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NEW MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.
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CAmCATUllA. for moment the faofcthat certain
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¦ WTT HATEVER the amount of moral weight the new members VV may have brought to the parliament of 1859 , it can hardly be predicated that they have added much oratorical force or political strength to either side . of the House . Certainly , the election in May did restore to the speaking 1 portion of the members a gentleman who , if he does not stand in the first rank of finished Classical orators , doubtless takes a foremost place as one of the most forcible , and with a certain qualification , one of the most practical debaters in the Houses—Mr . Richard Cobden . It is also true that among the reappearances were Mr . B . Osbobne , Mr . Digby Seymoue , Colonel Dunne , and several other orators of equivalent mental calibre , who are heard in the House on multifarious questions with g-ood humour , and not unfiequently with marked attention ; but the gain does not , by any means , overbalance the loss , when we call to recollection those whom death has summoned before a more awful tribunal than a House of Commons , and those who
relinquished their seats from various causes . Fewer changes occurred in the parliament of 1859 than has ever been the case since the Reform measure of 1832 . The number of new members when the new parliament assembled in May last , did not exceed 144 . Since that period about twenty-five seats have been vacated , either by promotion to the House of Lords , by death , or by surrender . At present , the epithet " respectable" is all that can be said in favour of the new members , whether claimed by the Liberal or by the Conservative party . Possibly there may be some second Pitt or Canning , some " Heaven-born genius , " who only waits for the proper time to show the world that he is the " proper man ; " but as matters stand at present , the revelation is not yet made , nor has any clue to his whereabouts been afforded by the keenest scrutiny . As far as votes are concerned , the Liberal ( not the pure Whig ) party has had most reason to rejoice . The Conservatives have certainly lost strength lately , though this we know they are disposed' unrehas Michell
servedly to deny . ' Bodmin , for instance , seen Dr . , who took his place on the Conservative benches , replaced by Mr . Wild , who sits vis-a-vis to the great but erratic Conservative leader . Beverley has . yet . to make its choice . . Berwick has exchanged Mr . Eablij : for Mr . MajokibankSj and -. here- the Liberals have no cause to lairient . Dartmouth , once Rejoicing in a Sciienley , now glories in a Dunn . Devonport * has lost ' her ' twin- representatives ,- —Mr . Wilson ( wlro is trying his hand as a regenerator of Indian finances ) and Sir E . Pekuy ; the borough finds its politics now harmoniously reflected in Sir M . Seymour and Sir A . Buli , ek . Gloucester yet waits for its representative . Hull , Conservative in predilection , exchanges a Hoake for a Somes ; the latter gentleman , from his position as a shipowner , by far the more fitting—we do riot say the more able—representative of a seaport constituency . Liskeard las parted with no honour in replacing a Gr ey with a Beenal Osborne . Lewes sustained a loss by ., the death of the Right Hon . Henry Fitzuoy , albeit that ridht lion , gentleman once took
rankjj with the Tory party , but iii older and perhaps- wiser years holdly resigned his" old lamps" on Conservative benches , to take fondly to " new" ones on Liberal seats . At present Lewes is unrepresented , but very few days will elapse before the vacancy is filled . Norwich is in the same temporary predicament . Northampton lost her member by translation to the Upper House , and found a congenial substitute in Lord Henley . Pontefract lias its seat yet unfilled . Reading- mourns for that man of true talent whom-it delighted "' to honour , and who now adorns the Bench , Sir H . Keating , The vacancy is supplied by Sir F . Gqldsmid . Whitby ' s loss was perhaps the severest of all . Death robbed it of one of the sons of genius , whom an admiring world will ever rank amongst its most gifted men . Robert Stephenson is known
at' Whitby no more , and Mr . Thompson fills his place . Why Mr . Thompson should have succeeded against Mr . CitAi'AtAN , who , if not a shipowner , is closely connected with thq shipping interest , and who had the united influence of the Shipowners' Society in his favour , is an electioneering mystery that nobody appears able to solve , Mr . Thompson , however , is a man of acknowledged abiljty , and the Liberal party will have no cause to regret this latest accession to their ranks . Wakofield waits unrepresented for the present . Taunton , following- tho wako of Hull , has added another item to the Conservative body by substituting for an ennobled Labouchere Mr . G . C , Brntinck . This closes our list of vacancies and replacements in the English bproughs , and next week wo shall briefly enumerate the Scotch and Irish . We have more particularly referred
to tho English members who ljnve found their way into the Parliament since tho General Election . Tho new members returned at thp general contost have already had their politioal claims tolerably well settled , as far ng public estimation of their political weight and tendencies are eoncornod . But the later untried members have an interest all their own , because their elections afford a kind of prospective indication of the class on which pppular suffrages will most liberally be bestowed . The recent members generally have been returned not so much as political adherents of this or that parly—of this or that leader j but they have been returned as exponents of tho liberal , or rather the " popular" party . This may prove significant of tho probable composition of the next House , whon the anticipated Reform Bill comes into operation .
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IF we consider , a , a weekly paper has existed for very nearly twenty years , and has roached ite thirtyninth half-yearly volume , having 1 for its sole purpose badinage , and social onU political caricature , wu inujjtt admit that tho English as a
nation are tolerably fond of the pastime . When we inquire further we shall find that Mr . Punch has been carried forward upon .. oneUninterrupted tide of success ; that he has spared no one , from the lowest to the highest personage in the realm , from the costermonger to the archbishop ; that , in the words of Pope , "No place is sacred , not the Church is free '' from the intrusions of this mime , who deals on \ all sides very shrewd raps ; and that , after all , few have been seriously offended , and none have been outraged by him , we must own that the nation lias shown very general good sense and a high appreciation of the work , and that the conductors of it have carried forward their design , with consummate ability . The modern caricaturist has not been without rivals . ;; the Penny Punch , Judy , the Puppet-Show , Toby , the Clown , the Great Chin , Man in , the Moon , Pasquin , Diogenes , and other rivals , more or less insignificant , have troubled his reign , and have shared with him some little of his popularity . But one by one these empty bladders have collapsed , and the artists and authors who conducted them have sought other rafts or have gone down in the stream . It is all very well for people who are so much wiser than their own generation to sneer at Punch . They who sneer are frequently the most hurt by his Mlori ; he could safely retort upon them with the old saying , —Do better if you can ; joke every week for twenty years with greater success j hit the passing folly as it flies more frequently than I do , but si non Ms utere mecum . The plain fact seems to be that the work is itself worthy of great admiration , nay more , of respect ; that it has done great good , instilled a general cheerfulness and good humour , and that in no nation or time could a parallel example of the success and beneficial effects of caricature be pointed out to that afforded by Punch . Weak he often is , foolish sometimes ; less frequently he is snobbish ; but in the immense mass of matter which has for twenty years made us laugh it would indeed be curious if wo did not find stains and blemishes ;—the wonder is that we find so few . The tide of caricature has flown evenly since the establishment of the Journal alluded to . It is quite true that there must be a considerable strain on the professional joker , who has to find a certain number of objects upon which he must be funny in the events of every week ; but they who make a wonder of this quite overlook the fact that there is it solid substratum of humour in the English character , which affords a perpetual and rich mine to those who choose to dig . Joking becomes habitual , and caricature has existed in all ages . Only the other day , a learned Italian made the . public aware of the existence of a quantity of rude caricatures on the wiiLIs of Pompeii , drawn by the loiterers about the city , or those who waited for the opening of the Circus , or the cominencenienfc of the Comedy . On the walls of the . buried city are the chalk scratches of humorists who lived two thousand years ago , distinguished , rude as they are , by the same intentions as bur own of yesterday . Addison defines the art as consisting ¦ " m preserving amidst distorted proportions and aggravated features ., some distinguishing likeness of the person . " Hence the gigantic noses , the tricks of the eye , the mouth ,-the- curl of the hair , which caricaturists preserve but exaggerate . Hence , also , the derivation of the word from the Italian caricare , to overload . Tn pain tin it ,- caricature has much the same affinity to the historical , as burlesque to the epic in poetry . A finely drawn caricature would bear the same analogy to the Last Judgment of Michel Angelo as the lorn Thumb of Fielding does to the Eumenidcs of JEscuxlvs , or the-Hamlet of Shakspeb . e . One caricaturist we English have had , unequalled in invention and in fine drawing , and who may not inappropriately be termed the Michel Angelo of his art , —the renowned James Gilkay . English History , of the later amidmost interesting . poriotl , owes some of its best elucidations to caricature ; and tlio rise ot these pictures maybe traced , to the . Dutch . The great Protector ( Mr . Carlyle might shudder at the fact ) was continually subject to tho wicked wit of the artist ,, and the gross drawings were bought by hundreds among the king ' s party . Some of theso ^ weroof so obscure and stupid a nature , that it has been supposed that old whites were purchased to supply the market ,. the legends boing erased , and others appropriate to the time substituted . The same dishone s t but profitable game was carried on during the time of tho Synth Sen bubble ; and a collection of such pictures , bound in one volume , was issued under the Dutch title of the " Great Picture of Folly . " Our own Hogarth followed , unapproached in his wit , pungency , and observation , who may claim to bo the prince of caricaturists , and the wits of his day soon perceived his power . Fielding , in " him Jones , " tho great prose epic of human i ature , as Byhon hiith scntentiously called it , continually appeals to Hogarth . bwirr aposti'ophised him thug :- — " How I wtint thoo , humorous Hogart t Thou , I hoar , a pleasant rogue art . Wore but you and I acquainted , Kvory monster should bo . painted ; You should try . your graving tools . On this odious group of fools . Draw thorn Hko , for I assuro-a ITou'll nood no ( Htriaalunt * Draw thorn so that wo may trace All tho soul in overy face . " What HoaAKTn ( SwiPi . is right , by tho way , in dropping tho final h ) made of caricature , all who have studied his works can toil . There is no need now to panegyrise him . Ho was a groat morn ist , and every touch of his , from tl , o first picture ho painted to tho last auction card he etched ; has in it a profuse ^ satire which w « 8 hovq » meant to injure , but always to improve . Ho who tlach ™^\ JJ learnt move out of Uooautu ' s Ow / m , tliuu ol « i . y other , who wij
Untitled Article
Jan . 14 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 41
New Members Of Parliament.
NEW MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT .
Camcatulla. For Moment The Faofcthat Certain
for moment the faofcthat certain CARICATUilA .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 14, 1860, page 41, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2329/page/13/
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