"THE COMING STRUGGLE."
THE speculations about the "Coming Man" have amused us for some years; but expectation having been tired out by waiting for the "man," who, though always "Coming, coming, coming!" never came, a new dodge has been started, and we are now called upon—in a pamphlet, price 6d.—to prepare for the "Coming Struggle." According to the author of this rather lucrative speculation the world is very shortly to be at an end, and indeed, it seems that we may as well make arrangements for terminating all business transactions in 1866, for after that the Millennium is to commence, when pecuniary affairs are to be a matter of total indifference. If the author of the "Coming Struggle" is to be believed—and between 100,000 and 200,000 copies of his "speculation" appear to have been sold, which looks as if some people put faith in his announcements—we may expect most of the public companies to begin winding themselves up, and the Insurance offices especially should already begin to refuse insurances on healthy lives, for after 1866 no policy will be payable.
Such is the credulity of the age, that the author of the "Coming Struggle" will, probably, realise by this sixpenny "spec.," a very nice little competency. We would advise him, however, not to carry the experiment too far, or he will invest in paper and print all that he has made: and he has already shown symptoms of a tendency to over-do the thing by bringing out a "Supplement to the Coming Struggle," price also 6d. Sequels are never successful, and having finished off the world comfortably in his first book, we think him injudicious to try the experiment of another. Poor Murphy made a hit with one "Weather Almanack", and, if he had left the thing alone, he might have preserved his reputation as a prophet, but when, unfortunately, he risked another shot and predicted a "coldest day," on which the thermometer was at 60 in the shade, there was an end to his "Weather Almanack" as a source of income. We advise the "Coming Struggle" gentleman to be warned in time and not to speculate in "supplements," or "sequels," but to go altogether on a new tack if he wishes to "put money in his purse," which is probably the chief aim of his "philosophy."
A ROYAL "LUNCH" PREVENTED.
It must be a relief, indeed, to Her Majesty to get away to Scotland, where in the retirement of Balmoral she is at least free from the importunities of that sort of loyalty which deprives her of the common comforts of a private individual. Provincial Mayors are perhaps the greatest pests that Royalty has to encounter; and the Preston Corporation seems to have made itself a fearful bore on the return of the Queen from Scotland. No sooner was it understood that Her Majesty would stop at Preston fifteen minutes to take luncheon, than the Town Clerk issued a circular to all the members of the Corporation, calling on them to meet for the purpose of deciding how the fifteen minutes Her Majesty had allowed herself for refreshment could be consumed by some municipal twaddle, of which Royalty was to be made the recipient. Instead of the Queen being suffered to take her hurried basin of mock-turtle at the station, she was to be bothered with calf's head, in the shape of the Mayor, and a dish of hash was to be set before her in the form of an adulatory address from the authorities.
It is indeed hard that Royalty cannot get a quarter of an hour free for luncheon on a long journey, but is compelled to give up every minute of spare time to the swallowing of a quantity of unwholesome stuff in the way of flattery from the authorities. We admire a loyal address when circumstances render it appropriate and convenient; but to intercept Her Majesty at every resting point on her way, and subject her to the fatigue of listening to and answering a mass of commonplace rubbish from the mouth of a Mayor, is no less impertinent on the part of the authorities, than it must be annoying to the Sovereign. We are quite sure that the Queen would prefer a sandwich to a puff, and a glass of sherry to all the milk-and-water in the world—notwithstanding all the sugar that the authorities might put into it.