ers) for my
pages. KENNY MEADOWS, WATTS PHILLIPS, ALFRED 'CROW-QUILL' (FORRESTER),
JOHN GILBERT, and others, drew also for the young Journal, the
printing of which had been taken over by the Whitefriars firm of
BRADBURY AND EVANS, with whom as proprietors and fast friends, _Punch_
has ever since been happily associated.

"As early as my Fourth Volume," pursued _Mr. Punch_, "it became
obvious that, in the person of 'Our Fat Contributor,' a certain
'MICHAEL ANGELO TITMARSH' was writing and drawing for _Punch_.

(_Continued on Page_ 4.)

* * * * *

FAC-SIMILE OF FIRST PAGE OF "PUNCH."

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

_FOR THE WEEK ENDING JULY 17, 1841._

* * * * *

THE MORAL OF PUNCH.

* * * * *

As we hope, gentle public, to pass many happy hours in your society,
we think it right that you should know something of our character and
intentions. Our title, at a first glance, may have misled you into
a belief that we have no other intention than the amusement of a
thoughtless crowd, and the collection of pence. We have a higher
object. Few of the admirers of our prototype, merry Master PUNCH, have
looked upon his vagaries but as the practical outpourings of a rude
and boisterous mirth. We have considered him as a teacher of no mean
pretensions, and have, therefore, adopted him as the sponsor for our
weekly sheet of pleasant instruction. When we have seen him parading
in the glories of his motley, flourishing his baton (like our friend
Jullien at Drury-lane) in time with his own unrivalled discord, by
which he seeks to win the attention and admiration of the crowd,
what visions of graver puppetry have passed before our eyes! Golden
circlets, with their adornments of coloured and lustrous gems, have
bound the brow of infamy as well as that of honour--a mockery to both;
as though virtue required a reward beyond the fulfilment of its own
high purposes, or that infamy could be cheated into the forgetfulness
of its vileness by the weight around its temples! Gilded coaches have
glided before us, in which sat men who thought the buzz and shouts
of crowds a guerdon for the toils, the anxieties, and, too often, the
peculations of a life. Our ears have rung with the noisy frothiness of
those who have bought their fellow-men as beasts in the market-place,
and found their reward in the sycophancy of a degraded constituency,
or the