, which chiefly interests the noble Lords
personally concerned—Lord Northbrook, who protests against the
colour given by Lord Cranbrook's ninth paragraph to his Govern-
ment's action in 1873—Lord Cranbrook, who declares he has given
the true colour in the paragraph, and is ready to lay on another coat
of it—the Duke of Argyll, who maintains that the Marquis of
Salisbury, in his last year's denial of any change of Indian policy
on the part of the Government, though he did not lie like truth,
told truth like a lie—and the Marquis of Salisbury, who maintains
that his answer was true to the letter, and that nobody has any
business with its relation to the spirit.

Lord Grey moved an Amendment, regretting that Parliament had
not been consulted before war had been declared. But nobody sup-
ported or seconded him; and the Duke of Somerset rapped him over
the knuckles in that candid spirit in which his Grace loves to say
and do disagreeable things.

Lord Beaconsfield, in a comparison of the policy of his party
twenty-five years ago with that of the Opposition, now made his
points and got his laughs like a veteran actor :—

" "We found ourselves, some five-and-twenty years ago, advocating a cause
with a warm conviction, but one which was probably not supported by the
House to which we appealed, or the nation. The recess had passed. We had
all of us made a good many speeches, in which we had probably not measured
our language more than in some more modern speeches with which you are
acquainted. {Laughter.) Many of us had written many letters, though not
so many, perhaps, as some individuals of the present day. {Renewed laughter.)
And under these circumstances, being also members of a society of great
activity and organisation, more active than the Afghan Committee—
{laughter)—and having agitated the country for a considerable time by these
sincere expressions of our opinions, we did think it was our duty when Par-
liament met that we should test the opinion of the House upon the question
which we had so long described as of the highest importance and most urgent
interest."

Don't ride off on official squabbles, but challenge our policy to a
Division—and be beaten.

Nothing can be more triumphant than the way this great master
of fence flourished his weapon, and defied the other side to come on.

It was as pretty sword-swinging as could be seen, and must have
delighted the ladies present. Next week my Lord B. will have his
wish—Lord. Halifax will distinctly raise the question as to the
policy of the war.

In the meantime there will be no Amendment on the Address, as
Lord Granville explained, because there is no wish to refuse the
means for supporting the gallant soldiers who have already reaped
the first fruits of victory in the Khyber and the Kurum.

In the Commons, Mr. E. Stanhope having given Notice of Motion
to take the charges of the war out of India's pocket, Mr. Fawcett
gave notice that he would oppose it.

News of General Pv-obert's gallant clearing of thePeiwar Pass was
cheered from all sides of the House. What person, of what party,
does not cheer every British deed of valour, daring, and resolution,
apart altogether from the policy of the war in which the deed is
done!

Lord Castlereagh moved, and Mr. Hall seconded, the Address.
The Marquis of Hartington admitted as undeniable, that
Government having received abundant proof of the confidence of