ary tone. It was tolerance, political and
religious, and wider sympathy than had lately been the case. The heavy
political partisanship of Tom Taylor gave way to the more beneficent
neutrality of Mr. Burnand--a personal neutrality, at least, even though
Whig proclivities still coloured the cartoons to a certain, yet not
unreasonable degree. And a larger religious tolerance and warmer
magnanimity developed in _Punch_, such as comes chiefly from quarters
where oppression has been known.

So he who has been called "the Commandant of the Household Brigade of
British Mirth" has marched gaily along in _Punch's_ service for more
than thirty years. Prodigal of his jokes, he sometimes makes the best of
them outside the pages of his paper. Thus in November, 1893, he wrote to
the press in contradiction of the statement made by a police-court
prisoner named Burnand, that he was the brother of the editor of
_Punch_: "I beg to say that I have no brother, and never had any
brother. I have two half-brothers (this man is neither of them), but two
half-brothers don't make one whole brother." And people chuckled as the
little joke was copied from one paper to another all over the
English-speaking world, and applauded the excellent quaintness of
_Punch's_ Aristophanes. So, when a fictitious dinner of the _Punch_
Staff at Lord Rothschild's was reported in the press, Mr. Burnand
briefly dismissed the matter with the remark that the only dish
was--_canard_.

Again, in the autumn of 1894, when he fell ill, alarming reports were
spread. One of his colleagues on the Staff received a request for a
column obituary notice of the dying man from the editor of a leading
daily newspaper. But Mr. Burnand was much better, and was greatly
cheered on learning the particulars. "Really," he said, "that's more
than I expected. A column! Why, that's what they gave to Nelson and the
Duke of York!"

Mr. J. Priestman Atkinson's literary achievements in _Punch_ are spoken
of in the chapter where "Dumb Crambo's" pictorial contributions are
treated. From August, 1877, to October, 1880, they are frequent, and
consist for the most part of fanciful verse accompanied by cuts from the
same hand. There is a charming prose story, however, in the Pocket-Book
for 1879, seasonably entitled "The Invention of Roast Goose." But with
Mr. Burnand's editorship Mr. Atkinson's energies were exclusively
concentrated on humorous sketches and "Dumb Crambo" eccentricities.

In 1864