AN OLD AND NEW PEER.
DEAR MR. PUNCH,—Look here! I've done good service in my time, and no one likes to see himself deprived of an honoured title, or forced to take a back seat. I've been trodden under-foot over and over again—but I've borne it with fortitude, and never, never given way. Now, what do I hear? That a Gentleman, a Government Whip, for whom I have the highest esteem and respect, is now to assume the title which, by right of position, place, time, and prescription, belongs to me, and to me only, I can bear much, but, after so many years of devoted service, during which, with all my opportunities, I have never once made any attempt to leave my place to go higher up, or to go lower down, or, in either case, to go with the tide, I cannot, and, indeed, will not, yield my title to anyone, however good and useful to his Party he may have been, but proudly declaring myself as good as any "Sprig of Nobility," even as this one who cometh up as a Flower, I beg, protestingly, to remind the world at large that I am "Nulli Secundus," and de facto et dejure,
THE ONLY BATTERSEA PEER.
P.S.—Spell it with an "i" or "e," it's all one. If my "i" is put out, and "he" has got in instead, that's a mere quibble or quebble.
