PART I.--1841 TO 1849.

Mr. Punch has, perhaps, never given a better proof of ability to gauge the public mind of this country than that contained in the following lines, quoted from the issue dated November 5, 1898:

A WARNING WORD.

[_From Mr. Punch's "Vagrant."_]

Dear Punch,--I am not one to bellow Nor am I much on bloodshed bent; I'm not a tearing Jingo fellow, All fuss, and froth, and discontent.

[_Here follow some verses relating to political affairs, and then come the lines printed below. J. H. S._]

We have another, sterner matter-- The Frenchman posted on the Nile.

Not his to reason? True! I like him, His skill to act, his pluck to dare. I'd sooner cheer him, far, than strike him-- But why did others send him there? In truth, they did not mean to please us; They must have realised with joy That MARCHAND on the Nile must tease us, And sent him merely to annoy.

So be it then: we know what's what now, And what the Frenchmen would be at. Though Major MARCHAND's on the spot now, He's got to pack and go--that's flat. We're tired of gracefully conceding, Tired, too, of jibe and jeer and flout; Our answer may show lack of breeding, But there it is--a plain "Get out."

If one should, thinking I am weak, Sir, Smite me on one cheek black and blue, I'm told to turn the other cheek, Sir, But not _both_ cheeks and forehead too. Year in, year out, they've tried to spite us, We've borne it with a sorry grin; And now--well, if they _want_ to fight us, Coat's off, and let the fun begin!

_Punch_ published these lines just before Lord Salisbury announced at the Mansion House dinner, given in honour of Lord Kitchener on November 4, that France had come round to our view of the Fashoda question, and _Punch's_ neat verses just quoted give an excellently succinct and pithy expression to the feeling of the average peace-loving Briton, who has become quite weary of being diplomatically played with by France in our colonial affairs, and who was, and is, quite ready to "take off his coat."

The preceding illustration of Mr. Punch's terse and true expression of public opinion is the most recent that can now be given, but as one looks through the pages of the 113 Volumes of _Punch_, which bring this famous periodical to the end of the year 1897, one notices many other examples of Mr. Punch's acute discernment and pithy expression of the public mind, which have been stepping-stones of fame to him during his long life of nearly sixty years, quite apart from the weekly dish of good things offered by Mr. Punch to his public.

Thanks to the kindness of Messrs. Bradbury and Agnew, the proprietors of _Punch_, I am able to give to the general public some of the pleasure that comes from the possession of a complete set of _Punch_. In reading one's _Punch_ the pleasure is much enhanced by Mr. M. H. Spielmann's most admirable book, "The History of Punch" [_Cassell and Company, Limited, 1895_], for Mr. Spielmann is probably the best living authority on this subject, and his researches, which extended over four years, enable the ordinary _Punch_-lover to find many points of great interest [specially in the early Volumes] which, without Mr. Spielmann's book, might be passed over without notice. Some of the _Punch_ engravings now shown have been found by the aid of Mr. Spielmann's book, which is a thoroughly reliable and quite indispensable Text-Book on _Punch_, while, on other points, I have been privileged to consult Mr. W. Lawrence Bradbury and Mr. Philip L. Agnew as well as Mr. Spielmann himself.

When the Queen came to the throne there was no _Punch_. He was conceived in circumstances of much mystery, for many have claimed the honour of his paternity. The historian of _Punch_ has devoted a long chapter to this matter of _Punch's_ paternity, and has judicially weighed the evidence for or against each claimant. Mr. Spielmann writes:--

Yet although it was not ... Henry Mayhew who was the actual initiator of _Punch_, it was unquestionably he to whom the whole credit belongs of having developed Landell's specific idea of a "Charivari," and of its conception in the form it took. Though not the absolute author of its existence, he was certainly the author of its literary and artistic being, and to that degree, as he was wont to claim, he was its _founder_.

Thus, the opinion of the best authority is that Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells were the real founders of _Punch_.

Early in 1841, after several discussions between the members of the first staff of _Punch_, the original prospectus was drawn up by Mark Lemon. The first page of this three-page foolscap document is shown in reduced facsimile in illustration No. 1 of this article. An excellent facsimile, on the original blue foolscap paper, is bound up in a little anonymous pamphlet published in the year 1870, "Mr. Punch: His Origin and Career": but Mr. Bradbury told me that many of the statements about _Punch_ in this pamphlet are erroneous, although the document is an exact copy of the original in Mr. Bradbury's possession, which happens just now to be packed away in a warehouse, and so cannot be photographed.

It is interesting to see in No. 1 that the name _Punch_ was substituted for the struck-out title, "The Fun ----." It has been suggested that the title thus cut short in favour of the single word _Punch_ was to have been "The Funny Dogs with Comic Tales," and the prospectus ends with the words, "Funny dogs with comic tales." The price was written "Twopence," although the price of _Punch_ has always been Threepence.

As regards the sudden change of title to _Punch_--a change made, as we see from the facsimile, while Mark Lemon was in the very act of writing the title--Mr. Spielmann has recorded that there are as many versions as to the origin of _Punch's_ name as of the origin of the periodical itself.

Hodder declares that it was Mayhew's sudden inspiration. Last asserted that when "somebody" at the _Edinburgh Castle_ meeting spoke of the paper, like a good mixture of punch, being nothing without Lemon, Mayhew caught at the idea and cried, "A capital idea! We'll call it _Punch_!"

There have been many other claimants to the distinction of having thought of the title "Punch," which is certainly an infinitely better title than "Funny Dogs with Comic Tales" and much better than "The Funny Dogs," which I suggest may have been the title Mark Lemon began to write, judging from the place on the paper (see No. 1), where he began with the words, "The Fun ----"; for if he had intended to write the longer title, "The Funny Dogs with Comic Tales," he must have run the last part of this long title too far to the right of his paper to be consistent with the symmetrical position given to his other headings, etc., on the sheet of foolscap: a practised writer unconsciously allows enough space for the symmetrical setting out of his headlines, etc., and that Mark Lemon was a specially practised writer is very clearly shown by inspection of this interesting facsimile.

The first number of _Punch_ came out on the 17th July, 1841, at 13, Wellington Street, Strand. There was a good demand for it, two editions of five thousand copies each being sold in two days. This demand was caused by advertising in various ways, including the distribution of 100,000 copies of a printed prospectus that was nearly identical with the draft whose first page has been shown here.

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.

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.

The facsimile in No. 5 is from the commencement of Thackeray's first literary contribution to _Punch_, and the sketch which forms the initial letter T is also by Thackeray. Mr. Spielmann says this sketch is "undoubtedly" by Thackeray; the full contribution is on page 254 of