The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-20 00:00:00

LITE,

LTY.

A new " comic " journal, the Tomahawk, has
recently appeared. In the numbers of it which
we have examined we find but little comicality, if

that term imply what is provocative of honest,
healthful laughter. We find, indeed, some things
that might make the unthinking laugh, but much

more that strikes us as calculated to make the

judicious grieve. If, however, the columns of the

new rival to Punch are illumined with few flashes

of genuine merriment, there runs through them
instead a vein of malicious inuendo against exalted
personages whom society idolizes, or, at least,
did so not long ago, and against whom calumny
itself has never formulated any accusation. True
to its strangely-chosen title, the Tomahawk's satire
is unlike the " polished razor keen," which

" wounds with a touch that's scarcely felt or seen."
It is more like the clumsy strokes of the Indian
war hatchet, when the fury of some painted savage
falls indiscriminately on the unresisting and on the

combatant, on friend and on foe alike. In a word,
its pretensions to popularity consist but in a single

.
:eature. The Tomahawk is the vehicle for cer-

tam rumours that have of late begun to float

through the town. They are of a tenor that is dis-
paraging—to use a mild term—to the private life
of that exalted lady who hitherto has been held up
as a model of private worth and unsullied purity,
and domestic virtue. And, if the character of
the Queen of England has not been spared, so

neither has that of her eldest son, the non
APPARENT to her throne. Nor (we say it with
shame) are there wanting insinuations, no less base,
against others in high station, whether those
whom advanced age and great public services, or
those whom youth and innocence might have
shielded from the shafts of the calumniator. But
they, whose trade is scurrility, spare nobody except
him from whom they apprehend personal danger ;
and now-a-days it seems the number has diminished
of those by whom an insult to their Sovereign is
looked upon as a thing to be personally resented.
Last week the paper in question gave the full
length representation of a Highland 44 gilly,"
whose repulsive physiognomy is turned with
supercilious scorn on the British lion, crouching I
in the suppliant attitude of a beaten spaniel at his
feet. The legend of the cartoon is " A Brown
Study." Now, to the vast majority of onlookers,
perhaps, this queer device and inscription would
not convey any idea, for it would be simply unin-
telligible. Nevertheless, it would arouse curiosity.
But to those to whom it would convey a meaning,
that meaning could be no other than the embodi-
ment of a very foul imputation launched against
the first lady of these realms by a vile and obscure
Continental print, and no sooner launched than
overwhelmed with universal reprobation and
disgust. We have little doubt that the conductors
of the Tomahawk would indignantly disclaim any
deliberate intention of assailing their Queen with
the hideous calumny of the Swiss editor ; and yet
their offence really amounts to this, though the at-
tack is so artfully veiled as to elude probably any
of the statutes of scandalunz magnatum. It is,
however, a melancholy symptom as regards the
health of society. Why, if there were manhood
or chivalry in the nation, a thousand swords would
have leaped from their scabbards, or, at all
events, a thousand cudgels wielded by British
muscle would have been ready to avenge the das-
tardly insult to our widowed Queen. Such is
loyalty in this age of material progress that no
indignation has, so far as we know, been even
Tented in words against the editor of the Toma-
hawk. On the contrary, the picture and the
newspaper are publicly displayed and vended, and
the concocters evidently expect money and popu-
larity to reward their endeavours to amuse and
instruct the public. If we were seeking arguments
against the freedom of the press, or proofs of the
decadence of English spirit, here is a telling one
ready to our hand. Of one thing we are certain,
and it is that, as Catholics, at least, we owe it to
ourselves and to our principles to show no ac-
quiescence in, or community of feeling with, these
symptoms of social rottenness. After centuries
of persecution, and distrust, and suspicion, our
loyalty is at length beginning to be admitted by
candid persons. We are not even thought the
worse of that we were not carried away by the
exuberant torrent of somewhat slavish adulation
which it was the fashion, a while ago, to offer to
British Royalty. Of the greater importance does
it become that we should give no countenance to
the reaction that is pretty sure to succeed to this,
as to all other forms of popular extravagance. It
is on this account that we feel called upon to say
how much we were pained to observe that one of
our Catholic contemporaries, the London Weekly
Register, should be of the whole London press the
first to welcome and to puff generally the Toma-
hawk; and specially to applaud, in scarcely qua-
lified terms, the atrocious caricature we have
described h
e above.
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is driving more and more the
purveyors to the
depraved appetites of the od g less many.—West-
minster Gazette.

Miscellaneous Foreign News.

The Standard's American correspondents furnish
good specimens of the attempts made in Europe to
dec►y everything American, more especially United
States' investments. " Within the past five days,"
says one writing from New York, July 20, " three
National Banks have failed—the Unadilla National
Bank, situated at Unadilla, New York ; the New-
ton National Bank, of Newton, Massachusetts ;
and the Weedsport National Bank, of Weedsport,
New York. The liabilities of the first named
institution amount to V 50,000, at least, its
capital was $lOO,OOO ; the liabilities of the second
amount to $210,000 ; and those of the third
to $200,000 ; the capital of each of the two last
named was $150,000. Aside from these, the Peg-
nonnock National Bank, of llartford, Connecticut,

has just lost $50,000 by the peculations of an offi-
cer. The cause of all these disasters was reckless
speculation, and the equally reckless extravagance
in living induced thereby, on the part of the bank
officers. In every instance numerous poor deposi-
tors have been ruined.

The result is that hundreds of poor people have been
hopelessly ruined. Struggling farmers, widows, and
orphans, who have looked on the bank for an income,
small shopkeepers, dealers in produce—these have
lost their all. Men and women once in comfortable
circumstances have become paupers. One man
committed suicide ; two persons have become insane.
Black despair crouches at almost every hearthstone
in the smiling valley of the Susquehanna." Now,
without attempting to lessen the evils which have
produced such ruin, let any one add up the total
sum of liabilities—take the whole as absolutely lost
—contrast this with the loss of a single institution in
the city of London, and the tone of gross exaggera-
tion will be apparent. A quarter of a million ster-
ling is the whole loss which has led to these gloomy
remarks, an insignificant item in the accounts of
Overend, Gurney, and Co. ; in the Joint Stock Dis-
count, in the Imperial Mercantile, or in fifty later
English failures, and 'a sum that might absolutely be
overlooked in its insignificance in the bungling
accounts of any great English railway.
The same correspondent gives an interesting
account of the influence exercised by A. Oakey
Hall, New York district attorney, which derives
addhional interest from the discussion on the
bench of that city, raised by the allegations of the
North American Review. It appears that gentleman
has filled the post for several successive years, and
he has now issued a proclamation, stating that he
must be re-elected, and he must be, for he controls the
criminals. Mr. Bill Sykes is captured cracking the

dry-goods house of A. T. Stewart ; newspaper para-
graphs appear, " Capture of the notorious Burglar
Sykes—Determined resistance—Gallantry of the
Police !" The honest rejoice that the villain Sykes
is at last in limbo. The trial is announced. But
Mr. Sykes and his friends have political influence.
They wait on the party leaders of the " unfortunate
gentleman's" ward and district, who wait on the
district attorney;usuring him that party strength