And the Dream—it is dream fashion—grew confused, but Mr. Punch thinks there was a scramble for the rest of the things, and that everybody snatched what he could. Mr. Gladstone, seizing, with tax-gatherer's gripe, what he thought was a work on Theology, got "The Whole Duty—off Paper." Emperor Louis Napoleon departed very happy with a Cradle. Lord Palmerston went out, angry with a Scotch Compass, which though only just out of the Trinity House, had an abominable bias to N.E. Pope Pius ran about most uncomfortably, apprehending the loss of a French Watch and Guard, to go without which would, His Holiness said, be his ruin. Mr. Disraeli made several vain grabs at a portfolio, which Britannia, laughing good-natured scorn, refused to let him have; and when the Earl of Derby tried for the same thing, she presented him with a Racing Game, as more suitable to his capabilities. Several Aldermen, who had presented specimens of Mendacity, received packets of tickets, inscribed Mendicity, to everybody's delight, and there was a cheer for a bold Bishop, who had put down a Carriage and was content to take up a little Gig. Another Bishop—he had a Fulham cut—found his mitre, but some one, in unseemly satire, had surmounted it with a golden and most vivacious Weathercock.
"And what would you put down, dear Mr. Punch," said the Lady of the Revel, "if we began again?"
"This, dear Lady," said Mr. Punch, gracefully bending, and proffering an object at which the eyes of Britannia sparkled like diamonds, "this—which—as your game is over, I will pray you to keep in pledge that, six months hence, I will present you with its still richer successor."
And Britannia—the smile at her heart reflected in her face—accepted
VOLUME XXV.——JULY TO DECEMBER, 1853.
THE ABERDEEN CABINET.—1853.