ligious, not a cover for
aristocratic preferments and dog-in-the-manger laziness,--and government
administered for the whole people, and not merely dealing out
treasury-pap and fat offices for the pensioned few. Punch is loyal,
sings lustily, "God Save the Queen," and stands by the Constitution. He
is a true-born Englishman, and patriotic to the backbone; but none are
too high in place or name for his merciless ridicule and daring wit, if
they countenance oppressive abuses. It is a tall feather in his
fool's-cap, that his fantastic person is a dread to evil-doers on
thrones, in cabinets, and red-tape offices. Crowned tyrants, bold
usurpers, and proud statesmen are sensitive, like other mortals, to
ridicule, and know very well how much easier it is to cannonade
rebellious insurgents than to put down the general laugh, and that the
point of a joke cannot be turned by the point of the bayonet. "Punch"
was seized in Paris on account of the caricature of the "Sphinx," but
after twenty-four hours' consideration the order of confiscation was
rescinded, and the irreverent publication now lies upon the tables of
the reading-rooms. So, iron power is not beyond the reach of the shafts
of wit; once make it ridiculous, and it may continue to lie dreaded, but
will cease to be respected.

Limits permitting, it would be pleasant to refer at length to various
other marked graces of Punch,--such, for example, as his care for true
Art, by exposing to merited contempt the abortions of statuary,
painting, and architecture that come under his accurate eye,--his
concern for good letters, exhibited in fantastic parodies of
affectations, mannerisms, absurdities of plot, and vices of style in
modern poets and novelists,--his "_nil nisi bonum_," and, where there is
no "_bonum_," his silent "_nil_," of the dead, whom when living he
pursued with unrelenting raillery,--his cool, eclectic judgments,
freedom from extremes, and other manifestations of clear-headedness and
refined sentiment, glimmering and shooting through his rollicking
drollery, quick wit, and quiet humor. But we must pass them by, to
emphasize a quality that out-tops and outshines them all,--his humanity.

This is Mr. Punch's specialty, generating his purest fun and
consecrating his versatile talents to highest ends. Wherever he catches
meanness, avarice, selfishness, force, preying upon the humble and the
weak, he is sure to give them hard knocks with his baton, or
home-thrusts wi