[Illustration: PLEASURES OF HUNTING BY RAIL. JONES'S NEW HORSE--FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE TRAIN STARTS.] * * * * * PAST AND PRESENT OBSTRUCTION. WHERE now are the Parsons, with too high a hand Who whilom were wont things to carry? The sole Clergy known to the Law of the Land, With charter to bury and marry, Whose Pluralists lazily fattened, like swine; Their rubicund joles bloomed like roses: They were used so to soak themselves full of port-wine, That it purpled their overgrown noses. O where and O where are those proud Parsons gone? O where and O where shall we find them, With the waistcoat so full, and the shovel-hat on, As our limners in their days designed them? A sinecure mostly the cure of the souls To which for attention not giving They never feared being called over the coals, They showed forth their fruits of good living. To the Church they were stanch; they held on with a kind Of a power like horseleeches' of suction, Intolerant, bigoted, narrow, and blind, They but lived to persist in obstruction. They evermore voted for absolute rule, For coercion, restraint, and repression, And exclusion, by tests, from each College and School, They opposed every kind of concession. Those Parsons of old are no longer seen here; Now no more do they hamper this nation. They are all gone the way of HERR BREITMANN his beer; They have ceased to obstruct education. The Church has grown broad, throwing open each door, Which, the bigot except, each one enters, And we now, in the place of the Parsons of yore, Behold cross-grained and jealous Dissenters. * * * * * A CARD. H.R.H. THE PRINCE OF WALES would convey, through his friend, _Mr. Punch_, warmest thanks to all his loyal and loving fellow-subjects for their sympathy, earnest interest, and kind inquiries. In due time H. R. H. hopes to make public acknowledgment of the national feeling which has been so nobly testified. Meantime, by advice of his friend above mentioned, H. R. H. signifies that he would be particularly obliged if all Mayors, Beadles, Corporations, Cocked Hats, Town Clerks, Silver Maces, Respected Townsmen, and other Activities would kindly allow him some respite before the flood of Conventional Congratulation is turned on. Might he ask to be allowed the quiet and peace permitted to other convalescents? Would Addressers deign to remember that though he is a Prince, "a man's a man for a' that"? A. E. _Sandringham._ RESPECT THIS! =PUNCH.= _Fleet Street._