PERSONALITIES
Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I—1841-1857 | ||
8. PERSONALITIES
TOWARDS the end of the period reviewed in this volume, Punch enumerates his special bêtes noires as "Humbug, Cant, Sleek Hypocrisy and Brazen Wrong." But as has already been abundantly proved, the list would have to be considerably extended to include all the personages, notable and notorious, who came under his lash. In earlier years he is much more specific. Thus in 1850 his amiable catalogue of the gentlemen and public bodies who have kindly consented to furnish him with game in the ensuing year contains Colonel Sibthorp, the bearded reactionary who sat for Lincoln, Barry, the architect of the new Houses of Parliament, all quack-medicine vendors, tyrants and woman-floggers (the Tsar Nicholas and Haynau are specially aimed at), Madame Tussaud, Lord Brougham, R.A.'s, the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, Smithfield and all City nuisances, and all sinecurists and pensionists. In 1852 Panizzi (for his long deferred catalogue of the British Museum of which he was Chief Librarian), Cardinal Wiseman, and Lord Maidstone are added, together with Railway Directors, Homœopathists and Protectionists.
Among the various devices adopted to ventilate his personal animosity may be noted Punch's list of "desirable emigrants," and the ingenious suggestion that "Penal Statues" should be erected to commemorate the misdeeds of great offenders, obstructionists, bigots and anti-reformers. Of some of Punch's butts it may be said that they were rescued from oblivion by his satire and caricature—Sibthorp for example, though he was by no means the merely reactionary buffoon who appears in Punch. He was eccentric in dress and figure, opposed all the great measures of Reform, and was the incarnation of ultra-Tory tradition. But he was frequently
PEEL AS THE KNAVE OF SPADES
[Description: This cartoon is a caricature of Peel as the knave of spades. He looks like a character found in a deck of cards; in one hand he holds a blade labeled "To cut both ways," while in the other he holds a spade that apparently shows a scene of laborers. Connected to his right heel is a wing marked "Free Trade," while his left leg is manacled by "monopoly." Around his neck hangs a sheep marked "Tariff."]THE ROYAL RED RIDING HOOD
[Description: In this cartoon, "The Royal Red Riding Hood," a young woman walks through the forest holding a basket, inside of which is a cloth marked "Place," "Patronage," "Power," "Pergaisites, and "Pensions." In front of her stands a wolf with a man's face (perhaps Peel's). A rock next to them is marked "Mount Peelion," and a sign reading "Royal Preserve" is nailed to a tree. ]If "Jenkins" was Punch's "chief butler"—in the sense of the supreme flunkey—Lord Brougham was his chief butt
Call Wellington the "Iron—,"
Why then we safely may presume
The "Brazen Peer" to term Lord—.
The snobbishness of Brougham's arguments on behalf of royal princes in his Debtors' Bill again infuriates the democratic Punch, who in 1849 was even more disgusted by Brougham's fulsome championship of Radetzky and the Austrians when they defeated the Piedmontese. But Punch's hostility reaches its height in the verses (accompanying a cartoon which represents Brougham standing on his head) describing the amazing farrago of inconsistencies which composed the mind
QUEEN CANUTE REPORTING HER COURTIERS
[Description: In this cartoon, a queen sits on a throne at a vista that overlooks the rocky terrain, which is marked "reform" and "progress". Surrounding her is her court, who are dressed in Roman togas or motley. She stares up at her courtiers with a disapproving look. ]shelf, Who does with case the difficult task of turning his back on himself.
Brougham's perversely obstructive attitude towards the Exhibition of 1851 excited Punch's wrath, when he himself had become converted to the scheme, but already the tone of the paper had changed; and the turning point was reached on the occasion of Brougham's visit to America in 1850, when Punch printed the following unofficial letter of introduction to the President of the United States:—
To General Taylor, President of the United States,
Favoured by Henry Lord Brougham, Member of the French Institute.
"Dear Taylor,
"I have much pleasure in making yourself and my friend Brougham—the Brougham whose fame is not European but world-wide—personally acquainted. With all his little drolleries, he is an excellent fellow; and with all his oddities, he has worked like a Hercules stable-boy at our Augean Courts of Law. He has cheapened costs; he has well-nigh destroyed the race of sharp attorneys. Indeed, if you would seek Brougham's monument, look around every attorney's office; and you will not see Brougham's picture."
Punch had already welcomed Brougham's espousal of the anti-Sabbatarian cause, but the full avowal of reconciliation is to be found in the following graceful verses printed in 1851:—
A PALINODE
From Punch to Henry Brougham
"During the last five or six weeks, he had with the utmost difficulty, and against the opinion of his medical advisers, attended the service of their Lordships' House. During the last ten days the
Has the sharp sword fretted the sheath so far?
Then, Henry Brougham, in spite of all that's past,
Our ten long years of all but weekly war,
And speak what haply be had left unspoken
Had the sharp tongue lost naught of its command,
That nervous frame still kept its spring unbroken.
No more he knows the Ishmael once he knew,
Drinking delights of battle 'mongst the Peers—
Your hand 'gainst all men, all men's hands 'gainst you.
Lashed into infamy and endless scorn
The wretches who their blackening scandal flung
Upon a Queen—of women most forlorn.
Chief of the banded few who dared to brave
The accursed traffickers in negro blood,
And struck his heaviest fetter from the slave;
Than this, maintained man's right to read and know,
With equal hand alike to high and low;
Denounced the Law's abuse, chicane, delay:
The Chancellor who settled century's claims,
And swept an age's dense arrears away;
On every landmark the world's course along,
That speaks to us of a great battle won
Over untruth, or prejudice or wrong.
That voice which loudest in the combat rung
Now weak and low and sorrowful of cheer,
To see that arm of battle all unstrung.
Thinks of a noble foe, now wounded sore,
I think of thee, and of thine ancient might,
And hold a hand out, armed for strife no more.
This is a fine summary of Brougham's services as the friend of humanity, the champion of free speech and popular education, and the great legal reformer, erring, if at all, in the over-generous estimate of his disinterestedness as an advocate. Brougham recovered from his breakdown and lived for seventeen years longer—years crowded with multifarious activities, legal, scientific, literary. He was, in many ways, a unique figure in public life, though, when the lives of the Lord Chancellors are brought up to date in the next generation, he will not be able to avoid rivalry on the score of early advancement, versatility, vituperation, and vulgarity.
Sir James Graham is not mentioned nearly so often as Brougham, but in respect of concentrated hostility of criticism he occupies the first place amongst Punch's pet aversions. No cartoon in this period held up any politician to greater contempt and ridicule than the repulsive picture of the Home Secretary as "Peel's Dirty Little Boy," who was "always in trouble." The predominating cause of Punch's resentment was the historic episode of the opening of suspect correspondence, notably that of Mazzini; but Sir James Graham could do nothing right in Punch's view: nihil tetigit quod non fœdavit.
Peter Borthwick, the advocate of the slave-owners, M.P. for Evesham. from 1835 to 1847, and editor of the Morning Post from 1850 till his death in 1852, was no favourite of Punch. He was, however, as the date shows, not editorially responsible for "Jenkins"; and by introducing the Borthwick clause into the Poor Law Amendment Bill in 1847, under which married couples over the age of sixty were not, as theretofore, separated when they entered the poor-house, he so far expiated his pro-slavery
MR. PUNCH'S DESIGN FOR A STATUE TO MISS NIGHTINGALE
[Description: This drawing offers a design for a statue of Florence Nightingale. It shows Florence Nightgale standing on a pedestal, holding out a hand to a man who is dressed in rags and leaning on a crutch. At the base of the statue is a scene representing the good Samaritan assisting a poor traveller.]If a paper, like a man, is to be fairly judged by its heroes and favourites, Punch emerges from the test with considerable credit. Most of them have been mentioned incidentally elsewhere,
It is perhaps worthy of note that with the exception of Paxton none of those mentioned belonged to the decorated or decorative classes. Stephenson refused a knighthood in 1850; it was not bestowed on William Russell till more than forty years later. Rowland Hill was made a K.C.B. in 1860.
A complete Index will be found in the Fourth Volume.
PERSONALITIES
Mr. Punch`s history of modern England, Volume I—1841-1857 | ||