Rus. Big. Good! And now to a pleasanter duty. Have you those hundred thousand copies of Punch that were yesterday seized at the frontier?
Sub. I have, my Lord!
Rus. Big. (with fiendish glee). To Siberia with them! Come, help me to post them!
Sub. (trembling). But, my Lord, should Punch be read by the political prisoners who lie covered with chains in the secret mines under the lowest mountain in the Czar's dominions? What then?
Rus. Big. (in an awesome whisper). Mark me well! In the present pitiable state of the prisoners, such a feast of mirth-compelling waggery would kill them—yes, kill them—with laughter!
[Exeunt stealthily to put this craftily-conceived plot into guilty execution.
A NEW LEADER.
["At present the followers are obliged to be amiable because the Leader is amiable. Under the Leader I suggest they would be less amiable, and would be at liberty to say stronger things."—Mr. ATKINSON, M.P., in the House of Commons.]