It is, above all, necessary that the middle classes and the poor should see and feel that if the aristocracy has the monopoly of titles and the lion's share of the dignities and offices of the State, instead of hoarding, it nobly expends its revenues in those luxuries which emanate from the ingenuity and labour of the industrious. And again--the italics and capitals are _Punch's_:-- Ever since the Italian lyrical drama crossed the Alps in the suites of the tasteful Medicis, its vogue has daily increased, it has become a ruling passion--it is the quintessence of all civilized pleasures; and wherever its principal virtuosi hoist their standard, there for the time is the CAPITAL OF EUROPE, where the most illustrious, noble, elegant and tasteful members of society assemble. These _ornaments of society_ are in general absent at the too early opening of Her Majesty's Theatre; but on Saturday, as we surveyed the house previous to the overture, most of those who _constitute society_ in England--those whom we _respect, esteem or love_--rapidly filled the house. Every seat in every part of it was occupied, and if _those objectionable spectators were there_--those gentlemen of ambiguous gentility, the fashionable couriers, valets, _tailors_ and _shoemakers_, who obtain admission to the pit on the strength of knowing the measure of some actor or actress's foot--_they and their frowsy dames_ were so nailed _to their benches as not to offend the eye_. These effusions, and others equally unbridled in their assertion of the divinity of kings and coronets, prompted _Punch_ to adorn "Jenkins" with the _alias_ of Lickspittleoff. It was not a nice name, but _Punch_ might have retorted _tâchez de ne pas le mériter_. [Sidenote: _The Underpaid Governess_] From servants to governesses the transition in those days was only too easy. _Punch's_ study of the advertisements in this branch of the "slave market" began early, and let us hope to good purpose, though as I write the comparative rates of remuneration for cooks and teachers are still open to criticism. In the autumn of 1843, commenting on an advertisement in _The Times_, in which "S. S." offered a salary of £2 a month to "a morning daily governess of ladylike manners for three or four young female pupils, capable of imparting a sound English education, with French, music and singing, dancing and drawing, unassisted by masters," _Punch_ observes:--