Colonel Sibthorp presents his compliments to his dear friend and fellow,
PUNCH, and seeing in the _Times_ of Wednesday last a long account of the
extraordinary arithmetical powers of a new calculating machine, invented
by Mr. Wertheimber, he is desirous of asking the inventor, through the
ubiquitous pages of PUNCH, whether his, Mr. W.'s apparatus--which, as his
friend George Robins would say, is a lot which seems to be worthy only of
the great Bidder--(he thinks he had him there)--whether this automatical
American, or steam calculator, could solve for him the following
queries:--
If the House of Commons be divided by Colonel Sibthorp on the Corn Laws,
how much will it add to his credit?
How many times will a joke of Colonel Sibthorp's go into the London
newspapers?
Extract the root of Mr. Roebuck's family tree, and say whether it would
come out in anything but vulgar fractions.
Required the difference between political and imperial measures, and state
whether the former belong to dry or superficial.
If thirty-six be six square, what is St. James's-square?--and if the first
circles be resident there, say whether this may not be considered as an
approximation to the quadrature of the circle.
State the _contents_ of the House of Commons upon the next motion of Sir
Robert Peel, and whether the malcontents will be greater or less.
Required the capacities in feet between a biped, a quadruped, and a
centipede, and say whether the foot of Mr. Joseph Hume, being just as
broad as it is long, may not be considered as a square foot.
Express, in harmonious numbers, the proportion between the rhyme and the
reason of Mr. Benjamin D'Israeli's revolutionary epic, and say whether
this is not a question of _inverse_ ratio.
Whether, in political progression, the two extremes, Duke of Newcastle and
Feargus O'Connor, are equal to the mean Joseph Hume.
Is it possible to multiply the difficulties of the Whigs, and, if so, am I
the figure for the part?
What is the difference between the squares of Messrs. Tom Spring and John
Gully, and whether the one is the fourth, fifth, or what power of the
other?
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