Lord Hartington, moved by public spirit rather than ambition or enthusiasm, undertook what in the circumstances was the far from enviable task of leading the Liberals. _Punch_ hit off the situation truly enough in the cartoon in which Bright hands the crook of leadership to the "New Shepherd"--and Hartington in his smock-frock replies, "Hey, but Measter!--Where be the sheep?" The parallel is followed up in the doggerel lines:-- The Marquis Bo-Peep Herds the Liberal Sheep-- If he only knew where to find them. Will they ever come home And--please Home Rule and Rome-- Bring their Irish tails behind them? _Punch_, always concerned with the dignity of the Mother of Parliaments, was from the very outset exasperated by the increasing levity and obstructiveness of the new House. The levity he satirized in a series of burlesque entertainments with Mr. Whalley as call-boy and Dr. Kenealy as gasman. Dr. Kenealy's efforts to re-open the Tichborne case ended in absurdity--his motion being supported by only two members, Mr. Whalley and Major O'Gorman, that gigantic playboy of the West.[2] Obstruction, another and far more serious matter, was soon organized into a science, and led to repeated scenes of which more anon. Of the new Ministers, Mr. Ward Hunt, the First Lord, was especially singled out for attack because of his cavalier treatment of the loss of the _Vanguard_ and the Admiralty's Fugitive Slave Circulars. _A propos_ of the former, _Punch_ represented Neptune warning Britannia that there would be a row if she did not rule the waves properly. The Fugitive Slave question led to protracted debates and much hostile criticism. In October, 1875, a cartoon shows a slave crawling on board a British warship and clinging to the flagstaff, while Ward Hunt, popping up from the companion, observes: "A runaway slave, John. You'll have to give him up, you know! See our Circular of July 31." John Bull retorts: "Give 'im up, yer Honour!! As well order me to haul down that there flag at once!!!" A fortnight later Ward Hunt is made to reply to his friend _Punch_:-- We haven't hauled down the British Flag (See one of your recent productions), But we've chosen the other alternative-- We've hauled down our Mis-instructions. [Footnote 2: Major O'Gorman does not appear in the D.N.B. But he inspired an immortal comment from a sympathetic compatriot, who calling to inquire about the Major's progress during a serious illness, was told that he was being kept up by periodic teaspoonfuls of brandy. "Tayspoons!" was the indignant retort. "And what use 'ud a tayspoon be, sthrayin' about in such a wilderness of a man?"]