Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Railways, Patents, Metrology, Exhibitions, Crime, Mental Illness

    Discusses the collapse of parliamentary bills for railway lines in Brighton and between the east and west coasts of Scotland (the latter proposal being favoured by Punch), and responds to the proposal of Granville G Leveson-Gower (2nd Earl Granville) to improve the Patent Museum and Library, with the suggestion that the patent system should be abolished altogether. Later questions the 'utility' of William Ewart's 'Permissive Bill in favour of the Metric System', believing that it needs to be implemented more firmly, and reports on the dismantling of the buildings of the International Exhibition, and on a 'Committee on the Insane Criminals' Bill'.