Perhaps no cartoon of mine in _Punch_ caused such hostile criticism as "The New Cabinet" (August 27, 1892). It gave great offence to the Gladstonians. The Radical Press attacked me ferociously, and as I think most unfairly, for they treated it politically and not pictorially, and severely reprimanded Mr. Punch for publishing it. Had it been a Conservative Cabinet the Tory Press would not have resented it or allowed narrow-minded party politics to prejudice their mind in such trivial matters. _Punch_ is supposed to be non-political. Its present editor is impartial. Mr. Punch's traditions are Whig, and somehow or other a certain class of its readers at that particular crisis was strongly opposed to the two sides of a question being treated. Yet I venture to say two-thirds of the readers of _Punch_ are Conservatives, and should therefore be amused. It is impossible to treat a strong political subject--such as the meeting of that particular Cabinet caricatured by me--without offending some readers by amusing others, unless, as I say, the subject is treated in a colourless manner. This particular cartoon hurt because it hit a strong situation in a truthful and straight-forward manner, and subsequent events proved it to be a correct conception. Yet at the time no name was too bad for me, and as these are my confessions, let me assure the public that had the Cabinet been a Conservative one I would have treated it in exactly the same way; and it is my firm conviction that had such been the case I would have given no offence either inside or outside of Mr. Punch's office. My readers will sympathise with me. I am to draw political cartoons without being political; I am to draw caricatures without being personal; I am to be funny without holding my subject up to ridicule; I am to be effective without being strong--in fact, I am to be a caricaturist without caricature! On the other hand, no cartoon I ever drew for _Punch_ was more popular. Non-politicians were good enough to accept it as an antidote to the usual caricatures, and those papers on the other side of politics were extravagantly complimentary, and I received a large sum for the original for a private collection. I allow the following leaderette from the _Birmingham Post_ to illustrate the point, and at the same time to describe the cartoon. The same paper, I may add, comments on the principal cartoon in _Punch_ that week--drawn by Tenniel--as showing that _Punch_ "thinks little of the prospects of the present Government": [Illustration: REDUCTION FROM ENGRAVING IN _PUNCH_.]