decade and a half, and grown to the bulk of thirty-four or
thirty-five volumes. It was not, however, built in a day. It knew a
rickety infancy and hours of peril, and owes its rescue from neglect and
starvation, its subsequent and constantly increasing prosperity, to the
enterprising publishers,--Bradbury and Evans,--who nursed and
resuscitated it at the critical moment. Well-known contributors to the
letter-press have been Jerrold, Albert Smith, a Beckett, Hood, and
Thackeray; whilst Henning, Leech, Meadows, Browne, Forrester, Gilbert,
and Doyle have acted as designers. Of these men of letters and art,
Lemon and Leech, it is said, alone remain; some of the others broke off
their connection with the work at different periods, and some have
passed away from earth. Their places have been supplied by the Mayhews,
Tom Taylor, Angus Reach, and Shirley Brooks, and the historical painter,
Tenniel. These changes have mostly been made behind the scenes; the
impersonality of the paper--to speak after the Hibernian style--being
personified by Mr. Punch himself,--ostensibly, by a well-preserved and
well-managed conceit, its sole conductor through all its vicissitudes
and during the whole of its brilliant career. Whatever becomes of
correspondents, Punch never resigns and never dies. The baton never
falls from his grasp. He sits in his arm-chair, the unshaken Master of
the Revels,--though thrones totter, kings abdicate, and revolutions
convulse empires. Troubles may disturb his household; but thereby the
public does not suffer. He still lives,--immortal in his funny and
fascinating idiosyncrasies.

The ingredients of Punch, the instrumentalities by which he has won fame
and victories, are almost too multifarious for enumeration. All the
merry imps which beset Leigh Hunt, when about to compile selections from
the comic poets, belong to Punch's retinue. Doubles of Similes,
Buffooneries of Burlesques, Stalkings of Mock Heroics, Stings in the
Tails of Epigrams, Glances of Innuendoes, Dry Looks of Irony,
Corpulencies of Exaggerations, Ticklings of Mad Fancies, Claps on the
Backs of Horse Plays, Flounderings of Absurdities, Irresistibilities of
Iterations, Significances of Jargons, Wailings of Pretended Woes,
Roarings of Laughter, and Hubbubs of Animal Spirits, all appear, singly
or in companies, to flash, ripple, dance, shoot, effervesce, and
sparkle, in prose and verse, vignettes, sketches, or elaborate pictures,
on the ever-shifting a