I pass over the "In Memoriam" lines on the good Lord Shaftesbury in the previous year. They render full justice to his splendid and life-long service on behalf of the "helpless thralls of trade" and the "all unchildlike children" "victims of modern Molochs," "all who creep or fall on poverty's rough road or crime's steep slope"; but they are otherwise laboured and diffuse. Sincerity is no guarantee of literary excellence. _Punch_ shows to greater advantage in the lines on Newman in August, 1890, who is lauded, not as a great Cardinal nor as one Above all office and all state, Serenely wise, magnanimously great; Not as the pride of Oriel, or the Star Of this host or of that in creed's hot war, But as the noble spirit, stately, sweet, Ardent for good without fanatic heat, Gentle of soul, though greatly militant, Saintly, yet with no touch of cloistral cant; Him England honours, and so bends to-day In reverent grief o'er Newman's glorious clay. [Sidenote: _Lord Granville and W. H. Smith_] Two statesmen, widely differing in birth, temperament and character, are commemorated in 1891. Of Lord Granville _Punch_ writes:-- Bismarckian vigour, stern and stark As Brontë's self, was not his dower; Not his to steer a storm-tost bark Through waves that whelm, and clouds that lower. Temper unstirred, unerring tact Were his. He could not "wave the banner," But he could lend to steely act The softly silken charm of manner. Mr. W. H. Smith was a much harder subject for eulogy, for he was not a "dæmonic genius," an orator, or a romantic figure, but simply a good plain honest servant of his country. Yet _Punch's_ verses, if not inspired by high poetic rapture, are something more than adequate in their appreciation of Mr. W. H. Smith's solid qualities:-- A capable, clear-headed, modest toiler, Touched with no egoist taint, To Duty sworn, the face of the Despoiler Made him not fear or faint. O'erworn, o'erworked, with smiling face, though weary, The tedious task he plied; Sagacious, courteous, ever calm and cheery, Unsoured by spleen or pride. As unprovocative as unpretentious, Skilful though seeming slow; Unmoved by impulse of conceit contentious To risk success for show. O rare command of gifts, which, common branded, Are yet so strangely rare! Selflessness patient, judgment even-handed, And spirit calmly fair! To turn from grave to gay, I may round off this collection with two zoological elegies. When "Jumbo," the famous elephant at the Zoo, whose purchase by Barnum and departure from London had provoked a grotesque explosion of sentimentality, was killed by a railway accident in America in 1885, Punch recorded his decease in the following epigram:--