The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-14 00:00:00

PUNCH'S PLAN 702? PREVENTING WAR.

(Registered Prospectus.)
Everybody knows why there is no duelling.
People may sometimes talk nonsense about the
world having grown more sensible and humane, or
they may talk other nonsense about its havingbeen
time for gentlemen to discard duelling when it de-
scended to the lower orders, e. g., the celebrated
case where the barber fought the linendraper on a
question of honour, and the shaver of beards
winged the shaver of ladies. The law may have
had a little to do with it, but the law is not always
regarded with the reverence due to it; ladies
smuggle lace, peasants poach, and gentlemen
gamble behind iron doors. There was something
more than civilisation, pride, or respect for the law
required to put an end to private war.
Life Assurance did it.
Every decent man's life is assured, and policies
are declared forfeit if the decent man is put out of
the way by a duel. So nobody challenges anybody
or if any wild Irishman, vicious Frenchman, or any
other valueless life were to invite an assured life to
the combat, the assured life would knock the other
life down, and then assign him to the police.
Why not try this excellent remedy on a large
scale ?
Let a Company be formed to be called the Throne
Assurance Society.
But as kings never die, the object of the Society
must be to make a king comfortable in his
mcircum-
stances by paying him a bonus at specific times,
and by advancing him money on the usual condi-
tionse, of assurance offices. His reign would then be
always happy and comfortable.
But, if be goes to war, the policy shall beigyhotitdo,
and the Throne Company is to have a
who haveconfiscate
beenhis histax securities,es,andtosetno quod.
dtheotherr kings,
well,the
forT shoe}speculationd wouldtoo ahnaspwpeyr ut no c o
seen s
m ° nthatlY
ign.
to
premiums,
were regularly
whichregaolpryrlesepravibedthem from the miseries
of w
ulipa.ble if a Bing were
kicked out by his own
The office would not
tasto hSeov ableere
a
with the command of
"
of
money
Sovereigns would co seubjoeuctA
make his people perfectly
content.
submit to the
urse have to sub •
usual examination. A King proposing to assure
might be asked
u Constitution
everl. been afflicted With Divine
Right, vreyou
about yot
'vine
Right, or any other insanity.
3. Have any of yourancestors died violent deaths,
as by the block, guillotine, private strangulation,
Sec.?
4. Are you subject to Priests, or any similar
affliction ?
5. Give the name of your political adviser, and
say how long he has known you.
6. Are you assured in the Holy Alliance, or any
other old office ?

Further details will be published in due course.
In the meantime,
Mr. Punch, Provisional Director
and Manager,invites the consideration of Capitalists
to his scheme. It appears to him to be a noble idea,
entirely in conformity
and highly calculated to bring about the Millen-
nium.cltouhn ary B,srigh
t
with the spirit of the age,
N.B. The valuable service of MrA
will, if possible, be retained for the
De-
partment.
_...................••.•11•11

ANNOUNCEMENT oF A NEW GOTERNMENT
REFORM BILL FoslB6l.—Last night, Mr. Gilpin,
M.P. for Northampton, and who holds the office of Secre-
tary of the Poor Law
Board, in an address to his consti-
tuents, which
will in all probability attract considerable
throughout the country, announced that,
attention
he v 7" emphatically not of the Cabinet,
although
and could know nothing definitely of their plans, yet
1 every reason to believe, speaking by per-
mit not on authority, that it was the in-
tention of Lord John Russell to introduce into Parlia-
ment, in the ensuing session, a Reform Bill similar
. its general provisions to that of last session, but with
:me modifications. The failure of the last bill was attri-
' buted to want of earnestness, both in and out of the house ;
but it was a positive fact that there was a strong desire on
the part of the people of England for a Reform Bill, and it
was considered most advantageous to discuss it while the
minds of men were calm enough on the subject to give it
an impartial and unprejudiced consideration. He called oar-
the people to send in petitions by the thousand to the
House of Commons on tAe subject.