The Albert Hall was opened on March 28, 1871, and the occasion is seized to administer a comprehensive rebuke to those who found it easy to laugh at the Queen, the Prince Consort, King Cole (Sir Henry Cole) and the Kensington "Boilers." That there were grounds for discontent, and that it was unwise to overlook the existence of industrial unrest, militant Radicalism and Republicanism _Punch_ freely admits in the vigorous doggerel entitled, "Looking Facts in the Face," in which he plays the part of candid friend to Queen, Lords and Commons alike. After examining the just causes for discontent at home, the activities of Bradlaugh and Odger, and the ominous warnings furnished by the Commune and the spread of the new doctrines of Karl Marx and the Internationalists, _Punch_ continues:-- So we, who don't hold that the world To come right must be set topsy-turvy, Those now at the helm from it hurled, And their place taken _crassâ Minervâ_, Had better look squalls in the face, Make snug for a douche and a drenching, And--Queen, Lords, and Commons--embrace The supports that will stand the most wrenching. Were I Queen, I'd not so play my _rôle_, As if bent to prove those right who flout me, And show, while folks pay the Crown toll, How well things can go on without me. Were I Lord, Folly's gales I would thwart, Not by spreading my sails, but by furling 'em: Nor expose my prestige to be caught In the traps of the Gun Club and Hurlingham. Were I in the Commons, I'd strive More than one Bill a Session to carry; Nor abreast all my 'buses to drive, Till all in a block have to tarry. As Queen, Lords, or Commons, in fine, My course by the chart were I making, I should take just the opposite line To that Queen, Lords, and Commons are taking. This was the first time that Karl Marx was mentioned in _Punch_. As for Odger, who is alluded to in the same verses, it may be recalled that at a meeting at Leicester held in this autumn he was credited with the statement that "me and my colleagues have resolved that the Prince of Wales shall never ascend the throne." [Sidenote: _Anti-Monarchical Sentiment_]