the _Punch_ cartoon (which, by the way, was
suggested at the Table by Gilbert a Beckett, and was executed by Leech)
were impersonated by Lord Brougham, Lord John Russell, Sir Robert Peel,
and Daniel O'Connell; while in the other appeared Lord Brougham, the
Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and Daniel O'Connell; but, unless
carefully compared, the one might certainly be mistaken for the other.
The "Joe Miller" block was drawn by A. S. Henning, who had quitted the
service of _Punch_ three years before; and it was claimed by his paper
that the original drawing was exhibited in their window a week before
_Punch's_ appeared. But abuse of _Punch_ for this and other curious
coincidences did not save him, and "Joe Miller the Younger" soon
announced his metamorphosis into "Mephystopheles," which proved an
inferior and still shorter-lived concern.

[Illustration: CARTOON ENTITLED "THE POLITICAL PAS DE QUATRE."

(_Drawn by A. S. Henning. From "Joe Miller the Younger," 2nd August,
1845._)]

Then followed the bright and able little monthly "The Man in the Moon,"
from which _Punch_ had some of the hardest knocks he ever received, for
on its Staff were to be found most of the clever men of the day
(including Shirley Brooks) for whom _Punch_ could find no room. Month
after month examples were given of _Punch's_ alleged pilfering, which
really only proved how the minds of humorists run in grooves, especially
when dealing with topical subjects; and a cutting representation of
Punch as an old clo'man begging bits of comic manuscript, with the
plaintive cry of "Any Jo', Jo'--any old Jo'?" scored a great success.
"The Man in the Moon" chaffed Bulwer Lytton on his initials,
"E.L.B.L.B.L.B.," and Thackeray followed in _Punch_ with
"E.L.B.L.B.L.B.B.L.L. B.B.B." And one of Leech's sketches of "The Rising
Generation"--a small boy saying, "Aw--hairdresser, when you've finished
my hair, just take off my beard, will you?" (Vol. XII., p. 104,
1847)--was also represented as a gross infringement. The title of a
poem, "What are the Wild Waves Saying?" (with the reply, "We'd better
have stayed at home"), issued in "The Man in the Moon," was seen in
_Punch_ soon after; while the superiority of our "New Street-Sweeping
Machines" over those then in use abroad (by which, of course, cannon was
intended) appeared in _Punch's_ pages a fortnight afterwards. It is an
interesting fact that this self-same idea of the Street-Sweeping
Machines gave Charles Kee