[Sidenote: _The Bench and the Universities_] On the other hand, judges who jested on the Bench, indulged in judicial clap-trap, or encouraged the public to regard the Courts of Justice as substitutes for theatrical entertainments, are severely handled. _Judex jocosus odiosus_; but the type is, apparently, impervious to satire. Another anticipation of latter-day criticism is to be found in the remark made in 1856: "There was once a Parliament--(we do not live in such times now!)--in which there were few or no lawyers." Even more red-hot in its up-to-dateness is _Punch's_ sarcastic dismissal of the cult of "efficiency" sixty-five years ago:-- _Mr. Punch's_ reverence for the business powers of so-called men of business is not abject. The "practical men," who smile compassionately at schemers and visionaries, are the men who perpetually make the most frightful smashes and blunders. No attorney, for instance, can keep, or comprehend accounts, and a stock-jobber, the supposed incarnation of shrewdness, is the most credulous _gobemouche_ in London. With University authorities, professors, dons, and academics generally, we look in vain for any sign of sympathy, save that _Punch_ condemned the rule which then prevented Fellows from marrying. For the rest, he looked on the older Universities as the homes of mediæval obscurantism, stubbornly opposed to reforms long overdue. Of the two, Oxford fared the worse at his hands on account of the Tractarian movement, Pusey, and Newman. This antagonism was based on political and religious divergences, not on any hostility to learning or the classical curriculum, of which _Punch_ was a supporter, to the extent of printing _jeux d'esprit_ in Latin and Greek in his pages. All along he was a jealous guardian of the "illustrious order of the goose-quill," a sturdy champion of its claims to adequate pay and official recognition, a vigilant critic of the "homoeopathic system of rewards" adopted by the Crown in the Civil List. References to this undying scandal are honourably frequent in the early volumes of _Punch_. It may suffice to quote the letter to Lord Palmerston in the summer of 1856:-- I will not, this hot weather, weary your lordship by specifying every case, but will sum up the account as I find it divided: To Science, Literature, and Art £275 To sundries 925 ------ £1,200 Deduct sundries 925 ------ £275 Due to Science, Literature, and Art 925 ------ Total Civil List £1,200