an Englishman values it. It is fair to assume that the Englishman regards "Punch" as a comic paper; but we know very well that our uncolonial mind does not so regard it; and, considering the small appreciation of comicality which our colonial mind ordinarily manifests, it seems highly unlikely that it really values "Punch" on the score of the amount of that article which it offers. "Punch," in short, for the American, whatever may be the attitude of his mind, cannot seem before all a journal pour rire. It would be hard if a comic paper were not justified by being simply comic; but on this side we do not demand of "Punch" so much, while on another side we demand very much more. The comic side of "Punch" has been said to be at present shrouded in general gloom, amid which walk about Du Maurier's personal friends; and the remark, although it is the voice of that extreme type of the uncolonial mind, the American humorist, and has the feeling for accuracy peculiar to that person, has nevertheless the serious value of indicating very fairly what it is that we care about in "Punch," of denoting "Punch's" strong side, in the development of which has lain its success. We care for these personal friends; we are willing indeed, if it must be so, to plunge for them occasionally amid general gloom. Life itself, the social pessimist may say, is, after all, nothing but a constant meeting of one's personal friends amid general gloom; but, whatever one may think about the medium in which they move, the friends are an admittedly important factor, and in paying attention to them "Punch" has been from Doyle's day to our own a highly valuable and interesting commentator on English life. It has been said of the works of the late Mr. Trollope that as novels they are very well, but that their high value is as comprehensive transcriptions of English manners: so it may be said of "Punch" that as a comic paper it is well enough possibly, but that its success is as a wonderfully copious commentator on English life. One may add that from "Punch" and Mr. Trollope together, without more ostensibly serious sources, many bright colonial minds are credibly reported to have obtained an excellent working knowledge of English society. What we mean by an American "Punch" is a paper which by a similarly full pictorial and humorous presentation of our friends—using the word in a most catholic and unexclusive spirit—shall obtain like importance as a commentator on American life.
At no period of "Punch's" existence has it performed more admirably its function of commentator than during the time to which we return for the sake of Richard Doyle. It has at no time since been more abundant, more thorough. Besides Doyle here is Leech, here are the Caudle Lectures, here are those of Miss Tickletoby, the epistles of the elder Brown to his son, the Snob Papers. Mr. Punch is "rich in the glory of his rising sun." And no pages exhibit more clearly the qualities of humor and art, by virtue of which he has "shown up" his friends with such completeness and actuality. There could hardly be a better exemplar of the quality essential to "Punch's" art than Richard Doyle. Mr. Du Maurier, for example, whose beautiful work is "Punch's" chief distinction at present, possesses this essential quality, of course, but he possesses in such fulness so much that is not essential that he is by no means the useful instance Doyle is. Doyle's contribution to "Punch" is marked by its quality of lightness and immateriality; it is full of Ariel gayety and sportive unconcern, of delicate sentiment, of quick perception, also of social knowledge; but one may say of him, as a French writer has said of himself, "He hovered round society, having at his back a field of liberty vast as the sky." This field of liberty we catch glimpses of in the head-pieces and vignettes which Doyle did when he did as he pleased, where in the windings of slender scrolls a host of little fellows, delightfully inhuman, sit wrapt in deep thought of something inconceivable, or smile mysteriously at some impossible jest. His initial letters, too, are apt to
