Mad mobs in Town
Are a vile nuisance that must be put down;
But you're not a "Procession," don't you know,—
You are—a "Show"!
"CHARLES OUR FRIEND."
Bravo, Sir Charles Warren! The roughs may consider you a Rabid Warren, but what does that matter to you, or to us, or to any lover of order, peace, and quietness in this vast Metropolis? You're not a weasel to be caught napping, and your recent Proclamation is admirable, if its provisions be only justly and exactly carried out. Your arrangements too—talking of provisions—for housing the houseless, seem to be remarkably judicious. Mr. Punch trusts that the Processions which you mention, and "the wandering bands perambulating the streets," which you are going to consider as disorderly, will be taken to include those disturbers of our Sunday Quiet, calling themselves Members of the Salvation Army, who, it is to be hoped, in every district wherever their presence is not welcome to a majority of the respectable residents, will be summarily dispersed and their noise stopped. On working days let perambulating bands come out for air and exercise, only let them take care that their "air" be always in tune. That schools and clubs should have their bands is an excellent thing. But there are six days in the week for noise, and the Salvationists can let us have our Sunday in peace. Mr. Punch is all for freedom of speech, and so he speaks out freely. He is all for the liberty of the subject, but the subject must remember that he is a subject, and Mr. Punch takes the liberty to remind him of it. At the meeting of real working men of business to protest against these meetings in Trafalgar Square, Mr. Frederick Gordon spoke up for his Metropole-itan interests in Grand style. The Home Secretary, it is to be hoped, carefully pondered the speeches of these practical gentlemen. Mr. Attenborough, too,—"O, my prophetic soul, my uncle!"—gave distinct evidence of the injury done to trade in and about Trafalgar Square. The Rev. Mr. Kitto moved a resolution, and Mr. Biddulph seconded it,
Saying ditto
To Mr. Kitto.
And Mr. Punch once more expresses his hope that the first Act of next Session will be one to regulate meetings and processions in and about London, whereby orderly citizens may enjoy their rights undisturbed. Trafalgar Square and all our great thoroughfares should be "proclaimed districts," as regards the loafers, roughs, and rowdies whose object is plunder, and whose end is—or, at least, should be—punishment.