the tail of the procession." It is to
_Punch's_ honour that with conscious dignity--and, of course, with
conscious impudence--he took _his_ place at its head. And there he has
stayed; and transforming his pages into the Royal Academy of pictorial
satire, his alone among all the comic papers has forced its way into the
library and taken up its position in the boudoir. His workers are the
best available in the land; and when in course of time one contributor
falls away, another is ready to step quickly into his place--_uno avulso
non deficit alter_.

So _Punch_--who for many years past has set up as the incarnation of all
that is best in wit and virtue--is a scholar and a gentleman. He is,
moreover, on his own showing, a perfect combination of humour, wisdom,
and honour; and yet, in spite of it all, not a bit of a prig. It is true
that when he donned the dress-coat, and "Punch" and "Toby" put on airs
as "Mr. Punch" and "Toby, M.P.," he became milder at the expense of some
of his political influence. Yet what he lost in power he gained in
respectability, as well as in the affection of his countrymen. He
appealed to a higher class, to the greater constituency of the whole
nation; and remembering that a jest's prosperity lies in the ear that
hears it, he transferred some of his allegiance from pit to stalls, and
was content with the well-bred smile where before he had been eager for
noisy laughter and loud applause.

People say--among them Mr. du Maurier himself--that there does not seem
quite as much fun and jollity in the world as when John Leech was alive;
but that surely is only the wail of the middle-aged. Englishmen never
were uproarious in their mirth, as Froissart once reminded us. But it is
true that _Punch_ does not indulge so much as once he did in
caricature--which after all, as Carlyle has pointed out, is not Humour
at all, but Drollery. Caricature, one must remember, has two mortal
enemies--a small and a great: artistic excellence of draughtsmanship,
and national prosperity with its consequent contentment. Good harvests
beget good-humour. They stifle all motive for genuine caricature, for
"satire thrives only on the wrath of the multitude." A joke may be only
a joke--or a comedy, or a tragedy; but the greatest caricature (which
need by no means display the greatest art) is necessarily that which
goes straightest to the heart and mind. No drawing is true caricature
which does not make the beholder _think_, whet