or the defendant, a
few miscreants in human shape essayed groans and hisses; they were,
however, speedily put down by the New Police.

We entered the court at nine o'clock. The galleries were crowded with
rank, beauty, and fashion. Conflicting odours of lavender, musk, and _Eau
de Cologne_ emanated from ladies on the bench, most of whom were furnished
with opera-glasses, sandwich-boxes, and species of flasks, vulgarly known
as pocket-pistols. In all our experience we never recollect such a thrill
as that shot through the court, when the crier of the same called out--

BONBON _v_. PUNCH!

Mr. SMITH (a young yet rising barrister with green spectacles) with
delicate primness opened the case. A considerable pause, when--

Mr. CHARLES PHILLIPS, having successfully struggled with his feelings,
rose to address the court for the plaintiff. The learned gentleman said it
had been his hard condition as a barrister to see a great deal of human
wickedness; but the case which, most reluctantly, he approached that day,
made him utterly despair of the heart of man. He felt ashamed of his two
legs, knowing that the defendant in this case was a biped. He had a horror
of the mysterious iniquities of human nature--seeing that the defendant
was a man, a housekeeper, and, what in this case trebled his infamy, a
husband and a father. Gracious Heaven! when he reflected--but no; he would
confine himself to a simple statement of facts. That simplicity would tell
with a double-knock on the hearts of a susceptible jury. The afflicted,
the agonised plaintiff was a public man. He was, until lately, the happy
possessor of a spotless wife and an inimitable spring-van. It was was a
union assented to by reason, smiled on by prudence. Mr. Bonbon was the
envied owner of a perambulating exhibition: he counted among his riches a
Spotted Boy, a New Zealand Cannibal, and a Madagascar Cow. The crowning
rose was, however, to be gathered, and he plucked, and (as he fondly
thought) made his own for ever, the Swiss Giantess! Mr. Bonbon had wealth
in his van--the lady had wealth in herself; hence it was, in every
respect, what the world would denominate an equal match.

The learned counsel said he would call witnesses to prove the blissful
atmosphere in which the parties lived, until the defendant, like a
domestic upas-tree, tainted and polluted it. That van was another Eden,
until PUNCH, the serpent, entered. The lady was a native of
Switzerland--yes, of Switz