CARICATURED STATESMEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2409, 3 May 1900, Page 65

CARICATURED STATESMEN.

Although the majority of Queen Victoria's photographs convey the impression of sadness, severity, and profound melancholy, there is probably no Sovereign in the Old World -who j possesses a more keen sense of the ludicrous, or who is more easily moved to laughter. , It is this appreciation of humour, this readiness to see the ludicrous side in everything, that leads her to devote so much attention to that branch of the press known as "the comic papers," of "which she is an inveterate reader. She delives particular amusement from caricatures of a political' character relating _to her own constitutional advisers at Home/ and to her kinsfolk abroad.

"Aware of this fad of her Majesty," says " Ex- Attache," " each statesman who lias held Cabinet office during her long reign has made a point of keeping her supplied "with all the caricatures that have ?,ppeared of himself in any domestic or foreign newspaper. They are sent to the Queen from "Cime to time in the form of scrap books of a, certain pattern. " It is doubtful -whether there is any personage who -has been brought into contact ■with "the Queen during .her long life who has escaped tins particular form of satire. In the early years of her marriage, before her subjects had learned to appreciate the sterling qualities and the valuable services of ihe late Prince Consort, he was, by reason of British prejudice against the foreigners, a constant butt of the cartoonists.

"Lord Palmerston, Emperor Napoleon, Francis Joseph of Austria, John Bright, Lord Russell, Gladstone, Sir Robert Peel, and particularly Benjamin Disraeli, formed the subject" of amusing caricatures, and it is doubtful whether anything more clever of this kind has ever been published than the portrayal of Lord Beaconsfield in the character of the Sphinx, one of the sightless stone eyes of the statue being closed in a wink, in token of satisfaction at the deal by which the most brilliant of all Queen Victoria's Premiers had just concilia 1 cd the acquisition of the Khedival block of founders! shares in the Suez Canal Company.

"In England political eartooiis do not merely follow the opinion of the public, but frequently lead it, exercising an astonishing influence upon the course of events. A cartoon has sometimes sufficed to 'turn at its flood the tide of popular sentiment; wnile it was the appearance of a r wonderful pictare in the now defunct Tomahawk, showing the Throne vacant, the Crown close by under a glass case, all covered with dust, her Majesty's Highland gillie^ John Brown, leaning on the glass case, and the Queen behind him on a loAver step pi the dais wiping away tears as sha "gazed at the bust of ,her^.dead husband, that spvvsd to recall the Sovereign to herself, f- '" io remind her' that the mirsing of her ; and the extreme seclusion from the j. which it entailed were beginning to give oifonce to her subjects and to expose., her to charges of neglect of the obligations of royalty. "Passing across the Channel, however, comic journalism ' suffers a change. Although the languages of the, Latin countries 'of Europe lend .themselves to a fir greater "degree of dainty wit than those of the English-speaking, Geiman, and the Slav races, and in spite of the fact that the French are justly reputed as being more gifted in the possession of that particular delicate form of humour known as ' esprit ' than any other people on the face of the globe, yet, for some strange reason or another, there is no country where comic journalism descends to such depths as in France. Even in its treatment of the social questions and fads of the day there is inyariably" an element of indelicacy which impairs the cleverness and keenness of the satire, while the cartoons and caricatures of political personages, both at home and abroad, are nearly always coarse and frequently ignoble. It is largely due to the discreditable character of French comic 'journalism that the once &o ' widely celebrated French w"it has lost the prestige which it enjoyed throughout the eighteenth ■century and during the earlier portion of 'the nineteenth.

" This condition of affairs" is largely due to the fact that comic journalism in France 'is monopolised by a certain class of Parisian Taculevardiers, who, drawing their inspira.tion from absinthe, from the boudoirs of the half world, and from the so-e'alled restauran dv nuit, have lost all sense of the proprieties and decencies of life. It may be doubted whether any one of them ever crosses the threshold of a respectable house. " Emperor William, in spite of all that is said to the contrary, is very sensible about comic journalism. It is perfectly tiue that since he has been on the Throne a number -of comic papers have been con•fiscated and their editors imprisoned, charged with lese-majeste, but in almost every case the paper confiscated has called down upon itself .tlie Imperial wrath for of•fences which in "this country "would lead to the 'interference of law.

" In this the Kaiser resembles- his brother .monarch, Czar" Nicholas of Russia, who takes almost as much delight in caricatures and in cartoons as does Queen Victoria. Fortunately for his tastes in the matter,. he is not restricted exclusively to those few csamples 'of this particular branch of pictorial art . that -escape the*. eagle-eyed and -inquisitive <:ensor- at the- Russian frontier • and at the 'post office. For his consort is -a clever caricaturist, and with the same 'keen 'sense 'of '-the ludicrous "as her grand•mother, Queen Victoria, -at once " records .'her impressions upon paper."