Genre:

News-Commentary, Drollery

Subjects:

Electricity, Display, Politics, Government

    Likens the performance of the Prime Minister Robert Peel to Angelique Cottin, a Frenchwoman capable of repelling 'Chairs and tables' once charged with electricity. Proposes four experiments to prove Peel's 'infinitely greater powers of attraction and repulsion', the latter qualities referring to the movements of the politicians with whom Peel engages. In the first experiment, for example, Peel was 'very heavily charged during the late debate' and succeeded in 'throwing one half of the Conservative members, quite to the opposite side of the house', while in the second experiment, he was charged and 'found to possess the power of attracting members of the Agricultural League'. A 'gentleman of great scientific acquirements' assures Punch that Peel is 'quite as powerful as an electric eel'.