Poland; near the Queen, one of
Ireland; and she, holding up her forefinger in gentle self-admission of
error, and in friendly remonstrance with her august visitor, says
softly, "Brother, brother, we're both in the wrong!" Soon afterwards
_Punch_ became, it was said, "anti-Irish;" or, as he himself declared,
he could not confound Irish misdeeds with Irish wrongs; and it was with
that view that he was wont to picture the Irish political
outrage-mongering peasant as a cross between a garrotter and a gorilla.
Of course, in their rivalries Daniel O'Connell and Smith O'Brien were
satirised as the "Kilkenny Cats;" but when the "Great Agitator" died in
1847, _Punch_ showed how sincere was his sympathy with a people who,
rightly or wrongly, were mourning the death of their leader, and who at
the time were dying in thousands from the famine that was then black
over the land. Nevertheless, he applauded with delight the thumping
majority that negatived in Parliament the motion for Repeal of the
Union. Then came a Coercion Bill, and continued seething discontent; but
the sad, sweet face of Hibernia then as ever claimed all the beauty that
lay in the cartoonist's pencil. And a year later, when the Queen visited
Ireland, and a Special Court of Common Council was held to consider the
propriety of purchasing estates there, _Punch_ showed "Gog and Magog
helping Paddy out of the Mess," and "Sir Patrick Raleigh"--a handsome
Irish peasant of the right sort--laying his mantle across a puddle, and
smiling as he prays, "May it please your Majesty to tread on the tail of
my coat."

So _Punch_ in his Irish, as in his English, home policy became, and
maintained the attitude of, an Old Liberal, an elderly member of the
Reform Club, with just enough desire for reform to be written down a
Radical by Tories, and enough Conservatism and patriotism to be
denounced as a Jingo, or its equivalent, by their opponents. But he went
steadily on; and when Mr. Gladstone became converted to Home Rule,
_Punch_ declined to be committed to the policy. He maintained his
independence and his Whiggery, in spite of the personal feeling and
friendship of the chief proprietor of the paper for the aged statesman.
Private sentiment was sacrificed to public need, and the position of
_Punch_, and his character for political stability, were thereby further
assured.

* * * * *

At the time of _Punch's_ birth the Queen had sat four years upon