Punch (100.1891)

iv PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHAPJVAPJ. [J™ 27, 1891.

be considered as useful.' And that was before the Nile and the Baltic ! Aha ! bat right soou ' the radiant orb suspended
in your mind's eye which urged you onward to renown ' (to quote your own vivid words), resumed its star-y-pointing sway."

" You combine the dauntless pluck of Drake with the cheery optimism of DrBDrx, Mr. Punch," said the Hero. " Bat,
the Laureate of the Victorian Navy would have other materials for his metre than Campbell or Dm din dealt with."

" Three-quarters of a ton of iron, hurled by the explosion of 9G0 lbs. of powder from the muzzle of a 110-ton gun, with

an energy equal to 55,253 foot tons, through 28 inches of iron and steel, 20 feet of the hardest oak, 5 feet of solid granite,

11 feet of concrete, and 6 feet of brick—40 feet of tough material all told ! By Trior, Admiral, that owjht to afford Titanic

inspiration to some lyrical Son of Thunder ! We may say, indeed, parodying Campbell's immortal ode —

" Like leviathans afloat " As they hew their headlong path,
Lie our bulwarks on the brine ; Fraught with shrieking, shattering death,

Scarce the rocks the Titans threw, The most bold may hold his breath

Or the bolts of Jove divine, For a time! "

Matched the missiles of to-day, immense, sublime —

" Good! " said the Shade. " It seems to me, Sir, considering the part the English Navy has played in the Eng-
lish Story, that it has hardly been adequately sung by our Bards or set forth by our Statesmen. Truly this Big Show is
something—by way of a beginning. But why should there not be a permanent Naval Exhibition, always on view, and so
ordered and arranged that every British boy shall, as a matter of course, become familiarised with the heroic memories of the
past, the great actualities of the present, and the splendid possibilities of the future ? "

" Why, indeed ? " echoed Mr. Punch, musingly. " Heroic Horatio, you have accurately hit it! Of the British Boy
it may be said—

The British Fleet he cannot see,
Because 'tis not in sight.

That is, the Naval history of our country, and its Naval needs, are not, as they should be, forced home to his intelligence by
every device of pedagogue, poet, paterfamilias, show-shaper, and statesman. When they are, we shall, perhaps, have less
official fumbling, financial waste, and Naval inefficiency."

" Look to it, Mr. Punch ! " murmured the Shade of the Great Admiral, in a voice faint but emphatic, his form slowly
dislimning in the sheen of the search-light.

" Trust me, Mighty Sailor," responded the Sage. " And as evidence of the patriotic spirit in which I shall play my
part, I present you with my own particular (and portable) ' Search-Light,'—powerful, penetrative, all-pervading. For Fifty
Years now it has periodically flared forth and lustrously illuminated the Universe. It will make clear to you many things
that perchance may strike you as obscure and nubibustic—in the Shades. At the end of my Fiftieth Volume I invited the
World to my Jubilee this year—now arrived. May I beg the favour of your presence at my Centenary 1 At Home,' on the
17th of July, 1941 ? Meanwhile, this—and its successors—may profit and please you ! "

Whereupon England's favourite Sage politely proffered to England's favourite Hero his

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