Genre:

Regular Feature, Proceedings, Drollery

Subjects:

Government, Politics, Railways, Transport, Political Economy, Cultural Geography, Religious Authority, Religion, Education, Mathematics, Mechanics, Economic Geology, Geology

    Notes Benjamin Disraeli's adoption of the previous (Liberal) government's proposal to 'lend public money to the Irish Railways' and John S Mill's argument that, in its handling of Ireland, the government seemed to be violating the 'rules of common sense, of political economy, and of professional etiquette'. Proceeds to a further debate on Ireland which prompts Punch to criticise Irish Catholics for preventing their sons from being 'taught algebra and the Greek Chorus by people who do not believe in the Immaculate Conception, any more than ultra-Churchmen will allow their children to learn [...] hydraulics from Baptists'. Later notes the appointment of a Royal Commission on Coal 'to inquire into the question whether the supply will last our time', and states that John Percy, Andrew C Ramsay, Roderick I Murchison, and Joseph Prestwich have been appointed to serve on the commission.