Mr. PUNCH is obviously not the most fitting person to review his own history. It has been enough for him during the last fifty-four years to make it. But a word must be said in these columns of _The History of Punch_, just issued in a handsome volume by Messrs. CASSELL & CO. Through four years Mr. SPIELMANN has been engaged upon what he indicates on every page has proved a labour of love. There was danger that enthusiastic admiration for the subject might induce in the author a fulsome tone that would have been fatal to the historical and literary value of the book. Mr. SPIELMANN happily avoids that pitfall. He is, upon occasion, sternly and, my Baronite adds, justly critical. But it is the personal traits in his story that will most attract. In his pages there live once more for the world, seen in the borrowed but skilfully managed light of intimate personal acquaintance, figures whose memories are ever enshrined in the hearts of those who still from week to week gather round the old "Mahogany Tree." MARK LEMON, SHIRLEY BROOKS, TOM TAYLOR, LEECH, KEENE, DOUGLAS JERROLD, The PROFESSOR, TOM HOOD, THACKERAY, DICKY DOYLE, WILLIAM BRADBURY, G. A. À BECKETT and, a generation later, his gifted son GIL--all, all are gone, the once familiar faces. They are met with again in Mr. SPIELMANN'S book, the pen and pencil sketches illustrated by admirably reproduced contemporary portraits. The inner history of _Punch_ is a subject that has ever had a fascination for the British public. Attempts, more or less futile, to gratify the desired acquaintance have been made at various times through the last thirty years. Mr. SPIELMANN has not only brought singular aptitude to the task assigned to himself, but has had the advantage of the cordial assistance of divers men having personal knowledge of events they record and personages of whom they speak. _Mr. Punch_ desires to add his testimony to the general approval the _History_ has received by the voice of the Press. The work, full of difficulty and not without delicacy, is thoroughly well done. Looking at himself in the mirror held up by Mr. SPIELMANN, _Mr. Punch_ finds no flaw in the glass.