This unofficial competition with the Laureate, however, did not prevent _Punch_ from applauding Tennyson's additional stanzas to the National Anthem, which some critics had impugned for their metrical laxity. A little later on, _à propos_ of the Queen's alleged refusal to wear a crinoline in 1859, _Punch_ in a mood of mixed loyalty and levity contributed a new version of his own:-- Long live our gracious Queen, Who won't wear Crinoline, Long live the Queen! May her example spread, Broad skirts be narrowèd, Long trains be shortenèd, Long live the Queen! O storm of scorn arise, Scatter French fooleries, And make them pall. Confound those hoops and things, Frustrate those horrid springs, And indiarubber rings, Deuce take them all! May dresses flaunting wide, Fine figures cease to hide; Let feet be seen. Girls to good taste return, Paris flash modes unlearn, No more catch fire and burn, Thanks to the Queen! The Empress Eugénie, it should be added by way of explanation, had already fallen under the lash of _Punch's_ satire for supporting the crinoline, and starting absurd fashions, amongst which he specially notes the "occipital bonnet"--worn at the back of the head. [Sidenote: _Punch and the Royal Princes_] The Princess Royal was already off the Queen's and _Mr. Punch's_ hands. The birth of her son in 1859--_grande et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum_--is duly celebrated in some lines "On an auspicious event" in which the Duchess of Kent is saluted as a great-grandmother. But in 1859 and 1860 _Punch_, who liked to take himself very seriously as an instructor of youth, is mainly concerned with the education of the Royal Princes. Prince Alfred (the Duke of Edinburgh) was already a middy, and his tour in Egypt and Palestine prompted severe comments on the obsequiousness with which he was _fêted_ in the near East. As for the Prince of Wales, the dangers of sycophancy were (according to _Punch_) much less than those of over-pressure. In the cartoon entitled "The Royal Road to Learning," the Prince in cap and gown is shown surrounded by a group of stout, spectacled, bald and bottle-nosed professors and dons bowing and scraping before the Royal youth. _Punch_ protests, too, in spirited doggerel against the process which threatened to make the Prince Jack-of-all-trades and lord of none. It is at any rate a consolation to think that the Prince of Wales evaded and survived the alleged attempt to convert him into a walking encyclopædia. The Prince's visit to Canada and the United States as "Baron Renfrew" in 1860 is followed with close interest and sympathy, and the frequent references in text and illustrations suggest many curious parallels with the experiences of his grandson in 1920. _Punch_ welcomed the Prince's release from his arduous studies and was gratified with his reception;