en who started it,
contributed by Mark Lemon, under the title of--

"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_ 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!... 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
patronage of a venal ministry--no matter of what creed, for party
_must_ destroy patriotism....

"There is one portion of PUNCH'S drama we wish was omitted, for it
always saddens us--we allude to the prison scene. PUNCH, it is
true, sings in durance, but we hear the ring of the bars mingling
with the song. We are advocates for the _correction_ of offenders;
but how many generous and kindly beings are there pining within the
walls of a prison whose only crimes are poverty and misfortune!...

"We now come to the last great lesson of our motley teacher--the
gallows; that accursed tree which has its _root_ in injuries. How
clearly PUNCH exposes the fallacy of that dreadful law which
authorises the destruction of life! PUNCH sometimes destroys the
hangman, and why not? Where is the divine injunction against the
shedder of man's blood to rest? None _can_ answer! To us there is
but ONE disposer of life. At other times PUNCH hangs the devil:
this is as it should be. Destroy the principle of evil by
increasing the means of cultivating the good, and the gallows will
then become