Onourd Sur,--This cums hopin youl xcuse the liberty I take in addresin yu, which ime shure you wont think anythink ov, wen I tell yu my objec, which is to make nown a very valubel speeches of hedukashun threw the medium of your valubel collums. I mean drawring bin klasses: i ave bin studdiing hunder Mistr Gander, and wot I rite for his to send yu a speciment of my drawring after receivin six lessons. Yu are at liberty to make any huse ov this that yu please, am yure obedent servant to command, 1 OF THE MILLION. P.S.--i wouldn't mind 'a guiney a week' to make a few more drawrings ov the same karacter as wot I ave sent; or i dont mind havin a go at politix hif yu wood make it wurth mi wile. 8.--A SUPPOSITITIOUS OFFER TO "PUNCH." 1842.] From the first Volume of _Punch_ I have chosen the five pictures here numbered 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. No. 2 is the first picture in _Punch_, a distinction that gives importance to this little sketch [the same size as the original] of a broken-down man at work on the tread-mill. By the first picture, I mean the first that was printed on the numbered pages of _Punch_--this is on page 2 of Vol. I.--for the _Introduction_ contained three wood-cuts, and there was the outside wrapper--of which I shall speak later. But this little cut in No. 2 is really the first of Mr. Punch's famous gallery of black-and-white art. It was drawn by William Newman, and this is one of his so-called "blackies"--little _silhouettes_ that were paid for at the rate of eighteen shillings per dozen. No. 3 is the first of Mr. Punch's long series of cartoons. This was done by A. S. Henning, and it makes a much nicer picture in its present reduced size than in its original large size, where the work is too coarse in texture. In the forties, there were no ingenious photographic processes for reproducing an artist's work to any scale; the work had to be cut on the wood-block and shown the same size as the original drawing. Hence, in a weekly paper such as _Punch_, there was often not much time to spend on the wood-engraving, and so many of the drawings, especially the early ones, are wanting in finish. [Illustration: THE FIRST TOOTH. 9.--THE FIRST PICTURE OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 1843.] Picture No. 4 is the first by famous John Leech--Mr. Punch's first great artist--and in addition to the signature "John Leech" at the bottom of the block, there is in the middle of the design the curious sign-manual, a leech in a bottle, which John Leech often used to mark his work. This first design by Leech was in the fourth number of _Punch_, August 7, 1841, and its title "Foreign Affairs" has reference to the groups of foreign refugees who at that time were specially numerous in Soho and Leicester Square--places that even nowadays are characterized by the presence of numerous and not too desirable foreigners.