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    THE TOMAHAWK. A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATI...

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    No. 153.] LONDON, APRIL g, 1870. [Price ...

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    THE MODERN QUIXOTE.

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    Cervantes laughed the chivalry of Spain ...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sati...

    THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . OEMtefc fcp frxtttur MM ^ Mt aB ^ n ^ B ^ KM ^ IM a' 3 £ e * fcett * " INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . "

    No. 153.] London, April G, 1870. [Price ...

    No . 153 . ] LONDON , APRIL g , 1870 . [ Price Twopence .

    The Modern Quixote.

    THE MODERN QUIXOTE .

    Cervantes Laughed The Chivalry Of Spain ...

    Cervantes laughed the chivalry of Spain to scorn . We have no wish to do the same kind office to the House of Commons , although we have really to hand a hero quite as grotesque as the celebrated Don Quixote . Unhappily our type of the popular branch of the legislature is scarcely as chivalric as we could wish him to be . He is as blind to facts as Cervantes ' most warlike Spaniard , and fully as crotchety , but we miss in him that true nobility of soul , that perfect courtesy , that veritable gentleness that so markedly distinguished his foreign prototype . To make our meaning plainer , perhaps it will be as well to give a short account of the last exploit of the subject of our remarks . Without that exploit our readers would probably have never heard of his name , as in sober truth he is but a simple Member of Parliament , representing some Irish Constituency or other ( let us in courtesy say ) with efficiency . His name is Downing , and nothing we understand that he has ( as yet ) done has rendered that respectable , but not particularly distinguished name worthy the remembrance of the historian , or even the sage . We know nothing of him personally , but have not the smallest doubt but what he is a perfect gentleman , a sincere Christian , and the rest of it , in his private capacity , as a legislator , however , we very much fear that he is generally alluded to by the multitude as "a Mr . Downing , " or perhaps even ( and we blush to make the suggestion ) as " One of the Irish lot . " Had he been contented to live in dignified obscurity in St . Stephens he would never have been troubled by our remarks ; had he refrained from attacking us in Parliament with unfounded chargeswe should have treated him with not , unfriendly indifference ; had he , when his charges were proved to have no foundation , expressed the contrition we asked of him , we would have forgiven him the wrong he had done us frankly and freely . As , however , he has not remained in healthy obscurity , has attacked us with unfounded chargesand has not , expressed regret thereat , it is our duty to comment upon his conduct—not on our own account , but on behalf of the nation at large . On Friday , the 25 th ult ., in the course of the debate upon the Irish Preservation of Peace Bill , Mr . Downing rose to propose an amendment upon those excellent clauses that deal with the " National" press . Mr . Downing in his speech was not very much to the point , nor very brilliant . He seemed to be jealous of the Governmental interference with the Irish pressand de-, manded equality—if the Irish press was to be suppressed let the English press be suppressed too—thatin factwas the sum , ,

    proposition total of his words ; but . we We do have denounce not the the smallest shameful objection attack to with his ¦ which that proposition was made . Mr . Downing had actually the audacity to declare that we countenanced agrarian outrage in Ireland ! It will be unnecessary to remind our readers that , since this paper was started , more than three years ago , there has never been a more sincere opponent and bolder denouncer of Hibernian terrorism and Fenian treason than the Tomahawk . Over and over again we have filled our columns with article after article , painting crime in Ireland in its true colours ; over and over again has our Cartoon been devoted to the severest condemnation of Fenianism . This being the case , Mr . Downing ' s charge caused us to feel astonishment , pain , and disgust . Fortunately , he was imprudent enough to make his charge specific instead of general , thus enabling us to deal with it at once . He asserted that in a certain cartoon , entitled " Cause and Effect , " published in this paper in October last , we defended the most loathsome cases of foul murder—the shooting of landlords . We can scarcely do better than give our letter as published in the Times of Monday , the 28 th ult . To t 7 ie Editor of The Times . by Sir Mr , . — Downing As the attention on Friday of ni the ght House to a cartoon of Commons that appeared was called in the Tomahawk in October last , and which he alleged to be a trust seditious I may picture be permitted as justif to ying state agrarian that he outrag has misconceived e in Ireland , its I meaning . The article accompanying the cartoon in question , tenant which represented of unprepossessing in one compartment appearance , and a landlord , in the ejecting other , the a landlord shot , was entitled "A National Curse , " and contained the " following Horrible is passage it to contemp : — late a cruel eviction avenged by a more cruel murder , and we have nothing to offer the red-handed coward but the gallows . Doubtless he has been outraged mercilessly ; still he must go the way of all murderers . He must be sent without a tear of sympathy , without a murmur of exthese cuse , and hedgerow straightway philosophers to the gallows must . be Murder taught the is murder lesson , tho and - roughly and continually . " I am , Sir , your obedient servant , THE EDITOR OF THE " TOMAHAWK . " 199 , Strand , W . C ., March 26 . As we had been libelled in the Houseit seemed to us just , that in the House our justification should be made . Accordingly we wrote to Mr . Downing to the following effect : We told him that so far from having any sympathy with Fenianism , or Agrarian outrage , the Editor of this paper had , by his steady self attack more upon than those one loathsome threatening crimes 1 letter , . broug That ht at down the up time on of him the - ,

• Citation
  • Tomahawk (1867-1870), April 9, 1870, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_09041870/page/3/