THE LIBERAL PROFESSIONS

Tobacco Tabooed

Smoking was not yet a national habit. It was the height of bad form to be seen smoking in the street. Even in clubs it was frowned upon, and Thackeray, in his "Snob Papers," writes in ironic vein respecting "that den of abomination which, I am told, has been established insomeclubs, calledthe Smoking Room." The embargo on pipes was not removed for many years. A well-known judge removed his name from a well-known club about the year 1890 because the committee refused to tolerate pipe-smoking on their precincts.Punchearly ranged himself on the side of liberty, and in 1856 was greatly incensed against the British Anti-Tobacco Society, as against all "Anti's," "who, not content with hating balls, plays, and other amusements themselves, want to enforce their small antipathies on the rest of us."

Man and women in evening dress.GROUP IN THEATRE BOX

GROUP IN THEATRE BOX

The relaxations of men of fashion, if less multitudinous than to-day, were at least tolerably varied. The golden age of the dandies had passed, but the breed was still not quite extinct in 1849; witness Thackeray's picture of Lord Hugo Fitzurse. "Fops' Alley," at the Opera, was one of their favourite resorts; and its attractions are summed up, during the seasonof 1844, in the last stanza of a "Song of the Superior Classes":—

Blest ballet, soul-entrancing,Who would not rather gazeOn youth and beauty dancingThan one of Shakespeare's plays?Give me the haunt of Fashion,And let the Drama's shrineEngross the vulgar's passion;Fops' Alley, thou art mine.

Blest ballet, soul-entrancing,

Who would not rather gaze

On youth and beauty dancing

Than one of Shakespeare's plays?

Give me the haunt of Fashion,

And let the Drama's shrine

Engross the vulgar's passion;

Fops' Alley, thou art mine.

Robuster natures found distraction in knocker-wrenching and organizing parties to witness executions, but it would be as unfair to judge the manners of the high life of the time from the exploits of the mad Marquess of Waterford as it would be to base one's estimate on the achievements of Lord Shaftesbury. Thackeray, inThe Newcomes, written in 1853, gives a somewhat lurid account of the entertainment at the "Coal Hole," from which the indignant colonel abruptly withdrew with his son Clive. The moral atmosphere of "Cyder Cellars" and similar places of entertainment was not exactly rarefied, butPunchmakes a notable exception in favour of Evans's Supper Rooms, which were reopened after redecoration in the year 1856 as the abode of supper and song. There was no price for admission. You entered by a descent from the western end of the Piazza, Covent Garden, and took your choice from the little marble tables near the door or nearer the raised platform.Punch'sonly adverse criticism is directed against the epileptic gesticulations of the Ethiopian serenaders. For the rest he has nothing but praise for the entertainment, whether for mind or body:—

Anybody wanting to hear a little good music, sup, and get to bed betimes will be precisely suited at this place. Singing commences at eight. Any country curate, now, or indeed, rector, being in town under those circumstances, would find it just answer his purpose. To a serious young man, disapproving of the Opera, and tired of Exeter Hall, it would be a pleasant change from the last-named institution. Moreover it has the advantage of cheapness—so important to all who are truly serious. Even a bishop mightgive it an occasional inspection, without derogation from the decorum of his shovel hat and gaiters. A resort whereat unobjectionable amusement is provided for the youthful bachelor—the student of law—of medicine—nay, of divinity—offers an attraction in the right direction which is powerful to counteract a tendency towards the wrong: and a glass of grog, with the accompaniment of good singing, may have a moral value superior to that of a teetotal harangue and a cup of Twankay.[20]

Travellers and Outlaws

The cult of pastime was as yet in its infancy; years were to elapse before even croquet was to assert its gentle sway. But there was always the great game of politics and patronage, and though Crockford, the founder of the famous gambling club at 50, St. James's Street, retired in 1840, after he had won "the whole of the ready money of the existing generation," in Captain Gronow's phrase, there was plenty of gambling for very high stakes. There was also travel, limited in its larger and more leisurely range to people of fortune, but already beginning to appeal through excursions to the middle classes. "Paris in twelve hours" was advertised by the South Eastern Railway in 1849, though according toPunchit really took twenty-nine hours; but before long the time occupied in the transit was reduced to nine hours. Boulogne had long been the resort of a curious colony of Englishmen "composed of those who are living on their means, and those who are living in despite of them, including, to give a romantic air of society, a slight sprinkling of outlaws." It was at Boulogne-sur-Mer that Brummell ended his days in poverty; but the most famous outlaws of the period under review were "the most gorgeous" Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay, who fled precipitately from Gore House in April, 1849, to Paris. Nine years earlier Lady Blessington had been one of the most courted leaders of fashionable society. She had beauty, fascination, a fair measure of literary talent, and an industry only surpassed by her extravagance. Of D'Orsay, whom Byron called theCupidon déchaîné, handsome, gifted and popular, athlete, wit and dandy, it is enough to say that he was the only artistcongenial to the Duke of Wellington, who used to call sculptors "damned busters" and so exasperated Goya by his cavalier treatment that the old Spanish painter is alleged to have challenged him to a duel! Lady Blessington and D'Orsay escaped censure fromPuncheven in his democratic days. It was hard to be angry with these birds of Paradise, gorgeous in their lives, almost tragic in their eclipse. They at any rate did not come under the condemnation meted out to Cockney travellers on the Continent in 1845:—

SMALL CHANGE FOR PERSONS GOING ON THE CONTINENTLaugh at everything you do not understand, and never fail to ridicule anything that appears strange to you. The habits of the lower class will afford you abundant entertainment, if you have the proper talent to mimic them. Their religious ceremonies you will also find to be an endless source of amusement.Recollect very few people talk in English on the Continent, soyou may be perfectly at your ease in abusing foreigners before their faces, and talking any modest nonsense you like, in the presence of ladies, at atable d'hôte. Do not care what you say about the government of any particular state you may be visiting, and show your national spirit by boasting, on every possible occasion, of the superiority of England and everything English.

SMALL CHANGE FOR PERSONS GOING ON THE CONTINENT

Laugh at everything you do not understand, and never fail to ridicule anything that appears strange to you. The habits of the lower class will afford you abundant entertainment, if you have the proper talent to mimic them. Their religious ceremonies you will also find to be an endless source of amusement.

Recollect very few people talk in English on the Continent, soyou may be perfectly at your ease in abusing foreigners before their faces, and talking any modest nonsense you like, in the presence of ladies, at atable d'hôte. Do not care what you say about the government of any particular state you may be visiting, and show your national spirit by boasting, on every possible occasion, of the superiority of England and everything English.

Inappropriately dressesd man.THE OPERADoorkeeper: "Beg your pardon, Sir—but must, indeed, Sir, be in full dress."Snob(excited): "Full dress!! Why, what do you call this?"

THE OPERA

Doorkeeper: "Beg your pardon, Sir—but must, indeed, Sir, be in full dress."

Snob(excited): "Full dress!! Why, what do you call this?"

The "Gent" Abroad and at Home

The criticism, if caustic, was not without provocation, and unhappily the provocation did not cease, indeed, it may not be a rash assertion to observe that it has not yet altogether ceased. The type reappeared as "'Arry." In the early 'forties he was one ofPunch'spet aversions under the title of "the Gent":—

Of all the loungers who cross our way in the public thoroughfares, theGentis the most unbearable, principally from an assumption of style about him—a futile aping of superiority that inspires us with feelings of mingled contempt and amusement, when we contemplate his ridiculous pretensions to be considered "the thing."No city in the world produces so many holiday specimens of tawdry vulgarity as London; and the river appears to be the point towards which all the countless myriads converge. Their strenuous attempts to apegentility—a bad style of word, we admit, but one peculiarly adapted to our purpose—are to us more painful than ludicrous; and the labouring man, dressed in the usual costume of his class, is in our eyes far more respectable than the Gent, in his dreary efforts to assume a style andtournurewhich he is so utterly incapable of carrying out.

No city in the world produces so many holiday specimens of tawdry vulgarity as London; and the river appears to be the point towards which all the countless myriads converge. Their strenuous attempts to apegentility—a bad style of word, we admit, but one peculiarly adapted to our purpose—are to us more painful than ludicrous; and the labouring man, dressed in the usual costume of his class, is in our eyes far more respectable than the Gent, in his dreary efforts to assume a style andtournurewhich he is so utterly incapable of carrying out.

Punchwas a sincere lover of his country and her Constitution. When foreigners criticized England or the English he was up in arms in a moment. John Bull, he declared,à proposof the suspicion of the French Government, was the best natured, most kindly, and tolerant fellow in the world. But this conviction never stood in the way of his playing the candid friend to and dealing faithfully with his countrymen on all possible occasions. As a comprehensive indictment of their failings it would be hard to beat or to improve upon the following list of the things an Englishman likes:—

An Englishman likes a variety of things. For instance, nothing is more to his liking than:To talk largely about Art, and to have the worst statues and monuments that ever disgraced a metropolis!To inveigh against the grinding tyrannies practised upon poor needlewomen and slop-tailors, and yet to patronize the shops where cheap shirts and clothes are sold!To purchase a bargain, no matter whether he is in want of it or not!To reward native talent, with which view he supports Italian operas, French plays, German singers, and in fact gives gold to the foreigners in exchange for the brass they bring him!To talk sneeringly against tuft-hunting and all tuft-hunters, and yet next to running after a lord, nothing delights him more than to be seen in company with one!To rave about his public spirit and independence, and with the greatest submission to endure perpetually a tax[21]that was only put on for three years!To brag about his politeness and courteous demeanour in public, and to scamper after the Queen whenever there is an opportunity of staring at her!To boast of his cleanliness, and to leave uncovered (as in the Thames) the biggest sewer in the world!To pretend to like music, and to tolerate the Italian organs and the discordant musicians that infest his streets!To inveigh against bad legislation, and to refrain in many instances from exercising the franchise he pays so dearly for!To admit the utility of education, and yet to exclude from its benefits every one who is not of the same creed as himself!And lastly, an Englishman dearly likes:To grumble, no matter whether he is right or wrong, crying or laughing, working or playing, gaining a victory or smarting under a national humiliation, paying or being paid—still he must grumble, and in fact he is never so happy as when he is grumbling; and, supposing everything was to his satisfaction (though it says a great deal for our power of assumption to assume any such absurd impossibilities), still he would grumble at the fact of there being nothing for him to grumble about!

An Englishman likes a variety of things. For instance, nothing is more to his liking than:To talk largely about Art, and to have the worst statues and monuments that ever disgraced a metropolis!

To inveigh against the grinding tyrannies practised upon poor needlewomen and slop-tailors, and yet to patronize the shops where cheap shirts and clothes are sold!

To purchase a bargain, no matter whether he is in want of it or not!

To reward native talent, with which view he supports Italian operas, French plays, German singers, and in fact gives gold to the foreigners in exchange for the brass they bring him!

To talk sneeringly against tuft-hunting and all tuft-hunters, and yet next to running after a lord, nothing delights him more than to be seen in company with one!

To rave about his public spirit and independence, and with the greatest submission to endure perpetually a tax[21]that was only put on for three years!

To brag about his politeness and courteous demeanour in public, and to scamper after the Queen whenever there is an opportunity of staring at her!

To boast of his cleanliness, and to leave uncovered (as in the Thames) the biggest sewer in the world!

To pretend to like music, and to tolerate the Italian organs and the discordant musicians that infest his streets!

To inveigh against bad legislation, and to refrain in many instances from exercising the franchise he pays so dearly for!

To admit the utility of education, and yet to exclude from its benefits every one who is not of the same creed as himself!

And lastly, an Englishman dearly likes:

To grumble, no matter whether he is right or wrong, crying or laughing, working or playing, gaining a victory or smarting under a national humiliation, paying or being paid—still he must grumble, and in fact he is never so happy as when he is grumbling; and, supposing everything was to his satisfaction (though it says a great deal for our power of assumption to assume any such absurd impossibilities), still he would grumble at the fact of there being nothing for him to grumble about!

Punchcertainly exercised the national privilege of grumbling to the full, though the shafts of his satire were sometimes of the nature of boomerangs. We can sympathize with him when, in his list of "things and persons that should emigrate,"he includes "all persons who give imitations of actors; all quack doctors and advertising professors; all young men who smoke before the age of fifteen, and young ladies who wear ringlets after the age of thirty," as fit for "dumping." But he runs the risk of theQuis tulerit Gracchosretort when he bans "all punsters and conundrum makers." In the main he was a strenuous supporter of education, especially elementary education, and the recognition and reward of men of science and letters, but, along with his general support of literary and scientific institutions, he seldom missed a chance of making game of learned societies, beginning with the British Association.The ignorance of candidates for appointments in the Civil Service does not escape his reforming zeal, when in 1857 no fewer than 44 per cent. were rejected for bad spelling; yet in 1852 we find him publishing a picture of a Japanese as a black man.

Desirable Emigrants

Two men discussing a lady.OFFENDED DIGNITYSmall Swell(who has just finished a quadrille): "H'm, thank goodness that's over. Don't give me your bread-and-butter Misses to dance with—I prefer grown Women of the World!"(N.B. The bread-and-butter Miss had asked him how old he was, and when he went back to school.)

OFFENDED DIGNITY

Small Swell(who has just finished a quadrille): "H'm, thank goodness that's over. Don't give me your bread-and-butter Misses to dance with—I prefer grown Women of the World!"

(N.B. The bread-and-butter Miss had asked him how old he was, and when he went back to school.)

Two men talking.TWO WORDS TO A BARGAINJapanese: "We won't have Free Trade. Our ports are closed, and shall remain so."American: "Then we will open our ports, and convince you that you're wrong."

TWO WORDS TO A BARGAIN

Japanese: "We won't have Free Trade. Our ports are closed, and shall remain so."

American: "Then we will open our ports, and convince you that you're wrong."

Exploiting the Dead

Spiritualism invaded England from America at the end of the 'forties; the mania for table-turning dates from 1852, and in 1855 the famous "medium" Daniel Dunglas Home (the original of Browning's "Sludge") paid his first visit to England. From the very firstPunch'sattitude was hostile, sceptical, even derisive; and he was one of the first to condemn the harrying of humble fortune-tellers while fashionable and expensive exponents of clairvoyance were immune from prosecution. Crystal-gazing is mentioned in 1851. Playing upon words, in theAlmanackfor 1852 we read: "It is related as astonishing that there are some clairvoyants who can see right through anybody; but that is not so very strange. The wonder is that there should be anybody who cannot see through the clairvoyant." In 1853 it was seriously suggested by a mesmerist in theMorning Postthat he could get into communication with Sir John Franklin; thisPunchpromptly pilloried, as, too, a little later, he did a reference to a play alleged to have been dictated by Shakespeare's spirit. In 1857Punchsolemnly vouches for the authenticity of the following advertisement under the heading "Spirits by retail":—

COMMUNICATIONS with the SPIRIT OF WASHINGTON for Oracular Revelation of public fact and duty; responses tendered relative to Executive or Governmental, State or Diplomatic, National or Personal questions on affairs of moment for their more ready and appropriate solution, and the special use of official, Congressional and editorial intelligence. Address "Washington Medium," Post Office, Box 628, Washington, D.C. No letter (except for an interview) will be answered unless it encloses one dollar, and only the first five questions of any letter with but one dollar will have a reply. Number your questions and preserve copies of them.

Sober and instructed opinion has always shown this distrust, butPunchwas not always justified in his treatment of new arts and discoveries. He quite failed to recognize the importance and the possibilities of photography, the early references to which are uniformly disparaging. There was at least this excuse for his want of foresight, that for many years the professional photographer was destitute of any artistic feeling or training save in the purely mechanical side of his calling. In representing him as combining photography with hairdressing or other even more menial trades,Punchwas not indulging in exaggeration. The mere name "photographer" called up the image of a seedy, weedy little man who suggested an unsuccessful artist by his dress and whose "studio" was a shabby chamber of theatrical horrors, in which the subject was clamped and screwed into rigidity by instruments of torture. In the 'fifties photography was already exploited as a means of advertising actors, actresses and even popular preachers, but ithad not begun to be thought of as a means of socialréclame. Apart from politicians and public characters little limelight was shed on personality. The relations between the Stage and Society were curiously different from those which prevail to-day.Punchwas a great champion of the legitimate drama. Douglas Jerrold had been a prolific and successful, though not prosperous, playwright, and other members of the staff had written for the stage. The disregard of serious native talent by the Court[22]and the fashionable world was a constant theme of bitter comment. ButPunchshows no eagerness for the bestowal of official recognition on actors; when the question of knighthoods was mooted, he expressed apprehension lest they should be conferred upon the upholsterers rather than the upholders of the Drama. With that form of mummer-worship which took the form of the publication of personal gossip about actors he had no sympathy, and even satirized it in a burlesque account of the daily life of an imaginary low comedian. On occasions when actors resented the tone of dramatic criticism, as in the quarrel between Charles Mathews and theMorning Chronicle,Punchstood for the liberty of the Press. Against sensationalism, horrors, plays based on crime, and the cult of monstrosityPunchwaged unceasing war, but he was no prude. Those who were always on the look out for offence were sure to find it: "certain it is that whenever a father of a family visits a theatre, something verging on impropriety takes place." So again he falls foul of the inconsistent prudery which allowed a performance ofLa Dame aux Caméliasat Exeter Hall in 1857, but prohibited an English translation of the words.

"Punch's" Respect for Decorum

Many of the broader aspects of early Victorian social life remain with us to-day, though modified or amended. "The broad vein of plush that traverses the whole framework of English society," asPunchflamboyantly gibed, if not wholly obliterated is at least less conspicuous. Jeames and Jenkinsare dead. If we cannot say the same of bullying at schools, "ragging" in the Army, the unnecessary expense of uniforms and the costly pageantry of funerals—all of which were strenuously condemned byPunch—it may at least be contended that public opinion is more vigilant in arraigning and bringing to light offences against humanity, good taste and common sense. Modern critics have not been wanting who chargePunchwith prudery and squeamishness, but this is not the place to discuss whether the popularity of the paper would have been enhanced, or its influence and power fortified by following the example ofLa Vie Parisienneor ofJugend. Certainly during the period under review reticence and respectability were combined onoccasion with a remarkable freedom of comment, and the tragedy of "The Great Social Evil" was frankly admitted in Leech's famous picture. Though an isolated reference it was worth a hundred sermons. IfPunchpreferred to be the champion of domesticity and decorum in public and private life, he was reflecting an essential feature of the age—a feature which no longer exists. It was an age of patriarchal rule and largefamilies. Nothing strikes one more in turning over the pages of old numbers ofPunchthan the swarms of young people who figure in the domestic groups so dear to John Leech. The numbers, more than the precocity of the rising generation, impress the reader. The type represented is mainly drawn from well-to-do middle-class households, but all classes were prolific. If one needs proof, there is the evidence of Debrett and of the tombstones in our country churchyards.

Mr. Quiverfull

After dinner conservationScene: A Public-house, Bury St. Edmunds, after the Dinner given by the Mayor of Bury to the Lord Mayor of London.Country Footman: "Pray, Sir, what do you think of our town? A nice place, ain't it?"London Footman(condescendingly): "Vell, Joseph, I likes your town well enough. It's clean; your streets are hairy; and you've lots of rewins. But I don't like your champagne; its all Gewsberry."

Scene: A Public-house, Bury St. Edmunds, after the Dinner given by the Mayor of Bury to the Lord Mayor of London.

Country Footman: "Pray, Sir, what do you think of our town? A nice place, ain't it?"

London Footman(condescendingly): "Vell, Joseph, I likes your town well enough. It's clean; your streets are hairy; and you've lots of rewins. But I don't like your champagne; its all Gewsberry."

Two women talking.THE GREAT SOCIAL EVILTime: Midnight. A sketch not a hundred miles from the Haymarket.Bella: "Ah! Fanny! How long have you beenGay?"

THE GREAT SOCIAL EVIL

Time: Midnight. A sketch not a hundred miles from the Haymarket.

Bella: "Ah! Fanny! How long have you beenGay?"

Hunting scene.A FRESHENER ON THE DOWNS]

A FRESHENER ON THE DOWNS]

[16]VideGrantley Berkeley'sRecollections.

[17]A correspondent wrote toThe Timesin 1846 complaining that at Ramsgate "the ladies dance polkas in their bathing dresses," and suggesting a stricter supervision of the proprieties by policemen.

[18]George Alexander Lee (1802-51), son of a London publican and pugilist, "tiger" to Lord Barrymore, and subsequently tenor singer, music seller, lessee of Drury Lane, composer and music director at the Strand and Olympic Theatres. Among his many songs and ballads, popular in their day, were "Away, Away to the Mountain's Brow," "The Macgregor's Gathering," and "Come where the Aspens Quiver."

[19]Who's Whofirst appeared in 1849. In those days it was little more than a bare list of dignitaries and officials. It was not until 1897 that the personal note was sounded and details added which have swelled the slim volume to its present portentous bulk.

[20]"Twankay," constantly used at this time as an equivalent for tea, after the name of the district of Taung Kei in China.

[21]The income tax.Punchknew better, and prophesied from the very outset that it would never come off.

[22]"As well hope to touch, Memnon-like, the statue of Queen Anne into mourning music, as to awaken generous impulses in the House of Hanover towards art, or science or letters." The payment of 13s. 4d. each to actors at a Royal Command performance provokes a sarcastic reference to the Court Almoner Extraordinary.

As a mirror of public opinion on the status and importance of the learned and liberal professionsPunch, when due allowance has been made for his limitations, his prejudices and even his passions, cannot be overlooked by the student of social history. A whole book has been written on his attitude towards the Church; in another section of this chronicle I have dealt at some length with his hostility to Pluralism, Sabbatarianism, Ritualism, and endeavoured to show how a generally tolerant and "hang theology" attitude was in the early 'fifties exchanged for one of fierce anti-Vaticanism. The "No Popery" drum was banged with great fury, and when the Roman Catholic hierarchy was re-established in England in 1850,Punchsupported the Ecclesiastical Titles Act which declared the assumption of titles connected with places in the realm illegal and imposed heavy penalties on the persons assuming them. This Act, passed in 1851, remained a dead letter until 1871, when it was repealed. As for the law and lawyers the record ofPunchis more consistent and creditable, and, as we have seen, he was from the first an unflinching advocate of cheap justice and the removal of irregularities which pressed hardest on the poor, an unrelenting critic of barbarous and oppressive penalties. No one was too great or small to escape his legal pillory, or to secure recognition for reforming zeal or humane administration—from Lord Brougham and Lord St. Leonards down to unpaid magistrates. To what has been said elsewhere it may be added that the series of papers written by Gilbert à Beckett, under the heading of "The Comic Blackstone," are much better than their title, for they contain a good deal of shrewd satire and sound sense.Punchhad good reason to be proud of his own legal representative, the humane and genial Gilbert à Beckett. He welcomedTalfourd's promotion to the Bench as an honour to letters, for Talfourd was not only the executor and first biographer of Lamb and the author of the highly successful, but now forgotten, tragedy ofIon, but his services to authors in connexion with copyright earned for him the dedication ofPickwick. On his death in 1854,Punch'selegy fittingly commemorated the character and career of one of whom, as an advocate, it was said that the wrong side seldom cared to hear him, and who, like Hood, in his last words, deplored the mutual estrangement of classes in English society.

The Bench and the Universities

On the other hand, judges who jested on the Bench, indulged in judicial clap-trap, or encouraged the public to regard the Courts of Justice as substitutes for theatrical entertainments, are severely handled.Judex jocosus odiosus; but the type is, apparently, impervious to satire. Another anticipation of latter-day criticism is to be found in the remark made in 1856: "There was once a Parliament—(we do not live in such times now!)—in which there were few or no lawyers." Even more red-hot in its up-to-dateness isPunch'ssarcastic dismissal of the cult of "efficiency" sixty-five years ago:—

Mr. Punch'sreverence for the business powers of so-called men of business is not abject. The "practical men," who smile compassionately at schemers and visionaries, are the men who perpetually make the most frightful smashes and blunders. No attorney, for instance, can keep, or comprehend accounts, and a stock-jobber, the supposed incarnation of shrewdness, is the most credulousgobemouchein London.

With University authorities, professors, dons, and academics generally, we look in vain for any sign of sympathy, save thatPunchcondemned the rule which then prevented Fellows from marrying. For the rest, he looked on the older Universities as the homes of mediæval obscurantism, stubbornly opposed to reforms long overdue. Of the two, Oxford fared the worse at his hands on account of the Tractarian movement, Pusey, and Newman. This antagonism was based on political and religious divergences, not on any hostility to learning or the classical curriculum, of whichPunchwas a supporter, to the extent ofprintingjeux d'espritin Latin and Greek in his pages. All along he was a jealous guardian of the "illustrious order of the goose-quill," a sturdy champion of its claims to adequate pay and official recognition, a vigilant critic of the "homœopathic system of rewards" adopted by the Crown in the Civil List. References to this undying scandal are honourably frequent in the early volumes ofPunch. It may suffice to quote the letter to Lord Palmerston in the summer of 1856:—

I will not, this hot weather, weary your lordship by specifying every case, but will sum up the account as I find it divided:To Science, Literature, and Art£275To sundries925————-£1,200Deduct sundries925————-£275Due to Science, Literature, and Art925————-Total Civil List£1,200

I will not, this hot weather, weary your lordship by specifying every case, but will sum up the account as I find it divided:

To Science, Literature, and Art£275To sundries925————-£1,200Deduct sundries925————-£275Due to Science, Literature, and Art925————-Total Civil List£1,200

Equally creditable is the reiterated plea—from 1847 onward—for the establishment of International Copyright, to guard English authors from the piracy of American publishers, amongst whom Putnam is singled out as an honourable exception. It may be fairly claimed forPunchthat he made very few mistakes in appraising the merits of the authors of his time or of the rising stars. He failed to render justice to Disraeli as a writer, and he curtly dismissed Walt Whitman'sLeaves of Grassas "a mad book by an American rough." But literary values prove him substantially right in his distaste for the flamboyant exuberance of Bulwer Lytton, and absolutely sound in his castigation of the tripe-and-oniony flavour of Samuel Warren's books, one of which he held up to not undeserved obloquy under the ferocious misnomer of "The Diarrhœa of a Late Physician." He was a veritablemalleus stultorumin dealing alike with the futilities of incompetent aristocrats and the homely puerilities of Martin Tupper and Poet Close. The famous campaignagainst the poet Bunn and his bad librettos goaded the victim into reprisals in which he gave as good as he got, but the fact remains that Bunnwasa bad poet, thoughPunchquite overdid his persecution. The nobility of Wordsworth, though the least humorous of poets, was handsomely acknowledged; when the erection of a statue to Peel was mooted,Punchput in a claim for a similar honour to the sage of Rydal. And though indignant with Carlyle for his defence of slavery,Punchwas still ready to acknowledge "the monarch in his masquerade." Lastly, he not only welcomed Tennyson as a master, but threw open his columns to him to retort on his detractors.

"Punch" and "The Times"

Writer at his desk.JENKINS AT HOME

JENKINS AT HOME

Victorian and Georgian Journalism

Dog does not eat dog, but the unwritten etiquette in accordance with which one newspaper does not directly attack another was much less strictly observed sixty or seventy years ago. Delane, the editor ofThe Times, exercised a greater political influence than any other journalist before or since, and for a good many yearsPunchacted as a sort of free-lance ally of the great daily,[23]drawing liberally from its columns in the way of extracts and illustrations, and, according to his habitual practice, underlining its policy while pretending to be shocked at it. Several of the men onPunchwere contributors toThe Times. Gilbert à Beckett's name stands first in the list of the principal contributors and members of the staff ofThe Timesunder Delane given in Mr. Dasent's biography. Yet I have searched the pages of the biography and the index in vain for a single reference toPunch. None the less the relations of the two papers were close and cordial, and "Billy" Russell, theTimeswar correspondent and unsparing critic of mismanagement in theCrimea, had no more enthusiastic trumpeter thanPunch. But the great gulf in prestige and power betweenThe Timesunder Delane and the rest of the London Press is indirectly but unmistakably shown inPunch'shabitual disrespect for most of his other contemporaries. In another context, I have quoted examples of his flagellation of theMorning Post—the only paper, by the way, which supported theCoup d'État; but two masterpieces of malice may be added. In 1843,à proposof "Jenkins's" incurably unctuous worship of rank,Punchobserves: "If the reader be not weeping at this, it is not in the power of onions to move him." And again, a little later on in the same year,Punchcompares the "beastliness" of Jenkins, "the life-long toad-eater," with the "beastly fellow" denounced in theMorning Postfor swallowing twelve frogs for a wager!Punchwas not content with identifying theMorning Postwiththe imaginary personality of Jenkins, the super-flunkey, but was also responsible for re-christening theMorning Heraldand theStandard—Conservative morning and evening papers which, until 1857, belonged to the same proprietor—Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. Harris. TheStandardretaliated by callingPunchthe "most abject of all the toadies ofThe Times," and accusing it of libelling "the young gentlemen of Eton" and the Queen. By an unconscious complimentPunchwas bracketed with theExaminer, the ablest and most independent of the weeklies, asThe Timeswas of the dailies, for its disloyalty to the Crown. In the war of wits which ensued and was carried on for several years, all the honours rested withPunch. But these controversies belong rather to the domestic history ofPunch; andPunch'sfriendly relations with theDaily News, of which Dickens was the first editor, must be somewhat discounted by the facts that Douglas Jerrold was an intimate friend of the novelist, who occasionally dined with thePunchstaff; that Paxton, one ofPunch'sheroes, exerted all his great influence on behalf of the new daily; and finally, that Bradbury and Evans were, at the time, the publishers of Dickens, ofPunch, and of theDaily News. The journalism of the 'forties and 'fifties presents curious analogies with and divergences from the journalism of to-day.Punchis never weary of girding at the cult of monstrosity and sensationalism, the disproportionate amount of space devoted to crime and criminals andcauses célèbres, the habit of burning the idols of yesterday, the nauseating compliments paid to statesmen after death by those who had maligned them in their lifetime. Many of the least reputable exploits of Georgian journalism were anticipated in early Victorian days. Criticism was franker, more outspoken, and less restrained by the law of libel, andPunchalways stood out within reasonable limits for the liberty of the Press. When an Edinburgh jury gave a verdict against theScotsmanin the famous case brought by Duncan MacLaren in 1852,Punchcompared them to Bomba, and congratulated the Scottish gentlemen who defrayed theScotsman'scosts and damages. He regarded it as a righteous protest against a verdict which threatened "to make it impossible to express contempt at politicalapostasy, disgust at the abandonment of principles, or indignation at any coalition, however disreputable, without the danger of being brought before a jury." TheScotsmanwas then edited by Alexander Russel, the most powerful, original, and enlightened of Scots journalists. Russel, for the last twenty years of his life, dominated theScotsmanas Delane dominatedThe Times. But it was, in the main, a righteous and benevolent dictatorship. "What made every one turn with alert curiosity toThe Timesin Delane's day was that nobody knew beforehand which side he would take on any new question."[24]And much the same might be said of Russel. No such curiosity is possible to-day. There has been a great levelling up of journalism from the bottom, and a great levelling down from the top. In the old days the gap between men like Delane and Russel and the penny-a-liners was greater than any gap that now exists in the profession. Not the least of their distinctions was the fact that they both died without even a knighthood to their names. Fifty years later neither of them could have held his post for a fortnight. It is to the credit ofPunchthat he recognized the value of their independence and emulated it in his own sphere. He played his part manfully in helping to kill the old flunkey-worship of rank, but could not prevent the reincarnation of "Jenkins" in the modern sycophantic worshipper of success—no matter how achieved. The excellence of provincial journalism—not yet exposed to the competition of the cheap London press—is attested byPunch'sfrequent citations, but he did not overlook its ineptitudes, some of which happily remain to refresh our leisure.

Quacks and Doctors

But of all the professions, none looms larger in the early pages ofPunchthan that of medicine. Here, again, a broad distinction is drawn between the heads of the profession and those who are preparing for it; between legitimate and illegitimate practitioners. Men like Harvey and Jenner are extolled as heroes and benefactors of humanity at large, and their recognition by the State is urged as a national duty. The maintenance of the status and dignity of physicians and surgeons, civil,naval, and military, is frequently insisted upon before and during the Crimean War.Punch'stribute to the services of Florence Nightingale in reorganizing the nursing profession has already been noted. He was a strenuous advocate of the disestablishment of Mrs. Gamp, and a consistent supporter of the campaign against quackery, though under no illusions as to the possibility of its entire extermination:—

Great outcry has been raised of late, in theLancetand other journals, against Quacks and Quackery. Let them not flatter themselves that it is possible to put either down. The Quack is a personage too essential to the comfort of a large class of society to be deprived of his vocation. He is, in fact, the Physician of the Fools—a body whose numbers and respectability are by far too great to admit of anything of the kind. However, as there are some people in the world who are not fools, and who will not, when they want a doctor, have recourse to a Quack, if they can help it, the practice of the latter ought certainly to be limited to its proper sphere. For this end we could certainly go rather farther than Sir James Graham's sympathies permitted him to proceed last session. We propose that every Quack should not only not be suffered to call himself what he is not, but should be compelled to call himself what he is. We would not only prevent him from assuming the title of a medical man, but we would oblige him to take that of Quack.

This was written in 1845. The Sir James Graham referred to was one of the blackest of allPunch'sbêtes noires—in consequence of the postal censorship which earned for him the title of "The Breaker (not the Keeper) of the Seals," and prompted the savage cartoon of "Peel's Dirty Little Boy." He never had friendly treatment at the hands ofPunch. Elsewhere it is insinuated that the measure played the game of the quacks, and the history of attempts to regulate their activities in the last seventy years goes far to justifyPunch'sscepticism. But his censure was not confined to quacks; he says hard things of doctors who exploited and traded onmalades imaginaires, and more than once exhibits impatience at the failure of medical science to arrive at any definite conclusions as to the causes or cure of the cholera epidemic in 1849. And when Mr. Muntz brought forward a motion in 1845 to oblige doctors to write their prescriptions in English and put Englishlabels on their gallipots, the proposal was satirized as an effort to strip medicine of its indispensable mystery. It may be not unfairly contended thatPunch, in his horror of humbug and condemnation of guzzling and gormandizing, was a disciple of Abernethy. His views on diet inclined to moderation rather than asceticism, and the new cult of vegetarianism, which seems to have had its origin in Manchester, was satirized under the heading, "Greens for the Green."

Portly boy talking to shop assistant.SOMETHING LIKE A HOLIDAYPastrycook: "What have you had, Sir?"Boy: "I've had two jellies, seven of these, eleven of these, and six of those, and four Bath buns, a sausage roll, ten almond cakes—and a bottle of ginger beer."

SOMETHING LIKE A HOLIDAY

Pastrycook: "What have you had, Sir?"

Boy: "I've had two jellies, seven of these, eleven of these, and six of those, and four Bath buns, a sausage roll, ten almond cakes—and a bottle of ginger beer."

Medical Students

By far the largest number of the references to medicine, however, are concerned with the manners and customs of medical students, and if corroboration be needed for the unflattering picture of this class which has been drawn inPickwick, the pages ofPunchsupply it in distressing abundance. The counterpartsof Bob Sawyer and Benjamin Allen, in all their dingy rowdiness are portrayed in a series of articles and paragraphs running through the early volumes.

Man drinking beer.THE MEDICAL STUDENT

THE MEDICAL STUDENT

Thus, under the heading Hospitals we read:—

The attributes of the gentlemen walking the various hospitals may be thus enumerated:Guy'sHalf-and-half, anatomicalfracas,and billiards.St. Thomas'sDittoSt. George'sDoings at Tattersall's.LondonToo remote to be ascertained.UniversityConjuring, juggling, and mesmerism.Bartholomew'sState of Smithfield Markets.MiddlesexConvivial harmony.Charing CrossDancing at the Lowther-rooms.King's CollegeHas not yet acquired any peculiarity.WestminsterDashes of all the others combined.

The attributes of the gentlemen walking the various hospitals may be thus enumerated:

Guy'sHalf-and-half, anatomicalfracas,and billiards.St. Thomas'sDittoSt. George'sDoings at Tattersall's.LondonToo remote to be ascertained.UniversityConjuring, juggling, and mesmerism.Bartholomew'sState of Smithfield Markets.MiddlesexConvivial harmony.Charing CrossDancing at the Lowther-rooms.King's CollegeHas not yet acquired any peculiarity.WestminsterDashes of all the others combined.

Even when all allowance has been made for the exaggeration of the satirist, there was undoubtedly a serious warrant for this indictment, and we may congratulate ourselves that it is a gross libel on the medical students of to-day. They may be exuberant, noisy, and rowdy on occasion, but they are neither grubby nor callous, and the unfortunate episode of their treatment of Mr. "Pussyfoot" Johnson may be regarded, we believe, as a blot on the scutcheon of their sportsmanship which the great majority regretted and reprobated.

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