THE PIOUS PUBLIC-HOUSE. (WHERE YOU MAY GET ADULTERATED BEER AND GIN.) A Place in which the Great Brewers DON'T see any Particular Harm! THE PROFLIGATE PASTRY-COOK'S. (WHERE THEY SERVE THE DEMORALISING VEAL PIE AND GLASS OF SHERRY, OR FRENCH LIGHT WINE.) POLITICS FOR PETTICOATS. HE question whether or not woman be a reader of the newspapers is one on which there may perhaps be different opinions, but there is no doubt that the paragraphs relating to the fashions are generally attractive to feminine perusal. Hence, it would appear, the notion has arisen that by the covert introduction of political allusions, the writers upon millinery, may teach their female readers what topics are from time to time to male minds most engrossing. An instance of this practice we find in the subjoined, which the other day appeared in one of our contemporaries: "To the excitement produced by the diplomatic arrangements for annexation or separation the progress of the seasons and of the modes turns a deaf ear. The winds of March and the showers of April blow and moisten just the same whether Savoy be French or Piedmontese, and an equal inattention to political events characterises the march of the fashions from their winter to their spring demonstrations. Their sole idea of annexation limits itself to the consideration of the Crinoline frontier question, and as for separation, the term is only recognised in its application to the abandonment of winter costume for that of the more genial season upon which we are just entering. Thus it is that flowers have already taken the place of velvet ornaments; not, it is true, Nature's flowers, but such as imitate so closely the works of that ancient dame as to give her a just cause for jealousy, if it were possible for her to be animated by that unworthy sentiment towards her younger sister Art." Lovely, woman, reading this, will be tempted to inquire (for curiosity is somewhat of a passion with the sex) what the word "annexation politically means: and after a marital explanation of the term, its connection with Savoy will be most lucidly expounded to her. She will thus gain information on a topic of the time, which, but for this allusion, she might never have investigated. So instructed, when she has to do her duty at the dinner table, she will be the better able to enjoy the conversation in which the male guests present will most probably indulge; while they, on their part, finding her so well-informed a person, will be saved the pain and nuisance of talking that stale nonsense which the presence of a petticoat naturally invokes. On every ground we therefore wish the practice all success; which commendation in our columns is quite certain to secure. THE POT AND THE PUMP. A Fable for the New Holy Alliance. ONCE on a time, in days of fable, To pastry-cooks!-hic!-Where's the Vicar? Folks should get drunk-hic!-with decorum ? Who reckons his bought thralls by scores, But one who asks the Bench to dinner. I say, protest against such doin's, "Shall each rogue that the bun-trade plies, Each dealer in suspicious pies, Each Leicester-Square restaurant-fellar, But viler drinkables as well? What sort o' folks, d' ye think, are them as is reined, A glass o' sherry with one's pie? 'Gainst the green-bottle imp infernal. Quoth solemn Pump: "My worthy Pewter, I looked as rivals of a trade; That Pot had sought him for support, That-Bottle smashed with Pump's good aid Pot might monopolise the trade; And drink to quench a thirsty soul, PROUDHON RIGHT FOR ONCE. 155 SAVOY is an accession of property to France, and it is the first illustration of PROUDHON'S well-known dogma, "La Propriété c'est le Vol." Is ELECTUS about to issue a series of these Vols? MOTTO FOR A "KISS."-Go it, my two lips. PUNCH'S BOOK OF BRITISH COSTUMES. CHAPTER XI.-THE EARLY NORMAN PERIOD-(CONTINUED.) XTREME accuracy being our chief object in this history, to the description of the hauberk which ended our last chapter, we must add now, that the garment was made generally of rings, like the ringed tunic, or byrne, which was in use among the Saxons. In some instances, however, the hauberk was composed of little plates of steel, shaped like our jujube lozenges; a kind of mail then known by the name of "mascled" armour, from the resemblance which it bore to the meshes of a net. lozenges were also sometimes stuck upon the pectoral, and doubtless proved as efficacious for protection of the chest as the lozenges called pectoral, which are now-a-days in use. They must, however, have been pleasanter to wear outside than in; and one can hardly envy the sensations of KING WILLIAM, when, as is stated, he put on his coat of mail the wrong side out, These in the haste with which he armed himself before the battle of Haste-ings. Lozenges of steel when externally applied, must be rather a sharp stimulant to persons with thin skins; and although we have been told that KING WILLIAM was not wounded, we cannot well believe he left the field without a scratch. BRUTUM FULMEN. TUNE-" Pop Goes the Weasel." Mere sheet lightning is the flash, Fulmination, wide of aim, VICTOR not a button cares For the malediction, Which NAPOLEON, if he shares, Either sinner sits at ease, Now the doleful days are past Kings and subjects Interdict magnitude," as saith EUCLID, in our eyes, and which we have little wish at present to look into. Neither care we to inquire, why it was the Normans used to copy the Chinese (whom we, however, doubt if they had ever seen or heard of), in the fashion of bedaubing their shields with fierce devices, representing dragons, griffins, and the like "fabulous animals." That they did so is however shown by the old tapestries (that at Bayeux is especially instructive on the point): and if further proof were wanting, it might be supplied by the passage we subjoin, which will be recognised by savants as a fragment of a warsong, that until now has had existence only in MS.: "He hardie Norman's nose of yore A helmett-guarde dyd ha-ave: For their further preservation the Normans carried shields, which, a living writer tells us, "in shape somewhat resembled the modern schoolboy's kite." The writer who says this, however, seems to have forgotten that there are no such creatures as "schoolboys" extant now; and flying kites is much too vulgar a pursuit for the "young gentlemen" who honour our "Academies" to patronise. Our older readers may however recollect the pastime, and to their minds the comparison requires no explanation. Whether shields like kites were any help to soldiers in flying from the field, is a point "that hath no of the Normans, and we proceed to take in hand the description of |