Punch: Punch (81.1881)

October 29, 1881.] PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. 195

at length pins him by the throat against the wall at the end of the
Committee Rooms Corridor, adding, "Well, my Downy one ; you've
given me a stiffish run for it, you have ;—but I've got you tight
enough now." As he says this, he makes a rapid and well-imagined
whirl with his lasso, and at the same moment envelopes his captive
in the salmon net. A severe scuffle ensues ; when, a card-case
tumbling by chance to the ground, the rather obvious fact, lost sight
of in the excitement of the moment, is suddenly revealed, that the
struggling and exhausted stranger, is no other than the respected
Speaker of the House of Commons.

And now the excellent advice tendered in Clause 7 comes to the
aid of the over-zealous Detective. As the first Chairman in the United
Kingdom is re-arranging his collar and gasping out, " You shall hear

of this—at Pekin! " the officer has but to remove his own disguising
pig-tail, acknowledge his error, and add, with a conciliatory smile,
that everyone is liable to make mistakes.

Thus, by a frank and ready avowal of error, and an avoidance of
argument, which a special Clause denounces as " rarely convincing
anyone, and much irritating persons, smarting under some real, or
imaginary grievance," the disagreeable consequences of too warmly
following up a mistaken clue are instantly and almost pleasantly
disposed of.

Thu3 the Detective whose intelligence must be not only searching
and extensive, but culminating and well balanced, has nevertheless
a retreat before him when it happens, as in the case of the above
illustration, to be at fault.