"I wish the British Lion were dead outright," said John Bright, at Edinburgh, in 1853, and Mr. Punch's comment on these words was the funny "Improvement" of the Royal Arms depicted in No. 22.
24.—A REFERENCE TO THE CRIMEAN WAR. BY LEECH, 1854.
With a glance of sympathy at the belated traveller in No. 23, we pass to No. 24, which shows the "Bursting of the Russian Bubble." This was published in Punch, October 14th, 1854, after the Battle of the Alma had been fought and badly lost by Russia and part of the Russian fleet sunk at Sebastopol. Leech here shows very graphically the shattering of the "irresistible power" and of the "unlimited means" which were to have led the Emperor Nicholas I. of Russia to an easy victory over the British and French allied forces.
25.—IN THE EARLY DAYS OF PHOTOGRAPHY; BY "CUTHBERT BEDE," 1853.
No. 25 is another of the caricatures of photography in its early days by "Cuthbert Bede," and very funny it is.
The next picture, No. 26, is one of Punch's classics. It is that well-known joke illustrating manners in the mining districts in the early fifties:—
First Polite Native: "Who's 'im, Bill?"
Second ditto: "A stranger!"