PUNCH 1847
A DANGEROUS
CHARACTER
Policeman
Sibthorpe. “Come, it’s High Time You Were taken to the House; You’ve Done Quite
Mischief Enough”
For many years
PUNCH was a popular and successful magazine, famous for the quality of its
content and the ingenuity of its artwork.
Its influence extended far beyond its circulation and many people were
surprised when it closed in 1992. An
attempt a few years later to revive the title failed.
PUNCH was a
satirical magazine. It regularly lampooned the ‘railway mania’ of the mid nineteenth
century. It also used satire as a vector
of comment on politicians and society figures.
There were many references to the railway throughout the magazine’s run
and I will make other references to railway police related cartoons in future blogs.
The above
cartoon shows an early locomotive with a face, hands and feet being ‘arrested’
by Policeman Sibthorpe, who is dressed in early (railway?) police uniform with
a top hat and holding a large truncheon.
Charles de Laet
Waldo SIBTHORP MP (1783-1855), known as Colonel SIBTHORP, was a regular target
of PUNCH’s satire. He was a reactionary
Tory MP and was known for being ‘opposed to everything’. He lived in a permeant
state of outrage and lamented the passing of the eighteenth century. He
campaigned against: Catholic
Emancipation, The Emancipation of Jews, The Great Reform Act 1832 and the
Repeal of the Corn Laws. He thought the
Great Exhibition was:
“One of the
greatest humbugs, one of the greatest frauds, one of the greatest absurdities ever
known…..Take care of your wives and daughters, take care of your property and
your lives” (1)
He was highly suspicious
of foreigners, including the Prince Consort.
He gained Peel’s support in reducing the amount of funding provided to
Prince Albert and in doing so made a life long enemy of Queen Victoria, who
refused to visit his constituency.
He was
especially against the introduction and the expansion of the railways. He regarded railways as a sign of the country’s
moral and physical decline and took every opportunity to oppose railway
construction. He regarded the ‘steam
humbugs’ (a favourite word of his) as ‘a degrading form of transport’ (2) and
he longed for the return of the ‘happy mode of travelling the turnpike roads in
chaises, carriages and stages’ (3). Another
PUNCH cartoon shows him dressed as Don Quixote charging, lance extended, at a
train.
He had mixed
feelings about policing as well.
His extreme,
and generally apocalyptic, views were combined with a habit of dressing as a gentleman
from the 1790s. It is not surprising
that he was a popular subject for caricature.
The current MP
for North East Somerset comes to mind as I write this………….
Sibthorp was
not unpopular. His nationalistic tub
thumping (and alas even his racism) was, at the very least ,thought to be
amusing by his associates. In a country
where change was occurring at a speed unheard of in human history there were
many people who yearned for a more simple way of living. The coming of the railways changed the
world. They changed, amongst other
things, the nature of crime. Change is
always a mixed bag and those that adopt a blanket opposition will inevitably
attract some support.
What would Col
Sibthorp, or even Constable Sibthorpe, make of the UK and the railway network in
the 21st century?
As we witness
the opening of the Elizabeth line this week I fear he would not be impressed.
Philip Trendall
Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Sibthorp
Michell, J. F. (1999). Eccentric
Lives and Peculiar Notions. United States: Adventures Unlimited
Press. P57 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Eccentric_Lives_and_Peculiar_Notions/ZzDHPKxDkAwC?hl=en&gbpv=1
(1)
Mitchell 1999, p59
(2)
Ibid, P61
(3)
Ibid, P61
Philip Trendall
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