Mr. Punch's Victorian Era. Vol. II. (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co.)—This
second volume includes the sixteen years 1860-1875. Mr. Tenniel, whose portrait forms the frontispiece, is the leading artist of this admirable series of drawings. One of the earliest, not, however, from his pencil, is "Best Rest for the Queen's Rifle," her Majesty firing the first shot at Wimbledon from Mr. Punch's head. It is our disinterested and patriotic Commander- in-Chief who should have fired the last. The last three designs are curiously appropriate to the present time. 1875 seems to have been as wet a year as 1888, and Jupiter Pluvius says to John Bull, "Store your Floods, and Embank your Rivers ; and this misery would prove a blessing !" Alas ! we are as far from taking this wise advice now as we were then. The next is " Mose in Egitto ! ! !" Mr. Disraeli with a huge key in his hand, "Suez Canal : Key of India;" and the third is "Our Krieg's-Spiel," wherein the Secretary of Wax remarks to Britannia, "Only see how beautifully it moves !" and Britannia replies, "Beautifully ? --on paper !" But the whole is profitable reading. Some of the pictures one is ashamed to see and to recall how truly they repre- sented the feelings of the day. As mementoes of our mistakes, it is well that they should be preserved.
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