Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, April 5, 1890 — John Shaqi
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, April 5, 1890Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 98, April 5, 1890
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
_House of Commons, Monday, March 24._--Prince ARTHUR explained in speech
nearly two hours long the bearings of Irish Land Purchase Bill. In
course of his exposition the happy accident by which civilised man is
furnished with two coat-tails was strikingly illustrated. On the
Treasury Bench, behind Prince ARTHUR, sat, on either hand, OLD MORALITY
and JOKIM. Supposing the Prince had had only one coat-tail, differences
might have arisen between his two right hon. friends; sure at some
period of the prolonged speech to come into personal contact if both
pulling at same rope. But the liberal sartorial arrangements which
ARTHUR shared in common with less distinguished Members provided a
coat-tail apiece; so when idea or suggestion occurred to him, OLD
MORALITY tugged at the right-hand one, and when JOKIM had a happy
thought he hauled away on the left.
As both their minds were seething with ideas, ARTHUR had a lively time
of it, and complications of Bill grew in entanglement. Just as he was
assuming, for the sake of argument, that an advance of 30 millions had
been made under the Act for the Purchase of Land in Ireland, and that
seventeen years was about the average value under Lord ASHBOURNE'S Act,
there was a sudden tug of the right coat-tail; Prince leaned over in
that direction; OLD MORALITY whispered in his ear.
"Exactly!" said the Prince; "I was just going to show that the
instalment of 4 per cent. on the advance of 30 millions is £1,200,000 a
year. Very well; suppose that in one year, though the hypothesis is
utterly impossible, that not one single sixpence of annuity is paid. How
would that be?" (Here the left coat-tail was observed to be violently
agitated, and ARTHUR leaning over, JOKIM half-rising, eagerly explained
something.)
"Precisely. My right hon. friend reminds me, what indeed I was just
about to show, that there would be first the £200,000 reserve fund;
secondly, there would be the £200,000 annual probate grant; thirdly,
£40,000 of the new Exchequer contribution, and £75,000 of the quarter
per cent, local per-centage, and there would be besides that £1,118,000
of tenants' reserve. So that without touching the £5,000,000, which was
the landlords' fifth, and without touching a sixpence of the contingent
portion of the guarantee fund, you would have £1,633,000 to meet the
call of £1,200,000."
This prospect of boundless wealth, more especially the familiar way of
putting it, making it quite a personal matter for each Member that _he_
would have £1,633,000 to meet a call of £1,200,000, was designed to have
soothing effect on audience; would, indeed, have succeeded in that
direction but for the coat-tail accompaniment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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