In 1848, Louis Napoleon had been elected to the French Presidency ...; 1849 witnessed the commencement of those violent political struggles which were the forerunners of internal conspiracies; and 1851 saw this practical anarchy suddenly put a stop to by the famous, or infamous, _coup d'état_ of December 2nd. Towards the end of that month a very modest wood-cut, bearing the legend "Sketch of the Patent Street-sweeping Machines lately introduced at Paris" appeared on p. 264 of "Mr. Punch's" journal. It represented a couple of cannon drawn with the waviest of outlines, and the letter "A" marked upon the ground directly in their line of fire [see No. 10.--J. H. S.].... This was the first appearance of Keene's pencil in the pages which he was destined to adorn with increasing frequency as time went on for nearly forty years. The sketch is unsigned. Indeed, it was only at the urgent request of his friend, Mr. Silver, in whose brain the notion had originated, that the drawing was made, the artist bluntly expressing his opinion that the joke was a mighty poor one. [Illustration: FIRST DESIGN.] [Illustration: SECOND DESIGN.] [Illustration: THIRD DESIGN.] [Illustration: FOURTH DESIGN.] [Illustration: FIFTH DESIGN.] [Illustration: SIXTH DESIGN.] [Illustration: 14.--MR. PUNCH'S "WARDROBE OF OLD COATS." BEING THE SIX DESIGNS FOR THE FRONT PAGE OF THE WRAPPER OF "PUNCH" WHICH PRECEDED THE DESIGN NOW IN USE.] Pictures 11 to 13 bring us to No. 14, which contains small facsimile reproductions of the six designs on the front of the _Punch_-wrapper, which preceded the well-known design by Richard Doyle, now used every week. These little pictures have been made direct from the original _Punch_-wrappers in my possession, as it was found impossible to get satisfactory prints in so small a size as these from the much larger blocks that Messrs. Cassell and Company very kindly lent to me, impressions from which can be seen by readers who may like to study the detail of these designs in Mr. Spielmann's "History of Punch," which contains a full account of them. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that when these designs were made it would have been impossible to obtain from them the excellent reduced facsimiles now shown, which, by the way, have only now been obtained after several attempts--as each of these pretty little pictures has been reduced from the full size of the ordinary _Punch_-page. [Illustration: 15.--BY LEECH. 1852.]