Who am I kidding - I'm on a Tenniel kick at the moment and I've just got to ride it where it takes me.

 

When I’ve copied Tenniel’s political cartoons more often they’ve been ones concerned with Foreign affairs.  They tend to be more dramatic than his cartoons on home affairs, but there are always worthy of the little bit of study they need to make sense out of what they are commenting on. I’m fond of this one because it also features my distant cousin Richard Cobden MP.

The caption to this one, which I haven’t included, says “Cobden to Dizzy: Carries Out His Bat? Of Course He Does! Your Underhand Bowling 'll Never Get Him Out! I'll Show You How to Do It Next Innings” The cartoon appeared in Punch in 1862, after the end of a session in Parliament where Disraeli, the leader of the opposition in the lower chamber, had failed to exert any real pressure on the Palmerston led Whig Government. The cartoon shows Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, as a successful batsman in a cricket match, who has carried his bat. (This term means he was the first batsman in the innings, and has not been bowled out for the whole of the innings.) The bowler behind his left shoulder is Disraeli. The guy with the long face is influential MP Richard Cobden – incidentally a distant cousin of mine. His advice to Disraeli can be taken two ways. Underarm bowling is considerably easier for the batsman to deal with than overarm, so Cobden is basically telling Disraeli to stop providing such soft opposition. However there may also be the hint of underarm meaning underhand tactics.