s his audience, he fails sometimes to shoot the
brightest arrows of his quiver and hit his mark so as to make the
scintillating splinters fly. Now and then he has been slightly dull,
forgotten himself and his manners, gone too far, got into the wrong box,
missed seizing the auricular appendage of the right pig, run things into
the ground,--blundered as common and uncommon people will. Under these
general charges we must, painful as it is to speak of the errors of a
favorite, enter a few specifications.

The writer of the prospectus, before referred to, seems to have had a
premonitory fear--growing out of his bad treatment of Judy--that Punch
in his new vocation might fail of uniform gentlemanliness towards the
ladies; and time has shown that there were some little grounds for the
apprehension. The droll hunchback's virulent dislike of mothers-in-law
seems the nursed-up wrath of an unhappy personal experience. Vastly
amusing as were the "Caudle Lectures," it is a question whether
excessive indulgence in the luxury of satire upon a prolific theme did
not infuse into them over-bitter exaggeration, not favorable to the
culture of domestic felicity. Did these celebrated curtain-homilies
stand alone, their sharp and unrivalled humor might save Punch from the
censure of being once in a while the least bit of a Bluebeard. But, for
the most gallant gentleman, on the whole, in the United Kingdom, he is
not so invariable in fairness towards the fair as could be wished. The
follies and frivolities of absurd fashions are his proper game; and he
does brave service in hunting them down. Still, his warfare against
crinoline, small bonnets, and other feminine fancies in dress, has been
tiresomely inveterate. Even Mr. Punch had better, as a general rule,
leave the management of the female toilette to those whom it most nearly
concerns. But in his case, the scolding or pouting should not be
inexorable; for in one way he atones amply for all his impertinence. He
paints his young ladies pretty and graceful, being, with all his sly
satire, evidently fond of the sex, the juvenile portion at least.
Surely, a Compliment so uniform and tasteful must more than outweigh his
teasing and banter with the amiable subjects of both.

Of Punch as a local politician we are hardly fair judges, and it may be
a mistaken suspicion that he has occasionally given up to party what was
meant for mankind. With respect to "foreign affairs," we shall be safer
in sa