Punch: Punch (76.1879)

218

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

[May 17, 1879.

PUNCH'S; tESSENCEiOF PARLIAMENT.

(Lords, Monday, May 5.)
oulettr de Boss picture by Lord Salisbury of the
i Treaty of Berlin moving to execution ; a showy, if
not solid, work of High Art, fitting this Season of
Exhibitions—the general impression being that the
progress of poor B. T., to execution, like most such
progresses, is at a pace rather funereal than lively.
Lord Salisbury's picture—if one could quite trust
it—must be admitted to beTa cheerful one. But the more common
view, we fear, comes nearer the mark. Like another celebrated
subject of the hangman's high art, who, as the poet sings—

" Oft fitted the halter, oft traversed the cart,
* k t And often took leave, and was loth to depart,"

the Berlin Treaty seems—not to put too fine a point on it—in no hurry.
Inter alia, Lord Salisbury tells us " a Commissioner has been
sent to Asia Minor to ascertain the reasons for local reforms there—which, however, cannot be carried out till the Turkish finances are
upon a better footing " !