n article of
his religious creed, although in a pulpit reference the Rev. A. G.
Girdlestone declared that _Punch's_ policy was temporarily reversed
during one editorship in consequence of its being found that the men on
the mechanical staff of the paper were themselves opposed to the
movement.

In _Punch's_ first decade Pope Pius IX. was popular with Englishmen and
with _Punch_ by reason of his liberalism. But towards the end of 1850
the cry of "Papal Aggression" broke out, and the popular excitement,
already aroused over Puseyism, was fanned to an extraordinary pitch. The
situation at that time is described in subsequent chapters dealing with
Richard Doyle and Cartoons; but reference must here be made to the
violence with which _Punch_ caught the fever--how he published a cartoon
(Sir John Tenniel's first) representing Lord John Russell as David
attacking Dr. Wiseman, the Roman Goliath.[11] In due time, however, the
excitement passed away. Dr. Wiseman received his Cardinal's hat, Lord
John was satisfied with having asserted the Protestant supremacy,
Richard Doyle left the paper, and nobody, except _Punch_, seemed a penny
the worse, save that the popular suspicion, once aroused, was not for
several years entirely allayed. The "Papal Aggression" agitation
smouldered on for a year or two in the paper; but _Punch_ was not too
much engrossed to be prevented from giving his support to Mr. Horsman's
Bill for enquiry into the revenues of the bishops of the Established
Church, whom, in one of Leech's cartoons, he represented as carrying off
in their aprons all the valuables on which they could lay their hands.

Thenceforward _Punch's_ religious war was directed chiefly against
Puseyism and its "toys"--by which were designated the cross,
candlesticks, and flowers. The Pope was still with him an object of
ridicule, and in one case at least of inexcusably coarse insult; but he
was by this time (1861) shorn of his temporal power, and had become the
"Prisoner of the Vatican;" and his "liberalism," so much applauded in
his ante-aggressive days, was all forgotten. Nevertheless, some of
_Punch's_ references were harmless and innocent enough, such as that in
which he asks, in 1861: "Why can the Emperor of the French never be
Pope?" and himself replies, "Because it is impossible that three crowns
can ever make one Napoleon."

Less fierce, but much more constant, was the ridicule meted out to the
Jews. The merry prejudice entertained b