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    THE TOMAHAWK: i A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SA...

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    No. 84.] - LONDON, DECEMBER 12, 1868. [P...

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    A FAREWELL. To the Right Hon. Benjamin D...

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    My Right Honourable Friend,—I did not th...

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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: I A Saturday Journal Of Sa...

    THE TOMAHAWK : i A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . | .... & xUii & a JMIfear * " § uhttt "INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . " f

    No. 84.] - London, December 12, 1868. [P...

    No . 84 . ] - LONDON , DECEMBER 12 , 1868 . [ Price Twopence .

    A Farewell. To The Right Hon. Benjamin D...

    A FAREWELL . To the Right Hon . Benjamin Disraeli .

    My Right Honourable Friend,—I Did Not Th...

    My Right Honourable Friend , —I did not think to have so soon had the opportunity of congratulating you on your retirement from that position which was really hardly worthy of you . Attack and not Defence is your line ; Obstruction , not Progressthat of the party which you lead ; thereforeyou will

    excuse me , if I rejoice at your surrender of the Treasury , Bench to your opponents . The Conservative party were somewhat in the same' position as the defenders of Thermopylae . There was a narrowness about that pass which is common also to their policy with regard to the Irish Church . I am glad to

    see that you have wisely resolved , evincing more foresight , if less self-devotion , than Leonidas , to retire before your forces are all slain , especially as your intimate knowledge of human nature must convince you that there may be more than one Ephialtes ready to betray you . What wonderful feats of arms ,

    coups what de prodi main gie , will of you valour not , perform what wil with y strat that agem small s , what but well bold - disciplined band of followers , now that you can act on the offensive ! I look forward , O Caucasian mystery ! with a keen delight to the wonderful exhibition of strategy which you are , doubtlessplanning for the future . Dullindeedwould be the

    , , , political prospect , if Parliament should be deprived of such a—statesman , shall I say ?—of those wonderful impersonations of character , which justify us in the belief that the true dramatic genius of England stili survives in the person of Benjamin Disraeli .

    Suffer me to take a slight retrospect of your career as Prime Minister ofv this country which has , alas ! been so prematurely brought to a close . Believe me , it is a mournful task . What Premier will ever furnish me with such delightful subjects for cartoons as your right honourable self 1 In whom else but in

    you ( and perhaps the Emperor of the French ) , can we look for that charming versatility , that facile power of transformation , which render you such an inexhaustible subject for the pen or the pencil ? You are like a moral chromatrope ; one shake of the hand — -- —^ - and behold — - - ! the — . . _ intricate — — - ^ _ __ ^^ *^_ w - _ _ . ^^ combination ^^ ^^ ^ m ^ m ^ m 1 ^ ^ v — ^— ' ¦^ ^ F ^ ^^ ^ w ^^ of ^^^ ¦ — colours - ^* - ^^ ^^ ^¦ ^ p ^ p ^ ^ v «^ , j which » w ^ v mm ^ m ^ vp ^^^^ we ^^

    so admired , yields to another combination equally intricate , and equally beautiful . How dull , how dreamy , is the sombre sameness of an earnest and principled man compared with the everchanging attractions of a chameleon such as you ! Now the champion of the aristocracy , thundering forth denunciations of democracy , and shaking the very heavens with terrible forebodings of the dire calamities which the rule of the people must

    bring down upon the land ; next , the mild and half-hearted advocate of a silly compromise , of which no one saw the silliness clearer than yourself ; then , hey presto ! the plausible pleader for the rights of the people , changed , in the twinkling of an from the leader of the iv Tories ui iv to iu the mv life-long devotee iuivv

    eye c ^ C 7 , , iiuui me icauu vsx cj .- x , ^ mv ^ -xuu ^ u ^ . of Household Suffrage ! Oh , when shall I behold so exquisite an entertainment again ! How I laughed ( and so did you , dear Benjamin , in your sleeve ) as you held up before the bewildered country squires that old bogey , at a distant glimpse of which they had so often shrieked with fearand

    showed them what a very harmless puppet it was , and let them , tie leaden weights to its arms and legs , and bind ropes round its waist ; while there were you , all the time , you clever dog you ! with a large pair of shears , ready to cut off all the weights , and undo all the ropesat the bidding of your opponents . "

    Ex-, cellent knave ! Perdition catch my soul but I do love thee ! " How you gammoned those honest old squires with tales of a Conservative reaction , and the wonderful safeguard of the ratepaying clauses , till they did not know whether they were standing on their heads or their heels ! How you must

    have enjoyed the foolish ill-temper of Peel , and Cranbourne , and Carnarvon , who really looked upon the matter in a serious light , and gave up their splendid offices rather than perjure themselves both in speech and in thought ! They would not see the jokethe prigs ! I declare I cannot write-for laughing

    when I picture , to myself you in the Cabinet Council , cocking , your eye at Stanley , while you proved to Gathorne Hardy and Ward Hunt , and such genuine old Tories , that it was all right , and that the Reform Bill was a true Conservative measure ! Ah , we never shall have such fun again .

    Then about the Irish Church ; how could you keep your countenance when you heard Lord Mayo blundering solemnly through that ridiculous proposal to " level up" the different religions , and trying to explain that ingenious plan for an endowed Roman Catholic University , which was to consist entirely of Catholics ,

    and be entirely managed by Protestants ; and to which , you knew very well , neither party would agree I It really was wicked of you—it was the only spiteful thing you have done for a ridiculous long time , farc making e as that his subsequent very respectable explanations Earl go of throug his former h such explanationsand then—oh cruel blow !—not content with the

    ridicule already , heaped upon him , you must needs draw down upon him a fearful avalanche of contemptuous abuse by appointing him Viceroy of India ! Was this kind ? What had the wretched * man done to you , that you should so relentlessly persecute him ? Could he have been very troublesome

• Citation
  • Tomahawk (1867-1870), Dec. 12, 1868, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_12121868/page/1/