PART I

THE NATIONAL OUTLOOK

HIGH POLITICS

The pageant of the Victorian age reached its grand climacteric in the

period on which we now enter. As a "drum and trumpet chronicle" the

history of the eighteen years from 1874 to 1892 was void of any British

military operations on the grand scale. Of the names Kandahar, Maiwand,

Isandhlwana, Majuba, Khartoum and Tel-el-Kebir only the first and last

minister to our complacency. Yet the achievements of Lord Roberts in

the two Afghan campaigns were splendid examples of bold leadership

and British endurance, and Lord Wolseley's suppression of the revolt

of Arabi was more than efficient. In the mid 'seventies Germany came

perilously near forcing a fresh war on France; but the influence of

the British Crown and Government was largely instrumental in averting

the calamity. We were twice on the verge of war with Russia in 1878,

first in April after the Treaty of San Stefano at the close of the

Russo-Turkish war, and second in July over Russia's intervention in

Afghanistan. The country was divided, for while there had been a

revival of the old distrust of Russia, Gladstone had thrown the whole

weight of his influence into the campaign of protest against the

"Bulgarian atrocities." The Government, on the whole, steered a middle

course between the "Jingoes" and those who supported Gladstone's "bag

and baggage" policy towards the Turks. At the height of the Tory Press

campaign against Russia, Lord Salisbury, in a speech in the City,

observed: "It has been generally acknowledged to be madness to go to

war for an idea, but it is yet more unsatisfactory to go to war against

a nightmare." _Punch_, who was never pro-Russian, but at the moment was

strongly anti-Turk, interpreted this saying as a caution against Jingo

scaremongering.

In one of the earliest of his cartoons on the possibility of war over

the Eastern question, he represented Disraeli standing on the edge

of a precipice with Britannia, asking her to move "just a leetle

nearer." Britannia declines to move one inch farther, adding, "I'm a

good deal nearer than is pleasant already." But four months later, in

May, 1878, when he showed Britannia between two advisers, Disraeli

and Bright[1]--the former wearing a sword camouflaged with an olive

wreath--_Punch_ supported neither, but applauded the third Voice, that

of Neutrality. Professorial intervention he resented strongly; and

severely rebuked Freeman, the historian, for a violent and unpatriotic

speech. In fine, he was equally down on the blatant bunkum of the

music-halls and the ill-considered agitation of fussy Pacificists; on

War-Donkeys and Peace-Donkeys; "Asses are asses, whether bound in Lion

or in Calf."

[Footnote 1: Bright had recently made a vehement speech at Manchester

against the Turks. It was about the same time that he described Lord

Salisbury as "prostrating his intellect (to Lord Beaconsfield) in hope

of a succession that might never come."]

[Illustration: NATIONAL SPRING MEETING, 1874: THE FINAL HEAT]

But if in Europe Great Britain never got beyond the stage of naval

demonstrations and the summoning of troops from India, these eighteen

years were not devoid of great as well as spectacular events. They

opened with the triumphant return to power of Disraeli, admirably

symbolized in Tenniel's great cartoon of the chariot driver and his

fallen rival, and with his efforts to translate into practical politics

his grandiose doctrines of Imperialism. He made the Queen Empress

of India, he riveted our hold on the Suez Canal by the opportune

purchase of the Khedive's shares in 1875; he claimed to have brought

back "Peace with Honour" from the Berlin Congress of 1878, the year

which marked the zenith of his power and the beginning of its decline.

The twelve years that followed Gladstone's success at the polls in

1880 were crowded with momentous events; the rise and ferment of the

new nationalities abroad; the advent of new champions and gladiators

in the political arena at home--Parnell and Randolph Churchill and

Chamberlain. In the sphere of domestic politics Ireland dominated

the scene. Parliamentary obstruction was raised to a high art; the

activities of the physical force extremists culminated in the tragedy

of the Phoenix Park murders, and the history of the next few years

is written in the two words Coercion and Conciliation, which split the

Liberal Party, brought back the Conservatives to power in 1886, and

under the Balfourian _régime_ restored a certain measure of peace and

prosperity to Ireland. Lord Beaconsfield's "spirited foreign policy"

had been largely reversed under Gladstone, and the results did not

nourish our national pride. The handling of our frontier troubles in

India had at least the support of some of the wisest Anglo-Indian

experts, but our magnanimity to the Boers after Majuba was not merely

open to the charge of craven-spiritedness, it paved the way to further

troubles. It has been said that "any fool can annex"; but it needs

a wise man to know when to grant autonomy. Moreover, the loyalty

of Gladstone's supporters--including _Punch_--was strained to the

uttermost by the disastrous failure of the attempt to relieve Gordon

at Khartoum. The full knowledge now available makes it clear that

Gordon's appointment was a risky experiment--that his judgment was

not equal to his nobility of character--but the months and months of

procrastination and vacillation, and the inadequacy of the relieving

force when dispatched, cannot be explained away. It was just one of

those situations which warranted the old gibe against Gladstone's

"three courses." There were moments, and this was one of the most

searching, in which he was mentally incapable of "seeing his duty, a

dead sure thing" and going for it "there and then" in the way in which

plain men with plain minds would have done.

[Illustration: WILFUL WILHELM

An Imperial German Nursery Rhyme. (_From the Very latest edition of

"Struwwelpeter."_)

WILFUL WILHELM: "Take the nasty _Punch_ away!

I won't have any _Punch_ to-day!"

Young Wilhelm was a wilful lad,

And lots of "cheek" young Wilhelm had.

He deemed the world should hail with joy

A smart and self-sufficient boy,

And do as it by _him_ was told;

He _was_ so wise, he _was_ so bold.

]

When we add to this brief summary the Jubilee of Queen Victoria in

1887, the passing of Lord Beaconsfield and Bright among the elder

statesmen, and the tragic eclipse of Parnell, it will be seen that

there was enough and more than enough to engage the pen and pencil of

_Punch_ as a political and social chronicler. Mention has already been

made of our thorny relations with Russia. With regard to Germany, the

attitude of England might be described as one of reluctant admiration

punctuated by moments of misgiving. These moments were not infrequent

in the days of the old Emperor; they ceased during the brief reign of

his son, only to recur in a more acute form when Kaiser Wilhelm II

"dropped the pilot," made it clear that he intended not only to rule

but govern, and by his meteoric versatility and frequent references to

his divine mission and to the Germans as the chosen race, awakened the

world to the emergence of a new and formidable promoter of European

unrest. Our relations with France were correct rather than cordial;

her _rapprochement_ with Russia did not make for popularity on this

side of the Channel; but in the main English observers read the inner

meaning of the Boulanger episode aright, and without exactly exulting

over his collapse, were relieved by his failure to revive a military

dictatorship.

By way of filling in this rough outline with more detail, we may note

that Gladstone's resignation of the Liberal leadership at the close

of 1874 was regarded by _Punch_ as premature. In one of the first

cartoons in the next year Dizzy is shown saying good-bye to his great

antagonist: "Sorry to lose you! I _began_ with books; you're _ending_

with them. Perhaps you're the wiser of the two." Perhaps he would have

been--in the ultimate verdict of posterity--had his decision been

final. But _Punch_ was right in regarding Gladstone as an unspent

force, and in his regretful and affectionate farewell clearly indicates

a hope of his return:--

Will he who, from Llandudno's calm retreat

Late burst, at once, on battle and defeat,

Will he, though Harcourt gird, and Granville pray,

Himself the Leader's truncheon fling away,

Still in his prime of power, unbent by years,

Renounce the joy of battle with his peers,

Unmoved by _Punch's_ counsel, or his prayer,

Nor to his realm relinquished name an heir?

[Sidenote: _The New Shepherd_]

Lord Hartington, moved by public spirit rather than ambition or

enthusiasm, undertook what in the circumstances was the far from

enviable task of leading the Liberals. _Punch_ hit off the situation

truly enough in the cartoon in which Bright hands the crook of

leadership to the "New Shepherd"--and Hartington in his smock-frock

replies, "Hey, but Measter!--Where be the sheep?"

The parallel is followed up in the doggerel lines:--

The Marquis Bo-Peep

Herds the Liberal Sheep--

If he only knew where to find them.

Will they ever come home

And--please Home Rule and Rome--

Bring their Irish tails behind them?

_Punch_, always concerned with the dignity of the Mother of

Parliaments, was from the very outset exasperated by the increasing

levity and obstructiveness of the new House. The levity he satirized

in a series of burlesque entertainments with Mr. Whalley as call-boy

and Dr. Kenealy as gasman. Dr. Kenealy's efforts to re-open the

Tichborne case ended in absurdity--his motion being supported by only

two members, Mr. Whalley and Major O'Gorman, that gigantic playboy of

the West.[2] Obstruction, another and far more serious matter, was

soon organized into a science, and led to repeated scenes of which

more anon. Of the new Ministers, Mr. Ward Hunt, the First Lord, was

especially singled out for attack because of his cavalier treatment

of the loss of the _Vanguard_ and the Admiralty's Fugitive Slave

Circulars. _A propos_ of the former, _Punch_ represented Neptune

warning Britannia that there would be a row if she did not rule the

waves properly. The Fugitive Slave question led to protracted debates

and much hostile criticism. In October, 1875, a cartoon shows a slave

crawling on board a British warship and clinging to the flagstaff,

while Ward Hunt, popping up from the companion, observes: "A runaway

slave, John. You'll have to give him up, you know! See our Circular of

July 31." John Bull retorts: "Give 'im up, yer Honour!! As well order

me to haul down that there flag at once!!!" A fortnight later Ward Hunt

is made to reply to his friend _Punch_:--

We haven't hauled down the British Flag

(See one of your recent productions),

But we've chosen the other alternative--

We've hauled down our Mis-instructions.

[Footnote 2: Major O'Gorman does not appear in the D.N.B. But he

inspired an immortal comment from a sympathetic compatriot, who calling

to inquire about the Major's progress during a serious illness, was

told that he was being kept up by periodic teaspoonfuls of brandy.

"Tayspoons!" was the indignant retort. "And what use 'ud a tayspoon be,

sthrayin' about in such a wilderness of a man?"]

_Punch's_ view, expressed in comments on the debate in the following

February, was that the matter should be left in the discretion of

captains--as it had been for thirty-six years. He declared, not without

reason, that both circulars were virtually dead, and that the country

would not stand them. Meanwhile the growth of the German Navy, which in

his earlier years _Punch_ had persistently ridiculed and belittled, had

begun to excite attention and misgiving; _Punch_, though a Liberal, was

a "big Navy" man, and, early in 1875, was concerned with the dangers of

our falling behind in the race of naval armaments:--

RULE, GERMANIA!

_The Times_ informs us that, of "iron-clad cruisers of the strongest

type, Germany will, in the present year, have seven built against five

of our own navy." The _Pall Mall Gazette_ is of opinion that "the

Germans have too many irons in the political fire to give exclusive

attention to any one of them."

But very soon, unless we get beforehand with the Germans, will they

not have too many irons in the water, too?

[Illustration: NEUTRALITY UNDER DIFFICULTIES

DIZZY: "Bulgarian Atrocities! I can't find them in the

Official Reports'!!!"]

The restoration of the monarchy in Spain under Alfonso XII, in the same

year, also gave _Punch_ occasion for serious thought. We may pass over

the cartoon representing John Bull's anxiety about Spanish bonds as a

satire on British commercialism. But there is shrewd political insight

in the picture of Alfonso between two fires--Bismarck and the Pope.

The German Chancellor makes his support conditional on the withdrawal

of the anti-Protestant edicts; while the Pope, on the other hand,

maintains the claims of his Church.

In 1876 the Queen assumed the title of Empress of India; Disraeli went

to the Lords as Earl of Beaconsfield, Sir Stafford Northcote succeeding

him as Leader of the House of Commons; and the "Bulgarian Atrocities"

proved the first phase in the conflict which made the Balkans the

cockpit of Europe for over forty years. _Punch_ did not cavil at

Disraeli's earldom, though he thought his refusal of the Garter in 1878

well calculated rather than modest. He suggests, moreover, that Earl of

Coningsby would have been a better title; and in the cartoon headed,

"Empress and Earl, or One Good Turn deserves Another," shows Dizzy

kneeling to the Queen and saying, "Thank your Majesty! I might have had

it before! _Now_ I think I have _earned_ it!" More sympathetic are the

verses in which _Punch_ describes the realization of Disraeli's triple

dream of success in Fashion, Letters and Politics--the dream that

inspired him when he was only an articled clerk and a Jew boy:--

After forty years' fighting, he steps from the fire

To the height scarcely scaled in his Old Jewry dream;

Adds a third to his two wreaths of boyish desire,

Though sore set against him the stress of the stream.

And all who can honour faith, patience, and power

And the strenuous purpose that runs a life through

Like a muscle of iron, are glad of the hour

That sees his hand close on the honour his due!

Mr. Gladstone was now employing his leisure by felling trees at

Hawarden, and the contrast lent point to one of Tenniel's happiest

cartoons--that of "The Earl and the Woodman"; Disraeli, in his earl's

robes and coronet, contemplates Gladstone arrayed _à la_ Watteau, and

observes with emotion: "How happy is this blithe peasant, whilst I,

alas!----" (Dissembles.) _Punch_, however, was becoming more sceptical

of the genuineness of Gladstone's desire for retirement, and in a

parody of "You are old, Father William," scouts the notion of his

prematurely posing as a Nestor.

[Illustration: "NO MISTAKE"

THE BRITISH LION: "Look here! I don't understand _you_!--But

it's right you should understand _me_! _I don't fight to uphold what's

going on yonder!!_"]

The Balkan trouble led to a violent conflict of public opinion in

which _Punch_ sided whole-heartedly with Gladstone against those, and

they were many, who upheld the traditional view of the "Gentlemen's

party," that the Turk was the only "gentleman" in the Near East, and

that he might do what he liked with his own. Disraeli's scepticism;

his professed inability to find any "atrocities" in official reports;

and his dismissal as "coffee-house babble" of evidence brought by a

Bulgarian to a vice-Consul, roused _Punch's_ indignation against the

Premier and his official informants. It was a "hideous subject" of

which Government had heard a good deal and was likely to hear a good

deal more:--

Let _Punch_ speak his mind in this matter. Political partisanship and

party spirit are both at low, as well as lukewarm, water in England

just now; but, if anything will fire John Bull's blood to fever heat,

it is such horrors as have been perpetrated in Bulgaria--and part

of his wrath will assuredly be visited on those who have striven to

interpose official blinds or buffers between England and the sight

or shock of these horrors.... The head of Her Majesty's Opposition

asserted for the Newspaper Correspondents the credit which English

common sense and experience unite to claim for them.

Contemporary records--including the files of _Punch_--do not bear out

the statement about the lukewarmness of party spirit. The country was

acutely divided, and dissatisfaction with Sir H. Elliot, our Ambassador

at Constantinople, prompted _Punch's_ retort, when Lord Beaconsfield

declared that the Bulgarian atrocities were "beyond recall," "Yes, but

your Ambassador isn't." Gladstone is rebuked for hiding in his tent;

but he made amends by launching his famous, though sadly premature,

phrase about clearing the Turk out of Europe, "bag and baggage."

[Sidenote: _Neutrality under Difficulties_]

Serbia's resistance was soon overcome, but the Powers forced Turkey to

grant her an armistice, and largely through Great Britain's influence,

a Conference was held at Constantinople where Lord Salisbury was our

representative. A short breathing-space was thus gained, but the

Conference was abortive, and war between Russia and Turkey broke out in

1877. _Punch_ was in rather a delicate position: for while distinctly

anti-Turk, he had never trusted Russia. Thus, while assailing the

_Daily Telegraph_, _Pall Mall Gazette_ and _Morning Post_ for their

Chauvinism, and the Tory press generally for their campaign against

Russia and their support of the "veracious Turk," he was hardly less

severe in his strictures on the belligerent humanitarians who would

have welcomed pro-Russian intervention. _Punch_ advocated neutrality,

but he was fully alive to the difficulties of the situation, and

expressed them in a cartoon in which the British Lion is exhibited in

a bothered mood, distrustful of Russia, and unable to make out what

the Government meant, or the Opposition either. In his comments on the

debate on Mr. Gladstone's resolution, _Punch_ deplores the weakness and

dissensions of the Opposition and supports the bolder spirits. Many

years were to elapse before Lord Salisbury made his remarkable speech

about our having "backed the wrong horse," i.e. Turkey, in the Crimean

War. That speech proved that _Punch_ was fully justified in seizing

on the caution which the same speaker had given nearly twenty years

earlier. For Lord Salisbury declared in 1897 that the defence of the

diplomacy of 1878 lay in its traditional character, not in its inherent

excellence, and that neither he nor Lord Beaconsfield was free from

misgivings as to its results. The music halls have not often enriched

the language with permanent additions, but they added "Jingo" and

"Jingoism" in 1877. _Punch's_ comment on Macdermott's famous song is

instructive. It was inspired by a reference in the Paris _Figaro_:--

On the back page of the _Figaro_ is given one verse in English, with

the music, of that "War Song" of the Music Halls, which just now

enjoys its share of popularity with "_Nancy Lee_," and "_Jeremiah,

Blow the Fire_," and a translation of the whole song into French, of

which the _Figaro_ says apologetically, "_Des vers français n'auraient

pu arriver à la sauvage énergie de l'original_." The chorus of the

song, as sung by most of our London street-boys, instead of "_They all

do it_," and "_Woa Emma_," recently shelved, is this:--

"We don't want to fight, but by Jingo if we do," etc. And the

translation, which "_n'aurait pu arriver à la sauvage énergie de

l'original_," is:

"_Nous ne voulons pas la guerre, mais, par Dieu! si nous combattons_,"

etc.

If "_par Dieu_!" is not to an Englishman's thinking rather more

savagely energetic than "By Jingo!" then words are meaningless. If

"_par Dieu_!" is to be accepted as an equivalent, and as, after all,

rather a weak equivalent for "by Jingo!" then either the Frenchman

has a very low idea of the Englishman's religion, or his "_Dieu_"

means nothing more, ordinarily, than our "Jingo." But "Jingo" is not

a savagely energetic exclamation, nor is the true feeling of this

country to be gauged by the popularity of a Music-Hall song.

_Punch_ was both right and wrong. The music halls are not a true index

of the political sagacity of the country; but he did not foresee that

the refrain of this particular song would survive, by virtue of its

very blatancy, as a terse summary of national complacency. At the same

time he paid homage to its merits by printing a neat Latin rendering

from the pen of an Etonian:--

_Inviti quamquam saevo confligere bello,

Adsit opus, Jingo testamur Bellipotentem,

Sunt nobis nummi, sunt agmina, tela, carinae._

[Sidenote: _Indian Troops in Europe_]

The intervention of amateur diplomatists, clerical or professorial,

however well-meant, was firmly and impolitely discouraged when Turkey

and Russia were at death grips at Plevna. Early in 1878 _Punch_

endeavoured to turn such efforts into ridicule, as instances of

"self-election of the unfittest." Still the naval demonstration in

Besika Bay found _Punch_ in his most pacific mood, applauding Lord

Carnarvon, who with Lord Derby had resigned, and condemning Lord

Beaconsfield's dangerous action and unconvincing explanations. The

calling out of the Reserves still further increased _Punch's_ anxiety,

and inspired a "Proclamation" calling for self-restraint. When it was

announced that Carlyle had joined Bright and the Duke of Westminster

in signing a petition against war, _Punch_ noted that the old sage

of Chelsea was anything but a lover of peace at any price. But the

incident which perturbed him and other critics of the Government more

than anything else was the bringing of a contingent of Indian troops to

Europe. _Punch_ vigorously supported Gladstone, who held the action

of the Government to be not merely provocative but unconstitutional.

When the troops were re-shipped to India, he published a sarcastic

inscription, to be engraved on a monument on Primrose Hill

commemorating an exploit which had cost £750,000. It seems a little sum

to us with our profligate habit of thinking in millions, but the frugal

taxpayer of the 'seventies, as represented by _Punch_, thought it a

monstrous extravagance. The inscription is too long to quote in its

entirety, but we may give the peroration:--

So, having more than fulfilled

The Expectations of those who imported them

And who, after having transferred them to Cyprus,

Found themselves considerably embarrassed

What next to do with them,

They were re-shipped, quietly and unobtrusively,

To the general mystification of Europe

For the Land of their Birth;

Whence,

Though they have merited the Admiration of Some

And the Respect of Many,

And have left behind them

An Election Cry to All,

It is to be hoped that they will never again visit

The Western Dominions of their Imperial Mistress

Who, through the mouth of _Punch_

Gladly bids them _Adieu_!

Not _Au Revoir_.

_Heu vatum ignarae mentes!_ But _Punch_, who printed this acid _jeu

d'esprit_ on August 3, 1878, could hardly be expected to foresee the

need of August 4, 1914.

The year 1878 marked the zenith of Lord Beaconsfield's prestige,

for it was the year of the Berlin Congress--from which he claimed

to have brought back "Peace with Honour"--and of the annexation of

Cyprus. _Punch_, however, was always suspicious of Dizzy's phrases and

preferred to symbolize the results of the Congress in a _Pas de Deux_

by Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury, both Gartered, and in a rhymed

dialogue complacently referring to their egg-dance. The Afghan trouble

was assuming a menacing aspect, finely typified in Charles Keene's

cartoon, "The Shadow on the Hills." _Punch_ applauded vigilance, but

distrusted the Government's intentions, deprecated the spirited policy

which involved "a vague and boundless adventure of annexation," and

showed Lord Beaconsfield leading John Bull by the nose in search of

a "scientific frontier"--another Disraelian phrase--and the Ameer of

Afghanistan, between the Bear and the Lion, exclaiming, "Save me from

my friends."

[Illustration: THE SHADOW ON THE HILLS]

The Transvaal had been annexed by Sir Theophilus Shepstone in the

previous year, but _Punch_ had received Lord Carnarvon's announcement

with acquiescence rather than enthusiasm.

[Sidenote: _Bismarck's Creed_]

On the other hand, the visit of the Australian cricket team in 1878

furnished him with an occasion for paying tribute to the progress and

enlightenment of the Colonies and acknowledging England's debt to their

loyalty.

The services of King Edward as a promoter of the _Entente_ with

France date back to the same year, in which as Prince of Wales he

is represented in a _Pas de Trois_ with the Republic and Marshal

MacMahon. _Punch_ applauded the visit, but rebuked the flunkeyism of

the accounts given by the Paris correspondent of _The Times_. For

the moment Germany's home rather than her foreign policy engrossed

attention, for this was the time of the _Kulturkampf_ and the campaign

against Socialism. Bismarck is shown in one cartoon squeezing down the

Socialist Jack-in-the-Box. These repressive measures were deprecated by

_Punch_, and a few months later he commented ironically on Bismarck's

_rapprochement_ with the Papacy, the cartoon "Of one mind (for once!)"

showing Bismarck and the Pope barring the door against Socialism

and Democracy. The reminiscences of the notorious Dr. Busch had

appeared, and _Punch_ based on them a bitter set of verses, "The Pious

Chancellor's Creed," adapted from one of Lowell's _Biglow Papers_:--

I do believe in subtle skill

Disguised as brutal frankness;

And the display of ruthless will

In rowdy _Reiter_-rankness.

As well shirk shedding blood for fear

Of staining God's pure daisies,

As strive to rule this lower sphere

By sentimental phrases.

I hold the great Germanic race

Is Heaven's favourite bantling,

Supreme in virile power and grace

And breadth of moral scantling.

The Franks are hounds, their women pigs

Gr-r-r! I the vain vile vermin hate!

I'd squelch them--but for pap-soul'd prigs

Who funk the word exterminate.

Bismarck was alive and formidable. Thiers and Pio Nono passed away in

1877 and 1878. The services of the French Statesman are tersely summed

up in the stanza:--

Monarchy loving much, he loved yet more

The realm, whoe'er its badge of headship wore;

And, waiving self, was willing to abide

That rule which Frenchmen would the least divide.

In the accompanying cartoon France is seen laying a wreath on the

tomb inscribed "_Libérateur de la Patrie, 1872_," while the shades of

monarchists and Communards are seen in the background. The tribute to

Pius IX is kindly but not uncritical. He had outlived the patriotic

Liberalism of his younger self:--

Happy that one thing he did _not_ outlive,

The charitable soul, the kindly heart,

That rigid dogma's slaves could scarce forgive,

Fearing lest he might play them Balaam's part,

And bless whom he should curse; and so they drew

Their bonds about him closer day by day

Living or dying, till no will he knew

But theirs, and as they pointed, marked the way.

In Home Politics Ireland largely dominated the scene during the latter

half of the Beaconsfield administration. As early as 1876 _Punch_

had dealt faithfully with the plea advanced on behalf of political

prisoners in the following caustic argument:--

Killing is no murder if complicated with treason. That renders it

a mere misdemeanour. A military offence, simply capital, becomes a

minor offence when treasonable besides. Treason is an extenuating

circumstance of mutiny and murder, and its commission in committing

those crimes reduces murderers and mutineers to political offenders.

Therefore, instead of being hanged or shot, they ought, if punished at

all, and not, on the contrary, rewarded, to be condemned to nothing

worse than temporary seclusion, and should, all of them, after a

merely nominal imprisonment, be respectfully released.

[Sidenote: _Obstruction and the Remedy_]

This was a logical and ironical _reductio ad absurdum_; yet _Punch_

lived to see it translated into practical politics forty years later.

In 1877 the scientific obstruction practised by the Irish Party in the

House of Commons prompted a whole series of cartoons. In one Parnell,

Biggar and Callan appear as "Erin's Three Graces." In another a drove

of Irish pigs (including Whalley) are shown blocking the railway line

of Parliament. In a third _Punch_ bids schoolmaster Northcote to take

down not the words, but something else of the obstructives. Commenting

on the twenty-six hours' sitting in July, 1877, in which the House was

held up by a group of obstructives that never rose above seven, _Punch_

observes:--

Four Chairmen--Raikes, Childers, Sir H. Selwin-Ibbetson, and W. H.

Smith--were used up in the night-watches, and the House was kept, by

relays, against the "Dauntless Three"--for Gray, Callan, Nolan and

Kirk are but recruits to the banner of Biggar, Parnell and O'Donnell,

the standard-bearers of Obstruction. All pretence of argument was

early abandoned; and it became a mere contest of endurance, varied

by episodes of more or less--generally less--lively squabbling and

chaff--if such a word may be used of anything that passes in the

august Temple of Legislation. All this while the new Standing Orders

seemed, by tacit consent, set aside; and Parnell, Biggar and O'Donnell

moved the Chairman out of the Chair, or report of progress, again and

again. And yet the Leader of the House had the rod of suspension in

his hand, though he forbore to use it, preferring the _reductio ad

absurdum_ of such a night's match between the toughness of the House

and the tenacity of its Obstructives. Once only he went so far as

to threaten more summary proceedings, on which, they say, O'Donnell

collapsed. Of course, the great O denies it.

But why, _Punch_ must again ask, allow debates to be degraded to

a farce, and the House to a bear-garden? Go to his Cartoon, ye

squeamish, and be wise. With the rod in the Speaker's hands, it is

not the Obstructives' _words_ that _Punch_ would have taken down. The

House sat from four o'clock on Tuesday till six on Wednesday.

The announcement of Mr. Gladstone's visit to Ireland later on in

the year prompted a burlesque account of what his omniscience and

omnivorous thirst for information would enable him to achieve. Nor

could _Punch_ be moved to treat seriously O'Donovan Rossa's threat to

introduce osmic acid--a forerunner of tear-shells--into the House of

Commons. But it was beginning to be difficult to joke about Ireland,

and there was grim point in Keene's picture of the native reassuring

the English angler who hadn't a licence for salmon: "Sure ye might kill

a man or two about here an' nobody'd say a word t'ye."

[Illustration: LIFE IN LEITRIM

SAXON ANGLER: "Oh, but I can't try for a salmon, I haven't got

a licence."

NATIVE: "Is it a licence ye want to kill a fish? Sure ye might

kill a man or two about here an' nobody'd say a word t'ye."]

The death of Isaac Butt in the spring of 1879 marked the final

close of the moderate stage of Parliamentary agitation; the reins

of leadership had already passed into the hands of a bolder, more

masterful and uncompromising chief--the "uncrowned King," as he was

called, till the days of Committee Room 15. Moreover, discontent was

aggravated by genuine distress in the South and West of Ireland, and

here, unfortunately, benevolence was hampered by party politics, for

the violent speeches made by Parnell in America at the close of 1879

were not exactly designed to assist the Duchess of Marlborough's

Relief Fund. According to _Punch_, however, in his comments on "Irish

Obstructives to Irish Aid," these speeches failed to influence the

American public:--

[Sidenote: _The Zulu War_]

Uncle Sam is showing his sense by sending his liberal contributions

in relief of Irish distress through all channels except the cruelly

warped ones of Messrs. Parnell and Dillon. The arch-agitator has the

impudence to accuse the Duchess of Marlborough's and all other relief

agencies, except his own, of political bias. This is the Gracchi

complaining of sedition with a vengeance! Pigs, we know, cut their

own throats in trying to keep their heads above water. This Irish

Mis-leader seems involuntarily to be imitating the short-sighted Irish

animal. If any man _could_ have frozen the current of charity--in

New World and Old--it would be such a bitter and malignant advocate

of mutual hate, civil strife, anarchy, and insecurity of life and

property, as CHARLES STEWART PARNELL.

Ireland was only one of many embarrassments to the Beaconsfield

administration in its closing years. Early in that year _Punch_

published a cartoon on "Bull and his burdens"--John Bull as a patient

ox carrying Russia; the Ameer; the Turk; a Glasgow Bank Director

(commemorating a recent discreditable financial disaster); a striker;

and last of all a Zulu jumping on behind. For this was the year of the

unhappy Zulu war, which _Punch_ described as "one of the costliest

blunders of modern times"--it cost ten millions--and again as "alike

unnecessary, costly, and disastrous." He saw in Isandhlwana not merely

a tragedy but a lesson, and enforced it in a cartoon showing a Zulu

warrior writing on a slate, "Despise not your enemy." The accompanying

verses, while deprecating rashness, assert that the dead must be

honoured and avenged. The heroes of Rorke's Drift, Chard and Bromhead,

are duly acclaimed, but _Punch_, true to an old and honourable

tradition, prints a letter on behalf of the non-combatant officers who

gallantly took part in the defence. As the only rampart which they

had was made of meal-bags, _Punch_ ingeniously applies to them the

phrase, "_Couvert de gloire et de farine_," which Voltaire had used of

Frederick the Great, who spent his first battle sheltering in a mill

behind sacks of flour. Cetewayo, the Zulu chieftain, was subsequently

captured, brought to London and lionized, _Punch_ observing that "the

great Farini [the _impresario_ who introduced Zazel, the acrobat who

was shot from a cannon] suggests that he should be exhibited at the

Aquarium."

Throughout the war and afterwards _Punch_ was a harsh and ungenerous

critic of the policy of Sir Bartle Frere, whom he regarded as a

prancing proconsul and nothing more. Nor was _Punch_ much happier

in his treatment of the painful episode of the death of the Prince

Imperial who, whether owing to his own rashness or the negligence

or loss of nerve of his escort, fell to the assegais of the Zulus.

_Punch's_ inveterate anti-Imperialism is betrayed even in the memorial

verses:--

Talk not of plots and plans that, ripening slow,

Are by this death struck down with blast and blight;

We have no thought but for that mother's woe,

The darkness of that childless widow's night.

Unfortunately, the raising of the question of a memorial to the

Prince in Westminster Abbey induced _Punch_ to abandon his resolve of

reticence, and prompted other "thoughts," which he expressed with more

vigour than good taste. There is no proof that the suggestion emanated

from Dean Stanley, as _Punch_ implies, though the Dean certainly

favoured a proposal for which a strong precedent could be found in the

burial in Henry VII's chapel of the Duc de Montpensier (the younger

brother of Louis Philippe) who died an exile in England in 1807.

Public opinion was divided, but democratic sentiment prevailed, and in

deference to a hostile vote in the Commons the scheme was withdrawn.

[Sidenote: _Turnerelli's "Tribute"_]

The waning splendours of the Beaconsfield _régime_ were not revived

by the launching of one of the last of his phrases, "_Imperium et

Libertas_." _Punch_ only saw in it "the catchword of a self-seeking

swaggerer." Great men suffer much at the hands of injudicious admirers,

and the "People's Tribute" to Lord Beaconsfield organized by an

amiable enthusiast, heavily weighted by the unpropitious name of Tracy

Turnerelli, must have been a sore trial to the Premier, while it

supplied _Punch_ with food for mirth for the best part of a year. The

subscriptions of the million were invited to purchase a gold wreath,

but after a little while Mr. Turnerelli had to appeal for further funds

to clear off a deficit. Later on, when the Tribute had been finally

refused by Lord Beaconsfield, Mr. Turnerelli offered to hand over

the wreath to one of our great national museums, if a suitable case

were provided. He also suggested that he might be reimbursed for his

out-of-pocket expenses in getting up the Tribute. _Punch_ recommended

that he should pocket the affront and hand over the "Tribute" to Madame

Tussaud's, where he had already appeared in wax. This is what actually

happened, and in November, 1879, _Punch_ sardonically records the

fulfilment of his suggestion.

[Illustration: SUNSET

(_After B. R. Haydon._)]

The disquieting news from the Afghan frontier led to a serious attack

on the Government early in 1880, an attack in which _Punch_ vigorously

joined, publishing a list of questions all animated by misgiving

and by distrust of Lord Beaconsfield's phrases and Lord Lytton's

policy and silence. The tension was relieved by Lord Roberts' famous

march to Kandahar, and on his return to England in the autumn _Punch_

represented him as snowed under by invitations to complimentary

banquets, and invoked the shade of Wellington to congratulate him on

his celerity. Meanwhile, however, Parliament had been dissolved in

March, and the verdict of 1874 completely reversed at the General

Election. _Punch_ hailed Gladstone triumphing with his axe over Lord

Dalkeith, and borne aloft on a shield by Harcourt, Hartington, and

Bright, under the heading, "Hail to the Chief." As a pendant we have

the cartoons in which Lord Beaconsfield is eclipsed by the sun of

Liberalism or watches the sinking of the sun of Popularity, and the

verses in which the parting Sphinx soliloquizes on his methods of

leadership--appeals to sentiment and passion and the deft use and

reiteration of phrases which intoxicate the masses.

When the House reassembled, it was to find the Irish Question still

further complicated by the activities of the Land League and the No

Rent Campaign. There was also another burning question--that of the

Parliamentary Oath--which the return of Mr. Bradlaugh made a matter

of urgency. _Punch_, as the "sturdiest of Protestants, was perforce

the staunch supporter of the right of private judgment which is the

corner-stone of Protestantism." Also he frankly admitted that he had

no desire to see Mr. Bradlaugh made a martyr. His point of view is

developed with refreshing common sense in the following argument:--

The House has swallowed such a succession of camels, Quakers and

Separatists, Moravians and Jews, Latitudinarians and Platitudinarians,

Unitarians and Humanitarians, Anythingarians and Nothingarians, and

now it is straining over such a gnat as poor Mr. Bradlaugh, natural

representative of the Northampton Shoemakers, who object to the

immortality of the Sole, and spell the word indifferently with or

without a "u" and an "e."

The time has surely passed when the House should seek shelter against

objectionable beliefs or unbeliefs, behind such delusive defences as

oaths and tests. "Let the Swearers swear, and the Sayers say," the Law

has proclaimed, in all Courts. Why, then, not in the High Court of

Parliament--the Court of Courts--the very conduit and fountain-head of

Law?

[Sidenote: _Irish Troubles_]

Unluckily the collective wisdom of the House was slow to accept this

view, and the inevitable conclusion was only arrived at after a

great expenditure of time and a great loss of temper. Bradlaugh was

ejected and finally admitted; but the pacification of Ireland seemed

farther off than ever. Gladstone was anxious to proceed with the

further instalment of his policy of conciliation inaugurated by the

Disestablishment of the Irish Church in his previous administration,

but _Punch_ summed up his difficulties pretty accurately in the

cartoon of November 20, 1880, in which Law tells Liberty to wait

until Ireland first learned to respect her. _Punch_ regarded the Land

League as sheer anarchy; it was the League and not the Government

who practised Coercion. He summoned up the shade of Dan O'Connell to

condemn outrages and the tyranny of "Captain Moonlight." But posthumous

evocations are seldom of any avail; and O'Connell's was no longer

a name to conjure with. In the year 1880, "Boycott" ceased to be a

surname, and became an engine of political intimidation, while in the

House obstructionist methods continued, culminating in the suspension

of some thirty Irish M.P.s _en masse_ early in 1881. Irish "scenes"

were frequent and only excited _Punch's_ disgust. At the same time he

administered a severe rap over the knuckles to the "Honourable the

Irish Society of London" for maladministering their funds, pauperizing

prosperous towns and neglecting to subsidize deserving poverty or

encourage Irish industries. The appeal to the Queen, the Prince and

Princess of Wales and the Duke of Connaught to visit Ireland, signed,

"Larry Doolan of the Irish Jaunting Car," is shorn of all its cogency

by the Transpontine Donnybrook Fair language in which it is couched.

_Punch_ has been a frequent offender in this respect; and also in his

representations of the Irish peasant. It did not really help the cause

of Unionism to portray Fenians and Land Leaguers with baboon-like

faces. Dan O'Connell, whom _Punch_ again evoked from the shades, this

time to play Virgil to Gladstone's Dante in the Irish "Inferno," though

he was a potato-faced Irishman, would have resented this method of

criticism. As a matter of fact, _Punch_ was so seriously remonstrated

with for his Irish cartoons that he published a long article in

self-defence and justification of his methods, maintaining that he

never hit the weaker side because it _was_ the weaker side, but because

that side at the time appeared to be in the wrong:--

[Illustration: THE IRISH "INFERNO"

"Death, violent death, and painful wounds upon his neighbour he

inflicts; and wastes, by devastation, pillage, and the flames, his

substance."--Dante, Canto XI.]

[Sidenote: _Punch and Ireland_]

The Ogreish character is the embodiment of the spirit of Lawlessness,

of Anarchy, and of that Communism which, by its recent No Rent

manifesto, has now drawn down upon itself the just condemnation

of such men as the Archbishops of Dublin and Cashel. Houghing

and mutilating dumb animals, maiming men and women, and shooting

defenceless victims, are ugly crimes, and the embodiment of them in

one single figure cannot be made too hideous or too repulsive. On the

other hand, _Punch_ has consistently and persistently kept before the

public his ideal classic figure of Hibernia, graceful, gentle, tender,

loving but "distressful," as being more or less in fear of that Ogre,

her evil genius, from whose bondage may she soon be free; and then,

mistress of herself, with peace and plenty in her land, blessed with

wise Administration and Local Government, in happy and unbroken union

with her sister, England, with a regal residence in her midst, may she

see the emerald gem of the Western World set glittering in the crown

of one who will be no longer a stranger.

_Punch_ was moved to return to the subject in September, 1882, in order

to repel the attacks made on him by the _Spectator_ and the _Nineteenth

Century_. The latter had not been sparing of rebuke:--

"No savages have ever been so mercilessly held up to loathing mockery

as the Irish peasants by the one comic paper in Europe which has been

most honourably distinguished for its restraint and decorum and good

nature."

Here the defence takes the form of an imaginary trial before L.J.

Public Opinion, in which Hibernia gives evidence in _Punch's_ favour

on the strength of cartoons published from 1844 onwards. Of course,

_Punch_ is acquitted and pronounced to have triumphantly refuted a

calumnious attack. This much, however, must be admitted to _Punch's_

credit, that he did not regard the campaign of outrage and defiance of

the Law in Ireland as a reason for withholding remedial legislation,

but supported Gladstone's measures designed to promote a settlement of

the Land question.

Over the war with the Transvaal in 1881 _Punch_ found it hard to find

the _justum medium_. The true estimate of the situation was no more

to be found in the view of the "excellent law-abiding people who

would send off a British army of 15,000 men to crush out a rebellious

enterprise," than in the demands of the enthusiastic humanitarians who

would give "a struggling community their legitimate liberty." _Punch_

frankly admitted that the Boers had been brutal to the natives, had

shown an inability to govern themselves, and by their unfitness either

to establish or extend civilization had almost jeopardized the hold of

the white man on South Africa altogether. Yet he supported the Boers in

their contention that the Proclamation of Sir Theophilus Shepstone in

1877 was invalid. There was wrong and right upon both sides. Writing

in January, 1881, he expressed the hope that a pacific settlement

might be arrived at by a Cabinet "not deficient either in the ready

pluck which deals with pressing danger or the quieter courage that

is not afraid of timely compromise." These hopes were not fulfilled,

and _Punch's_ confidence in the pluck and courage of the Gladstone

Cabinet was severely shaken in 1884 and 1885. In 1881 he was hardly a

true interpreter of public opinion in his comments on the disaster of

Majuba, when he excused the British defeat by the valour of the Boers.

The cartoon, "_Fas est et ab Hoste_," and the verses on the inadequacy

of our military training, rubbed in the lessons of the war with more

point than consideration. The sequel of Majuba humiliated the majority

of Englishmen: and the policy of compromise and concession failed to

achieve a lasting settlement.

Lord Beaconsfield died in the spring, but _Punch_, though respectful

and appreciative, added little in his memorial tribute to what he had

said on many previous occasions in the way of criticism and eulogy. The

insecurity of Russian rule had a year previously been recognized in a

cartoon representing Nihilism lighting a torch in a cavern beneath the

throne. The assassination of the Tsar Alexander II prompts an appeal

to the "Northern Terror." Ordered Liberty must disown such fiendish

methods. _Punch_, no lover of autocracy, admits that the Tsar was

"the gentlest of his line," and implores the Russians to put manhood

in their wrath, and "not foul the work they call divine with demon

ruthlessness," an appeal that still remains unanswered. This was the

year in which another, but an uncrowned Head, was laid low in President

Garfield, and the loss of the United States is recognized as a common

sorrow.

[Illustration: THE SCHOOL OF MUSKETRY

BOER (to F.-M. H.R.H. the Commander-in-Chief): "I say, Dook!

You don't happen to want a practical 'musketry instructor', do you?"]

In Home politics no one is more frequently or unflatteringly referred

to than Lord Randolph Churchill. Sambourne's "Fancy Portrait"

represents him as a midge: in verse, bitter and derisive, he is dubbed

"the coming mannikin." On the other hand, Mr. Balfour is welcomed as an

accession of strength to his party, and his wit is commended as being

no less pretty than his uncle's, though less explosive in its flashing

forth. To this year also belongs the reaction of "Fair" against "Free"

Trade; and the adoption of the new cry by Lord Randolph and Mr. James

Lowther, amongst others, is alluded to in a parody of a once popular

drawing-room song, "O Fair Dove, O Fond Dove." But these amenities

and trivialities were soon forgotten. In May, 1882, came the terrible

tragedy of the Phoenix Park murders--the first deliberate political

assassinations that had stained our history for centuries--and if

_Punch's_ references in prose and verse seem perfunctory and laboured,

it may be pleaded in the words of the classic aphorism: "small cares

are vocal, mighty woes are dumb." Better justice was rendered to the

event in the cartoon of the "Irish Frankenstein" in which Parnell

crouches horrified before the monster of his own creation. _Punch_ did

not, however, despair of conciliation, and a fortnight later supported

the Arrears of Rent Bill as "a gift badly wanted," though his support

was tempered by the observation that "Ireland is to have a clean slate,

and, as usual, at the expense chiefly of the British taxpayer. That

patient Jackass is to be saddled with another burden."

In the latter half of 1882 Ireland gave place to Egypt as a

storm-centre. Arabi's revolt, which involved us in another of our small

wars, was speedily suppressed, after Alexandria had been bombarded by

Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, and the rebel forces on land had been

routed at Tel-el-Kebir by Sir Garnet Wolseley, "our only General," as

he was then called. _Punch_ celebrated his success and his peerage

in an "Idyll of the Queen," beginning, "Garnet the brave, Garnet the

fortunate." But he also recognized the strained relations with France

which the campaign brought about, and uncompromisingly maintained our

position in his cartoon, "The Lion's Just Share." Here the claims of

all the other Powers are made ridiculous in comparison with those of

Britain, France figuring as a poodle, Turkey as a fox, Spain as a

mule, and Italy as a toy greyhound. It is not a conciliatory picture;

_Punch_ was on safer ground in emphasizing the intrigues of Abdul Hamid

and the unpatriotic sympathies of Mr. Wilfrid Blunt.

[Sidenote: _Parnell and his Monster_]

[Illustration: THE IRISH FRANKENSTEIN

"The baneful and blood-stained Monster ... yet was it not my Master to

the very extent that it was my Creature?... Had I not breathed into it

my spirit?" ... (_Extract from the Works of C. S. P-rn-ll, M.P._)]

Ireland resumed the first place as a preoccupying factor in British

politics in 1883, when the capture of Monaghan by the Parnellites

inspired _Punch_ to depict him as cutting a bit off a coat labelled

Ulster. Another cartoon, "Crowning the O'Caliban," prompted by the

Irish leader's talk of the "moderation" of the Land League, shows him

crowning a hideous figure, sitting on a barrel labelled Anarchy,

Rebellion and Murder, and receiving from him a bag containing

£40,000--in reference to the "Parnell Tribute" presented to the Irish

leader in that year.

Lord Randolph is easily the chief butt of the year. He is the

"bumptious boy," the 'Arry of the hunting field, disregarding the

old whip, Stafford Northcote. Yet amid all this derision there is an

uneasy consciousness that this aggressive and ill-mannered young man

may yet "arrive." In another cartoon Lord Randolph is drawn as a small

boy looking at Lord Beaconsfield's statue and saying, "Ah! They'll

have to give _me_ a statue--some day." The twenty-fifth anniversary

of John Bright's election for Birmingham, which fell in June, 1883,

is treated in a very different spirit. _Punch_ disagreed with Bright

over the Egyptian war, but strikes no jarring note in the verses on his

political silver wedding:--

Mellower voice has never rung

Round the lists of Party fray:

Sharper scorn has seldom stung.

Yet your Silver Wedding Day

Wakes good wishes near and far

E'en from fighters who have gone

Dead against you in the war.

Here's a health to you, Friend John.

That "annual blister, Marriage with deceased Wife's sister," as Gilbert

called it, found _Punch_ still faithful to the cause of relief, and

exceedingly and impartially wroth against clerical obstructors,

Anglican or Roman Catholic, to the extent of depicting Cardinal Manning

and Archbishop Benson in the guise of old women. Where the Liquor

Laws were concerned, however, _Punch_ was frankly reactionary. In a

"Look into Limbo" in July, 1883, he forecasts a general revolt against

crotcheteers and faddists, his pet aversion being Local Option, which

he defines as "a scheme for giving the six, who love spouting, supreme

control over the liberty of the sixty or six hundred who dislike noise,

and so hold their tongues until, in self-defence, they are compelled to

use them."

[Sidenote: _German Militarism_]

Foreign politics do not obtrude themselves much on _Punch's_ vision

during the Gladstonian administration. But he was alive to the menace

of militarism contained in a characteristic speech by Marshal von

Manteuffel, the sentiment of which curiously resembles some of the

utterances of the ex-Crown Prince William:--

THE PSALM OF DEATH

"Gentlemen, I am a soldier, and war is the soldier's element; and well

I should like again to experience the elevated feeling of commanding

in a pitched battle, knowing that the balls of the enemy are every

instant summoning men before the judgment seat of God."--Marshal von

Manteuffel to the Provincial Committee of Alsace-Lorraine.

What the heart of the young Teuton said to the old Marshal is summed up

as follows:--

Tell me not in mournful numbers

Death is shocking. Not at all!

Death clears off the scum that cumbers

This o'er-populated ball.

Death is stirring, Death is splendid,

(Death of other men, not mine)

And its spreading is attended

By a feeling great--divine.

* * * * *

Let us then be up and fighting

(_A la_ Marshal von Manteuffel)

Set the Mob to mutual smiting,

While _we_ sing Death's O be joyful!

Gambetta's brief and stormy career had closed at the beginning of

the year, and _Punch_ acknowledged the debt which France owed to his

passionate patriotism and "wild strength" in a cartoon showing the

Republic leaning sadly against his memorial bust while Bismarck, with

arms folded, stands in the background.

_Punch_ had for some twenty years been, on the whole, a consistent

supporter of Mr. Gladstone, but his loyalty was more severely tested in

the years 1884 and 1885 than at any other time in the Liberal leader's

career. Indeed, there were moments when it might be said to have broken

down, and respect gave place to something like contempt. This mood

was revealed in the very first of the Gordon cartoons early in 1884.

Gordon is seen ploughing along through Egyptian difficulties with

Gladstone, "The Grand Old Man of the (Red) Sea," complacently smirking

on his back. In February _Punch_ demands instant action. An angry John

Bull bids Gladstone unmuzzle the British Lion _at once_, and _Punch_

comments severely on the Premier's word-jugglery and sophistry. Later

on we see Gladstone in the desert "after the Simoom," leading a camel.

"Mirage" shows Gordon looking anxiously for relief from the battlements

of Khartoum. A burlesque correspondence between a British Hero and

the British Government pours satire on the cheap sympathy and lax

opportunism of the Government, who are only concerned with saving their

skin and their faces. The Premier's preoccupation with trivial home

legislation comes in for indignant rebuke, and the Trelawny quatrain

is adapted for the benefit of Gordon. The two cartoons in May are

especially bitter. Mr. Gladstone, on the Treasury Bench, as Micawber,

declares, "I am delighted to add that I have now an immediate prospect

of something turning up. I am not at liberty to say in what direction."

A fortnight later the Liberal Majority (or Mrs. Micawber) protests she

will never desert Mr. Micawber--referring to the result of the Vote of

Censure.

_Punch_, however, had no intention of crossing the floor of the

House. The Conservative opposition to the Franchise Bill rekindled

his Liberalism. Lord Salisbury's attitude in particular excited his

hostility. He figures in verse as "The Losing Leader" (after Browning),

and in a cartoon as the bell-wether followed into the pit by a flock of

coroneted sheep. It was "no Curtius leap, but mutton madness," and the

hotheads are compared to the Gadarene swine. _Punch_ heaped laboured

ridicule on the great Hyde Park Demonstration, printed burlesque

advertisements suggesting employment for peers after the abolition of

the House of Lords, and indulged in prophetic forecasts of "What it may

come to."

[Sidenote: _The Franchise Bill_]

[Illustration: "BILL" THE GIANT-KILLER]

The Opposition suffered from the defection or lukewarmness of some of

the wiser peers--Cranbrook, Cairns and Wemyss--and finally withdrew

on the unofficial but opportune publication in the _Standard_ of the

outline of the Government's Redistribution Scheme. _Punch_ gives his

own account of the incident, according to which the whole Cabinet

was mesmerized into revealing the Government plans, and summed up

the whole business in his cartoon, "'Bill' the Giant-killer." The

little Franchise Bill is seen blowing his horn before a castle (the

House of Lords) with Lord Salisbury, as a huge Ogre, looking over the

battlements and dismayed to find that his castle is not impregnable

against Truth. In this context we may note that the payment of members

was foreseen by _Punch_ in a burlesque "Thumb-nail Summary for 1884,"

printed in the first issue of that year. Under July we read:--

Newly elected Parliament meets for the first time, and commences a

campaign of active legislative reform by abolishing the Speaker.

The "Payment of Members Bill," involving a State income of £2,000

a year, the right to a stall at West End Theatres on first nights,

family railway tourist-tickets during the summer season, and free

dining for self and friend at the Holborn Restaurant while Parliament

is in Session, carried without a division.

The "Payment of Members Bill," being thrown out by the Peers, the

House of Lords is abolished by a short comprehensive Act, framed for

the purpose, in one sitting.

Much aristocratic distress prevails towards the end of the month,

and gangs of hungry Peers infesting the public thoroughfares are

prosecuted daily by the Secretary of the Charity Organisation Society,

and ultimately shipped to a Coral Island in the Pacific.

Mr. Gladstone's seventy-fifth birthday on December 29, 1884, was

welcomed in a set of verses in which the eulogy is only tempered by a

faint reserve as to his lack of youthful resolution and his excess of

caution. Had the anniversary fallen a few weeks later, _Punch_ might

have found it harder to pay such generous homage, for on February

7 appeared the unlucky cartoon which assumed that Gordon had been

relieved. Yet even then, when the truth became known and while raising

the cry of "Too late," _Punch_, though condemning delay and caution,

deprecated party rancour:--

Not this the hour to echo faction's cry

Of half-exultant chiding, or to ply

The Party-phraser's venomed word-lash. No!

But laggard wills, counsels confused and slow

Should need no sharper spur, no keener goad

Than this to urge them on plain Honour's road.

[Sidenote: _The Tragedy of Khartoum_]

_Punch's_ contribution to the Gordon "Memorial" was an ode from which

we may quote one stanza:--

Gordon! A name to gild our island story,

Opulent yet in many a noble name,

With lustre brighter than mere statecraft's fame,

More radiant than the warrior's glittering glory.

Such lesser lights eclipse them in the fine

Sun-glow of selfless valour such as thine,

Soldier whose sword, like Galahad's, was not used

To hew out honour, but to champion right;

Plan-shaper who, in council as in fight,

Wast endlessly resourceful, yet refused,

Death-snared, an easy flight!

[Illustration: "MY BOYS!"]

Other pens were busy over this episode, which inspired perhaps the most

scarifying epigram of our times:--

Judas despairing died, his guilt confessed,

But had he lived in this our age and city,

He surely would have figured with the best

Upon a Christ Memorial Committee.

The disaster, however, had one heartening result in the offer of

military assistance from Canada, Victoria and New South Wales, duly

recorded by _Punch_ in his cartoon of the Lion and the Colonial

cubs. The year 1885 had opened with a sinister display of activity by

dynamiters, and _Punch_ rebuked Sir William Harcourt for his alleged

apathy and imperious resentment of criticism by calling him the

"Not-at-Home Secretary." America promptly took legislative action,

refusing sanctuary to dynamiters, and was loudly applauded, while

Mr. Parnell, in _Punch's_ opinion, missed a golden opportunity for

disavowing and condemning these outrages. In "What Mr. Parnell _might_

have said" _Punch_ printed the speech which he did _not_ make but ought

to have made, "as a man, an Irishman and a Christian."

[Illustration: THE POLITICAL "MRS. GUMMIDGE"

MRS. GUMMIDGE-GLADSTONE: "I ain't what I could wish myself to

be. My troubles has made me contrairy. I feel my troubles, and they

make me contrairy. I make the house uncomfortable. I don't wonder at

it!!!"

JOHN PEGGOTTY-BULL (_deeply sympathizing aside_): "She's been

thinking of the old 'un!"--_David Copperfield._]

The days of the Gladstone administration were numbered, and the motion

in favour of Proportional Representation excited but a languid and

academic interest. _Punch_ thought the system far too complicated,

and sought to reduce it to absurdity by a practical illustration. He

was much more serious in his resentment at the hectoring attitude of

Bismarck _à propos_ of a recent speech of the Imperial Chancellor. In

"Lecturing a Lecturer--a Friendly Tip to the Teuton Titan," he showed

Bismarck standing in a truculent pose before a map of Europe while

_Punch_ looks on in amusement. The point of the accompanying verses is

that Britain was not to be scared or scolded into submission:--

Orbilian Colossus,

You'd chide us and spank us and goad us and toss us,

But when Polyphemus world-wigging would try

He may--pardon the _argot_--get "one in the eye."

And _Punch_, Herr Professor, whose point seldom misses,

Is ready if needful to play the Ulysses.

The attempt to represent Bismarck as a professor might not seem to show

a very acute reading of the facts were it not that German professors

proved the chief inflamers of militarism. It must be added that, as a

set off to this expostulation, _Punch_ indited a remarkably genial poem

to Bismarck a couple of weeks later on the occasion of his seventieth

birthday. But this can hardly have atoned for the extremely acid and

acute satire on the Spirit of German Colonization published about the

same time. Here Germania declares her intentions to the native races

in language which the treatment of the Herreros in German South-West

Africa proved to be well within the mark:--

I haf brought you German culture for the poddy and the mind,

Die erhabene Kultur of efery sort and efery kind;

All the pessimistic dogtrines of the Schopenhauer school

And the blessings of a bureaucratish-military rule.

I shall teach you shplendit knowledge, vot you hitherto haf lacked,

That religion is a fantasy, vhilst sausage is a fact;

Ja, the mysteries of sauerkraut to you shall be made clear,

And your souls shall learn to float on foaming waves of Lager-Bier!

I do not intend to long-while you mit missionary rant,

But to brighten up your intellects mit Hegel and mit Kant.

Mit our Army-Service system I'll begift you by-and-by,

And mit all the priceless blessings of our Hohe Polizei.

Ach! I lofes you as a moder, and your happiness, I shwear,

Shall forefer be the von surpassing object of my care.

_I'll_ civilize you, Kinder, mid dem edlen Gerstenbrei,

And mit discipline, Potztausend!--or I'll know the reason vhy!

And then die hehre Göttin, hof'ring in the aether blue,

Vill summon up her gunboats and her Pickelhauben too,

Her bearded brawny varriors, vot nefer knew no fear,

And troops of learned bureaucrats, all buttoned-up to here.

Then if the shtupit natifes don't attend to vot she said,

And makes themselves unpleasant, they must all be shooted dead;

For trifles in the vay of German culture must not shtand--

Hoch soll der Bismarck leben! I drinks, "Our Fatherland!"

[Sidenote: _Lord Randolph Churchill_]

When the Government was defeated in June "on the Budget Stakes," as

_Punch_ put it, he went so far as to accuse Gladstone of "riding to

lose," and resented this action as not quite on the square. A month

earlier he had shown Gladstone as the political Mrs. Gummidge, the

"Old 'un" being Disraeli, whose portrait hangs on the wall. There

was a rumour of Mr. Gladstone going to the Lords, and _Punch_ had

a picture of Tennyson, in his robes in the "gay garden of elegant

earls," inviting W. E. G. to "come into the garden," but Mr. Gladstone

declines, preferring to paddle his own canoe. Lord Randolph was

included in the Salisbury administration, which held office for six

months, as Secretary of State for India, but his elevation to Cabinet

rank did not appease _Punch's_ distrust--rather the reverse. He was

not really an undersized man, but he invariably appears in _Punch_

about this time as a boy, a mannikin or some diminutive pest, while

the vehemence of his language is resented in bitter criticism of his

"mud-spattering" abuse, vulgar invective, and "Billingsgate Babel."

In particular a speech which he delivered at a Conservative gathering

at Canford Manor, Wimborne, excited _Punch's_ wrath, and prompted

the picture of "Funny Little Randolph," as a "star comique" singing

a topical song, "I don't care a rap," and exulting in his grimaces

and bad manners. In the previous year _Punch_ had fallen foul of the

"windy ravings of Loyalist Speakers" in Ireland, "the Loyalist Cæsar,

and the Nationalist Pompey seem 'very much alike' indeed--in the

matter of noisy mischief.... One feels that the Orange Champions would

not hate 'disloyalty' so much did they not hate their 'Green' fellow

countrymen more."

[Illustration: SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE

DICK: "I've chose my Three Acres--next to the Parson's. I mean

to dig and grow 'Taters. Where 'ave you chose yours?"

HARRY: "I ain't chose no Land. I shan't grow no 'Taters. I

shall take _your_ 'Taters!"]

Yet in the autumn of 1885, when Lord Carnarvon was Viceroy, _Punch_

developed a strong distrust of the conciliatory policy of the

Conservatives. In one cartoon he shows Captain Moonlight masked

and armed at an open door, the bar of the Crimes Act having been

removed. In October he wrote, "when Tyranny alone is free where is the

safety--save for slaves." In another cartoon he showed the National

League as the Irish Vampire, hovering over Hibernia in her uneasy

sleep, and bade her awake and banish the hideous monster that was

sapping her strength. _Mr. Punch's_ "Political Address," issued shortly

before the resignation of the Salisbury Cabinet, claimed that he was

the only real Independent Candidate, the nominee of no party, section,

or sect; bound to no programme, but "all for the four P's--Principle,

Progress, Patriotism and Peace"--in fine, "whichever Party he returned

to office, _Mr. Punch_, the non-partisan Member for Everywhere, will be

in power." The new cry of "Three Acres and a Cow" raised at the close

of 1885 left him cold, witness Du Maurier's "Sauce for the Goose."

The verses in the same number on "New Words and Old Songs" imply that

it was a mere vote-catching device, and at the same time mock at the

cadging tactics of the Knights and Dames of the Primrose League founded

in 1884.

[Sidenote: _Home Rule Rejected_]

On the resignation of the Salisbury Cabinet, Mr. Gladstone returned

to power with Mr. Morley as Chief Secretary for Ireland. The story of

his conversion to Home Rule, his failure to convert his colleagues,

the split in the Cabinet and the introduction and rejection of the

Home Rule Bill of 1886 is well told in the series of cartoons which

begin with "At the Cross Roads" in February. There Gladstone is shown

hesitating between Land Purchase and Home Rule, while Chamberlain as

the cowboy advises the former. In "The Thanes fly from me" we see

Gladstone as Macbeth asking Morley (Seyton) to give him his armour:

"This push will cheer me ever or disseat me now." The Home Rule Bill

is typified as the "Divided Skirt." Gladstone as the Grand Old Man

Milliner is trying in vain to reconcile Britannia to her new dress. The

sequel is shown in the "Actæon" cartoon in which Gladstone is pulled

down by his own hounds--Chamberlain, Hartington, Goschen--and in the

adaptation of Meissonier's "Retreat from Moscow," where Gladstone

figures as the defeated Napoleon. It is rather curious, by the way, to

note that during the debates _Punch_, in his "Essence of Parliament,"

describes Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Mr. Labouchere as the "two

drolls of the House" at Question time.

[Illustration: THE "DIVIDED SKIRT"

GRAND OLD MAN-MILLINER (_persuasively_): "Fits beautifully,

Madam! A little alteration here and there!"

MRS. BRITANNIA: "It's very uncomfortable, and I'm sure it

isn't becoming. I shall never get along with it as it is!!"]

On the merits of Home Rule _Punch_ is rather non-committal, and speaks

with more than one voice. The secession of the Liberal Unionists

impressed him greatly; but he was bitterly antagonistic to the Ulster

extremists, witness this epigram printed in May:--

_Lucus a non Lucendo_

Loyal? Nay, Ulster, you, for very shame

Should cede your long monopoly of that name.

Loyal--to whom--to what? To power, to pelf,

To place, to privilege, in a word, to _self_.

They who assume, absorb, control, enjoy all,

Must find it vastly pleasant to be "loyal."

Lord Randolph Churchill's famous jingle: "Ulster will fight. Ulster

will be right," inspired a prophetic forecast of the result of such

action, in which Ulster does fight and is defeated:--

The battle had been severe, but it was over at last. Belfast was

taken. Derry was in ruins. Everywhere the Orange faction had been

outnumbered and worsted. The reverse was crushing and complete. "We

shall now," said the General commanding the National forces, "be

suffered, perhaps, to hold our Parliament on College Green in peace."

He turned to a batch of captured officers as he spoke. They were a

motley crew. Among them figured several wearing the Queen's uniform,

while here and there stood some distinguished sympathizer with the

beaten cause, who had thrown in his lot to support rebellion against

Queen and Empire. Among these latter a scion of a Ducal House and

former well-known Member of the House of Commons, was weeping over

a broken drumhead. The General singled him out, and beckoned him

to approach. He drew near, surlily: "Well, my Lord," continued the

Commander, in a tone of banter. "How about your prophecy? Ulster will

fight. Ulster will be right. Ulster has fought. Ha! Ha!"

"And she has been wrong!" was the submissive and humble reply.

[Sidenote: _Lord Randolph at the Tresury_]

This squib was written before the rejection of the Home Rule Bill, a

result which _Punch_, or the writer, probably did not anticipate. The

accuracy of the forecast, however, remains still to be tested.

The Elections went against the Government, and Lord Salisbury was

returned to power, with Lord Randolph as Chancellor of the Exchequer

and Leader of the House of Commons. The verses which accompany and

expand the cartoon of "The Grand Young Man" with the shade of Dizzy

looking on, almost deviate into geniality. _Punch_ fancies that

Randolph, in spite of his defects of taste and manners, is "more

than a mere mime," but, in contrasting his career with that of Lord

Beaconsfield, points out that he was born in the purple and that his

rise to power was easier and quicker. This comparatively friendly mood

soon gave way to the old distrust, and by October, in "Swag, or the

political Jack Sheppard," we see Lord Randolph, anxious to eclipse

Dizzy as a Tory Turpin and "disher" of the Whigs, rifling a chest

labelled "Liberal Measures," while Mr. Gladstone peers into the room at

the back. _Punch's_ distrust was partly justified by Lord Randolph's

impetuous resignation in December. What might have been a great career

was wrecked by an impatient temper. Immense ability, industry, courage

and reforming zeal were there, and it was hardly fair to represent him

as a modern Curtius leaping into the pit of Popularity. The Treasury

was not the only Government Office in which reform was thwarted by

obstruction and mismanagement. _Punch_ attacked the War Office in the

autumn of 1886 for setting its face "not merely against change, but

against experiments pointing to change," and scouting all inventors as

nuisances. He simultaneously proposed the foundation of an official

organ of the Admiralty to be called "Dowb," the burlesque prospectus

of which obliquely satirizes the abuse of perquisites, bad stores,

muddled finance, futile commissions of inquiry and general incompetence

in high places. Home politics engrossed attention throughout the year,

but _Punch_ did not fail to note the gathering clouds in the Balkans,

when Prince Alexander of Battenberg, the hero of Slivnitza, a gallant

and picturesque figure, had abdicated the throne of Bulgaria, Russian

jealousy having rendered his position untenable. In the cartoon of

"The Vanishing Lady," the Tsar is shown as a juggler using the cloak

of diplomacy to extinguish the freedom of the country he had helped to

emancipate. The same year which witnessed the disappearance from the

political scene of Prince Alexander was marked by the birth of Alfonso

XIII of Spain, and _Punch_ offered his ceremonial greeting to one of

the few sovereigns who survived the monarchical _débâcle_ of the Great

War of 1914.

The Victorian age reached its grand climacteric in 1887, the year of

the Queen's Golden Jubilee and the gathering of the Kings and Captains.

Of the celebrations we speak elsewhere. _Punch_, no longer anti-Papist,

linked them with those at the Vatican--in honour of Leo XIII, who had

been ordained priest in 1837--in his lines on "Two Jubilees":--

St. Peter's and St. James's face to face

Exchanging with a more than courtly grace

Their mutual gifts and greetings!

A sight to stir the bigot; but the wise

Regard with cheerful and complacent eyes

This pleasantest of meetings.

And so on with praise of the Good Queen and Holy Father, _Punch_, as a

"true freeman unfettered by servile fear or hate's poor purblind heat,"

being free to celebrate them both.

It was also the Centenary year of the United States, welcomed by

_Punch_ in John Bull's song on Miss Columbia's Hundredth birthday to

the air of "I'm getting a big boy now." Mr. Gladstone was invited to

the celebrations but did not cross the Atlantic. John Bull abounds

in professions of good-will, but there is a slight sting in the last

chorus:--

You are getting a great girl now,

May you prosper, and keep out of row;

Shun Bunkum and bawl

All that's shoddy and small,

For you're getting a _great_ girl now.

[Illustration: THE CHALLENGE]

The Salisbury Cabinet was strengthened by the inclusion of Mr. Goschen

as Chancellor of the Exchequer--Mr. Goschen whom Lord Randolph

"forgot," and whom _Punch_ styled the "Emergency man," a phrase now

also forgotten, but then applied to the volunteers who assisted

boycotted farmers and loyalists in Ireland. Mr. Balfour was at the

Irish Office, the scene of his greatest administrative successes,

and the Crimes Act and the Land Act were the two principal measures

of the Session. In those days _The Times_ was the great champion of

the Unionist policy, and in the summer of 1887 is shown prodding on

Lord Salisbury and Mr. Balfour, armed with Crimes Act blunderbusses,

in their attack on the Land League wild boar. The Land League was

"proclaimed" in August; and already the controversy had begun between

Mr. Parnell and _The Times_ over the former's alleged participation

in the responsibility for the Phoenix Park murders. The question was

raised in a series of articles on "Parnellism and Crime"; but the

charges were not made specific until the following year. John Bright's

secession from the Gladstonian Liberals had been a serious blow, and

his contributions to the Unionist armoury were so vigorous and pointed,

that it is rather strange to find _Punch_ assailing him in March, 1887,

for his pacificist tendencies:--

The white flag, John, _may_ bid all battle cease,

Not the white feather! In defence of right,

Despite your dogmas, men perforce must fight

With swords as well as words: be it their care

With either, to heed honour, and fight fair.

You would "speak daggers" only; be it so;

But a word-stab may be a felon blow.

John Bright certainly spoke daggers against those who, in his own

phrase, kept the rebellion pot always on the boil.

[Sidenote: _Germany's Momentous Year_]

The Earl of Iddesleigh, better known as Sir Stafford Northcote, died

in January. There is an unmistakable reference to Lord Randolph

Churchill's treatment of his one-time leader in the verses in which

_Punch_ paid homage to a statesman "worn yet selfless, disparaged and

dispraised," yet a "pattern of proud but gentle chivalry":--

So the arena's coarser heroes mocked

This antique fighter. And his place was rather

Where Arthur's knights in generous tourney shocked

Than where swashbucklers meet or histrions gather:

Yet--yet his death has touched the land with gloom;

All England honours Chivalry--at his tomb.

Here the reference to Lord Randolph is inferential though unmistakable.

But an opportunity for having a dig at him is never missed. When the

Bulgarian throne was offered to Prince Ferdinand, and his cautious and

diplomatic tactics resulted in long delays, _Punch_ in pure malice

suggested that the crown should be offered to Lord Randolph. He may be

forgiven, however, in view of the remarkably accurate estimate which

he formed of the slyness, timidity and meanness of "Ferdinand the

Fox," and the alternations of servility and insolence in his attitude

towards Russia. Bismarck again comes in for honorific notice this year

in the guise of Sintram, accompanied and menaced by Socialism (the

Little Master), but confidently riding along on his steed Majority. But

1888 was a momentous year for Germany--the year in which two Kaisers

died and a third succeeded to the heritage of the Hohenzollerns. The

old Emperor Wilhelm, the "_Greise Kaiser_," died on March 9; within a

hundred days his son, the "_Weise Kaiser_," had fallen to the fatal

malady which had sapped his splendid physique, to be succeeded in turn

by the "_Reise Kaiser_," the nickname bestowed on Wilhelm II for his

passion for movement and travel. At the moment of his accession _Punch_

was not inclined to be critical. The cartoon of "The Vigil" in June of

that year expresses no misgivings, but only sympathy for one called

to bear so heavy a burden. And this view is amplified in the verses

in which the lessons of the past are used to fortify the hopes of the

future:--

THE VIGIL

"Verse-moi dans le coeur, du fond de ce tombeau

Quelque chose de grand, de sublime et de beau!"

_Hernani_, Act iv, Scene 2.

The prayer of Charles, that rose amidst the gloom

Of the dead Charlemagne's majestic tomb,

Might fitly find an echo on the lips

Of the young Prince, whose pathway death's eclipse

Hath twice enshadowed in so brief a space.

Grandsire and Sire! Stout slip of a strong race,

Valiant old age and vigorous manhood fail,

And leave youth, high with hope, with anguish pale,

In vigil at their tomb! Watch on, and kneel,

Those clenched hands crossed upon the sheathèd steel.

Not lightly such inheritance should fall.

Hear you not through the gloom the glorious call

Of Valour, Duty, Freedom?

... And youth must face

What snowy age and stalwart manhood found

A weight of sorrow, though with splendour crowned.

Young Hohenzollern, soldierly of soul,

Heaven fix your heart on a yet nobler goal

Than sword may hew its way to. Those you mourn

Heroes of the Great War when France was torn

With Teuton shot, knew that the sword alone

May rear, but shall not long support a throne.

William has passed, bowing his silver crest,

Like an old Sea King going to his rest;

Frederick, in fullest prime, with failing breath,

But an heroic heart, has stooped to death:

Here, at their tomb, another Emperor keeps

His vigil, whilst Germania bows and weeps.

Heaven hold that sword unsheathed in that young hand,

And crown with power and peace the Fatherland!

Only a fortnight before the death of the old Emperor, Bismarck's Army

Bill had awakened _Punch's_ misgivings. He reluctantly admired the

strength of the lion combined with the shrewdness of the fox; and put

into Bismarck's mouth the sonorous couplet:--

I speak of Peace, while covert enmity

Under the smile of safety wounds the world.

[Illustration: A WISE WARNING

(_Founded on the first part of an old Fable of Dædalus and Icarus, the

Sequel of which Mr. Punch trusts may never apply._)]

But by September it was the young Kaiser, not Bismarck, who invited

"A Word in Season." The counsel was prompted by a speech in which he

declared, "It is the pride of the Hohenzollerns to reign at once over

the noblest, the most intellectual and most cultured of nations," a

sentiment mild when compared with later utterances, yet sufficiently

thrasonic to earn a rebuke for indulging in demagogic flattery,

coupled with the advice to read Lord Wolseley's article in the

_Fortnightly_ on Marlborough, Wellington and Napoleon, and to emulate

the reticence of Moltke. In less than a month the inevitable cleavage

between the Kaiser and his Chancellor is foreshadowed in the splendid

cartoon reproduced, where Bismarck as Dædalus warns Wilhelm as Icarus,

in a paraphrase of Ovid:--

My son, observe the middle path to fly,

And fear to sink too low, or rise too high.

Here the sun melts, there vapours damp your force,

Between the two extremes direct your course.

Nor on the Bear, nor on Boötes gaze,

Nor on sword-arm'd Orion's dangerous rays;

But follow me, thy guide, with watchful sight,

And as I steer, direct thy cautious flight.

_Metamorphoses_, Book VIII, Fable iii.

For the establishment of the Triple Alliance _Punch_ held Bismarck

responsible. The three high contracting Powers become the "Sisters

Three," Italy as Atropos, Austria as Lachesis, and Germany as Clotho.

The policy is expounded in "a Bismarckian version of an old classical

myth." Bismarck claims to be working for peace so long as he is the

cloud compeller. While he is in power it will be all well with Germany.

Of Austria he is less certain, owing to the precariousness of her

crown, but he counts confidently on Italy, and ends on an optimistic

note, dwelling on the pacific aims of this new political pact. It is

hard to tell whether this is irony on the part of _Punch_ or a genuine

approval of the Triple Alliance. But there is no doubt of his mistrust

of Germany's ulterior motives in undertaking to co-operate with England

in suppressing the Slave Trade in Africa--a mistrust expressed in the

quatrain:--

When Fox with Lion hunts,

One would be sorry

To say who gains, until

They've shared the quarry.

[Sidenote: _Boulanger's Bid for Dictatorship_]

The sequel justified the suspicion, and less than a year later _Punch_

published a companion cartoon in which the Lion, coming round the

corner, finds the Fox has pulled down the notice "Down with Slavery"

and is about to put up a Proclamation in which "Up" takes the place of

"Down."

Bismarck's hostility to the Empress Frederick was notorious. In her

husband's brief reign there was a question of their daughter, Princess

Victoria, marrying Prince Alexander, ex-sovereign of Bulgaria. _Punch_

represented Bismarck forbidding the banns, and putting an extinguisher

labelled "Policy" on Cupid. It was stated that Bismarck threatened

to resign if the marriage plan were proceeded with; _Punch_, the

sentimentalist, believed that love would find out a way, and it did,

but in a different direction. The Prince married, but the lady was not

of royal or even noble birth, and as Count Hartenau he remained in

obscurity and died while still a young man.

France also had her troubles in 1888, for this was the year of

Boulanger, the _brav' Général_, who captivated the mob for a while,

seemed at one moment to be within an ace of overthrowing the Republic

and establishing a stratocracy, but collapsed ignobly in the testing

hour. _Punch_ recognized the danger in his cartoon of France ruefully

balancing the Cap of Liberty on her finger. But even in _L'Audace_,

where Boulanger is shown climbing up a steep cliff, with "Deputy" at

the bottom, "President" and "Dictator" at the top, and the Imperial

Eagle peering over the summit--we are made to feel that the climber is

not equal to the task. The conditions are exactly reproduced in the

companion picture, "Many a Slip," only that Boulanger is shown rolling

down the precipice.

New South Wales celebrated her Centenary on January 26, 1888, and

_Punch_ added his tribute in a happily-worded greeting under the

familiar heading, "Advance, Australia!":--

A hundred years! At Time's old pace

The merest day's march, little changing;

But now the measure's new, the race

Fares even faster, forward ranging.

What cycle of Cathay e'er saw

Your Century's wondrous transformation?

From wandering waifs to wards of Law!

From nomads to a mighty nation!

Belated dreamers moan and wail;

What scenes for croakers of that kidney,

Since first the _Sirius_ furled her sail

Where now is Sydney!

A hundred years! Let Fancy fly--

She has a flight that nothing hinders,

Not e'en reaction's raven cry--

Back to the days of Matthew Flinders,

Stout slip of Anglo-Saxon stock

Who gave the new-found land its nomen.

Faith, memory-fired, may proudly mock

At dismal doubt, at owlish omen.

Five sister-colonies spread now

Where then the wandering black-fellow

Alone enjoyed day's golden glow,

Night's moonlight mellow.

"The Island-Continent! Hooray!"

Punch drinks your health in honest liquor

On this your great Centennial day,

Whose advent makes his blood flow quicker.

We know what you can do, dear boys

In City-founding--and in Cricket.

A fig for flattery!--it cloys;

Frank truth, true friendship--that's the ticket!

Land of rare climate, stalwart men,

And pretty girls, and queer mammalia,

All England cries, through _Punch's_ pen,

"Advance, Australia!"

The same year witnessed the starting of the Australian navy. "Naturally

the biggest island in the world has the biggest coast-line, and so

needs the biggest fleet." The lead was taken by Victoria. _Punch_ saw

nothing but healthy rivalry between the different colonies as the

outcome of the movement, but looked to Federation as the true means

to prevent the different Australian Colonies from being at "Southern

Cross-purposes" when they all had their navies. The trouble in the

Soudan prompts a warning from the Shade of Gordon: "If you mean to send

help, do it thoroughly and _do it at once_," but anxiety was allayed by

the success of General Grenfell at Suakin, an example of prompt action

worthy of the attention of "long-halting statesmen."

[Sidenote: _Parnell and "The Times"_]

The most important measure of the Session at Westminster was the Local

Government Bill establishing County Councils. _Punch_ made considerable

capital out of Mr. Chamberlain's _rapprochement_ to the Tory interests.

At a meeting of the National Society, Archbishop Benson had referred

amid cheers to the words of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain at the opening of

a School Board in Birmingham, and his acknowledgment of the fact that

Voluntary Schools must have their place in the education of the people

recognized. Mr. Chamberlain's views on the Liquor question had shown

a similar concession to the demands of the brewing trade. So _Punch_

represents the "Artful Joe" walking arm-in-arm with the Archbishop

and "Bung," and observing, "What a lot of nice friends I'm making."

Mr. Chamberlain is already acknowledged to be "incomparably the best

debater in the House"; _Punch_ rendered full justice to his ability,

but his chief cartoonist, Tenniel, though still capable of splendid

work, never managed to seize and reproduce the alert vivacity of Mr.

Chamberlain's features. The progress of the controversy between Mr.

Parnell and _The Times_ impelled _Punch_ as an _amicus curiæ_ to

suggest that one or other of the disputants should wake up the Public

Prosecutor in preference to the appointment of a Special Commission.

The latter method of procedure, however, was adopted. The course of

the inquiry was followed by _Punch_ in a series of articles, and when

Parnell was exculpated on the chief count by the breakdown of _The

Times_ witness Pigott, who confessed to forgery, fled the country and

committed suicide, _Punch_ exhibited the Clock-face doing penance in

a white sheet with the lines, "His honour rooted in dishonour stood,

etc." But when the Report of the Commission was finally published,

_Punch_ found it a veritable chameleon, which disappointed both sides,

because most of those interested wore party-coloured spectacles or else

were colour-blind.

England was visited in 1889 by two of the most perturbing personalities

in European politics, the Kaiser Wilhelm II and General Boulanger.

_Punch_, however, resolutely and, as it turned out, rightly refused to

take the _brav' Général_ seriously, though he found in him plenty of

food for disparaging satire as a shoddy hero on his prancing steed,

as a "General Boum" in real life (recalling the grotesque figure in

_La Grande Duchesse_), and as an uninvited guest, whose unwelcome

arrival John Bull took as an occasion for going off to the French

Exhibition. In a burlesque cartoon on France's embarrassments in

choosing the right form of Government, _Punch_ exhibited President

Carnot, the Comte de Paris, Prince Jerome Bonaparte ("Plon-Plon") and

General Boulanger dancing a grotesque _pas de quatre_ before the French

Electorate. But Boulanger was already ended, though his death, by his

own hand, did not take place till the autumn of 1891. His histrionic

equipment was perfect, and the French, though the most logical of

people, are often carried away by their theatrical sense. He had served

with some distinction in the army, and he was a fine figure on a

horse. But he lacked the inflexible will, the iron resolution and the

ruthlessness which make Cæsars and Napoleons; and _Punch's_ epitaph is

a closely-packed summary of the forces and influences which conspired

to his undoing:--