However much individuals may differ on the great contro- versy
into which Mr. Chamberlain has plunged the nation, there is one point upon which there can hardly be two opinions. The political wits are onthe Free-trade side. Mr. Punch'actiricatures have been as laughter-moving as they have been sound, and they have exactly interpreted popular feeling. What could be better than this week's "Foiled Highwaymen," or than the picture of Mr. Chamberlain being expelled with great rapidity from the workman's door, through which the hob- nailed boot of Labour is protruding, with the legend under- neath " Quite so ; but how long will he stop there ? [` I am quite prepared to go into any labourer's cottage and say to him, "Now this policy, if it is carried out, will cost you so much aweek more than you are paying at present for your food." '—Mr. Chamberlain's speech on Preferential Tariffs.]" The caricaturist of the Pall Mall Gazette also showed excellent invention and Free-trade sympathies when he made his " out " of the three Chancellors of the Exchequer, Lord Goschen, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, and Mr. Ritchie, in one scale, and Mr. Chamberlain in the other. The inimitable Mr. Gould of the Westminster has shown the touch of genius in his drawings. His political instinct is always most remarkable, and in his recent Free-trade caricatures he has surpassed himself. Let any one who wants to see if our words can be made good buy Picture Polities, the monthly collection of Westminster Gazette caricatures, and judge for himself. The collection of cartoons in Picture Politics for June-July is a wonderful pennyworth, whether regarded from the humorous or the fiscal point of view. If ridicule can really kill, truly the issue of the conflict is a foregone conclusion.
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