nearly
as much alarmed as he subsequently was at the "Papal Aggression."
_Punch_ for a time was as strong on the subject as the fanatical Sir
Robert Inglis himself; and Leech's cartoon of Baron de Rothschild
trying to force his nose--the "thin end of the wedge," he called
it--between the doors of the House of Commons was regarded as a very
felicitous and brilliant hit. But even then _Punch_ was willing to let
the other side of the question be heard; and in an ingenious adaptation
of Shylock's soliloquy (p. 247, Vol. XIII., 1847) dedicated to Sir
Robert Inglis--beginning "Hath not a Jew brains?" and ending, "If we
obey your government, shall we have no hand in it? If we are like you in
the rest, we ought to resemble you in that"--the whole case of Lord John
Russell and the supporters of the measure was clearly put forth.
Similarly, when at the very time that _Punch_ was making the most of any
fun that could be got out of his Jewish butt, the "Strangers' Friend
Society" appealed for funds on the ground that the urgency of their
charitable needs would "dissolve even the hardest, the most magnetic
astringent Jewish mind," _Punch_ vigorously protested against the
quaintness of that virtue and charity which would batten upon the
faithful by tickling their pet prejudice against the Jews, and declared
that "the Society's healing goodness would be none the worse for not
spurting its gall at any portion of the family of men." And in more
recent times _Punch_ has carried his sympathy to its furthermost point
by the powerful cartoons published during the great persecutions of the
Jews in Russia, by which--for representing the Tsar, Alexander III., as
the New Pharaoh--he attained exclusion from the Holy Empire, and from
the mouthpiece of the Jewish community "gratitude in unbounded measure
for this great service in the cause of freedom and humanity."

In like manner, _Punch_ has displayed equal kindliness of feeling for
the Irish, though Home Rule never offered strong attraction to his
imagination or statesmanship. From the beginning he always showed a
genuine sympathy for what he considered genuine Irish sentiment and
suffering; but agitation, as material for political speculation, seldom
recommended itself to him. In 1844 (p. 254, Vol. VII.) a cartoon by
Leech was published (originally to have been called "Two of a Trade"),
in which the Tsar and Queen Victoria are chatting at a table. On the
wall behind the autocrat hangs a map of