That "annual blister, Marriage with deceased Wife's sister," as Gilbert called it, found _Punch_ still faithful to the cause of relief, and exceedingly and impartially wroth against clerical obstructors, Anglican or Roman Catholic, to the extent of depicting Cardinal Manning and Archbishop Benson in the guise of old women. Where the Liquor Laws were concerned, however, _Punch_ was frankly reactionary. In a "Look into Limbo" in July, 1883, he forecasts a general revolt against crotcheteers and faddists, his pet aversion being Local Option, which he defines as "a scheme for giving the six, who love spouting, supreme control over the liberty of the sixty or six hundred who dislike noise, and so hold their tongues until, in self-defence, they are compelled to use them." [Sidenote: _German Militarism_] Foreign politics do not obtrude themselves much on _Punch's_ vision during the Gladstonian administration. But he was alive to the menace of militarism contained in a characteristic speech by Marshal von Manteuffel, the sentiment of which curiously resembles some of the utterances of the ex-Crown Prince William:-- THE PSALM OF DEATH "Gentlemen, I am a soldier, and war is the soldier's element; and well I should like again to experience the elevated feeling of commanding in a pitched battle, knowing that the balls of the enemy are every instant summoning men before the judgment seat of God."--Marshal von Manteuffel to the Provincial Committee of Alsace-Lorraine. What the heart of the young Teuton said to the old Marshal is summed up as follows:-- Tell me not in mournful numbers Death is shocking. Not at all! Death clears off the scum that cumbers This o'er-populated ball. Death is stirring, Death is splendid, (Death of other men, not mine) And its spreading is attended By a feeling great--divine. * * * * * Let us then be up and fighting (_A la_ Marshal von Manteuffel) Set the Mob to mutual smiting, While _we_ sing Death's O be joyful! Gambetta's brief and stormy career had closed at the beginning of the year, and _Punch_ acknowledged the debt which France owed to his passionate patriotism and "wild strength" in a cartoon showing the Republic leaning sadly against his memorial bust while Bismarck, with arms folded, stands in the background.