effected the same object in the Lords. The result was favourable to the
Minister; but the popular feeling roused by it was intense, and _Punch_,
up in arms at once at this supposed violation of the rights of the
subject, fanned the excitement he shared. He immediately published, on
July 6th, the most offensive attack he could devise. This consisted in
the famous "Anti-Graham Envelope" and "Wafers"--the latter _extra
strongly gummed_.

The former was drawn by John Leech--a sort of burlesque of the Mulready
envelope--and was afterwards appropriately engraved by Mr. W. J. Linton,
whose share in the agitation was a considerable one. The circulation
attained by this envelope was very wide, and although I have not
ascertained that many were actually passed through the General Post
Office, it certainly brought a flood of bitter ridicule on the
unfortunate Minister. In addition to this, there was published, on the
clever initiation of Henry Mayhew, the sheet of "Anti-Graham
Wafers"--an instrument of diabolical torture for the unhappy Secretary,
who already figured as "Paul Pry" in half a hundred of the more
important papers. In this sheet, 10 inches by 7-3/4 inches in size,
drawn by H. G. Hine, there were printed sixteen wafers, in green ink, in
the midst of a witty design, in brown, that bore the devices of a snake
in the grass, a cat-o'-nine-tails, a kettle steaming the fastening of a
letter, and other suggestive personalities. These were supposed to be
cut up and used as wafers on envelopes, and that they were so used is
probable, in view of their extreme rarity at the present day. They were
issued at twopence the sheet; and their epigrammatic cuts and
accompanying legends were in _Punch's_ best vein.

[Illustration: THE ANTI-GRAHAM ENVELOPE.

(_Designed by John Leech._)]

_Punch's_ example was promptly followed by that class of publisher who
lives by trading on the ideas of others, and in the windows of many
booksellers of the commoner class, envelopes in the shape of padlocks
were offered for sale, the motto on them running "Not to be Grahamed."
_Punch_ itself followed up the scent, and gave drawings of "Mercury
giving Sir James Graham an insight into Letters" (with the aid of a
steam-kettle), of "The Post Office Peep-Show, a Penny a Peep," in which
foreign sovereigns, on paying their money to Showman Graham, are
permitted to violate the secrecy of British correspondence; while a
notice from St. Martin's-le-Grand inf