his
van, and instead of exhibiting her, as he has hitherto done, for one
penny, he will, on the strength of the notoriety of this trial, and as a
man knowing the curiosity of society, immediately advance that penny to
threepence. You will, therefore, consider your verdict, gentlemen, and
give such moderate damages as will entirely mend the plaintiff's broken
heart."

The jury, without retiring from the box, returned a verdict of "Damages
One Farthing!"

* * * * *

We are credibly informed--though the evidence was not adduced in
court--that Monsieur Bonbon first suspected his dishonour from his wife's
hair papers. She had most negligently curled her tresses in the soft paper
epistles of her _innamorato_.

* * * * *

PUNCH'S PENCILLINGS.--No. XXI.

[Illustration: CUPID OUT OF PLACE.

_From a Sketch made in "THE PALMERSTON GALLERY."_]

* * * * *

THE FETES FOR THE POLISH--AND FATE OF THE BRITISH POOR.

"Charity begins at home," says, or rather said, an admirable old proverb;
but alack! the adage, or the times, or both, are out of joint--the
wholesome maxim has lost its force--and homes for Charity must now be far
as the _Poles_ asunder, ere the benign influence of the weeping goddess
can fall upon its wretched supplicants.

In private life the neglect of a domestic hearth for the vainglorious
squandering abroad of the means that could and ought to render that the
chief seat of comfort and independence, calls down upon the thoughtless
and heartless squanderer and abuser of his means the just indignation and
merited contempt of every thinking and properly constituted mind. The
"Charity" that does not begin at home is the worst species of
unjustifiable prodigality, and the first step to the absolute ruin of the
"nearest and dearest" for the sake of the profligate and abandoned. And no
sophistry can justify the apparent liberality that deprives others of
their just and urgent dues.

It may be and is most noble to feed the widow and to clothe the orphan;
but where is the beneficence of the deed if the wife and children of the
ostentatious donor--the victims of the performance of such acts--are left
themselves to endure misery and privations, from which his inadequate
means cannot exempt the stranger and the giver's own household!

The sparrow who unwittingly rears the cuckoo's spurious offspring, tending
with care t