somewhat of a domestic tyrant; for his conduct is at times harsh and
ungentlemanly to Mrs. P.

"Eve of a land that still is Paradise,
Italian beauty!"

But as we never look for perfection in human nature, it is too much
to expect it in wood. We wish it to be understood that we repudiate
such principles and conduct. We have a Judy of our own, and a little
Punchininny that commits innumerable improprieties; but we fearlessly
aver that we never threw him out of window, nor belaboured the lady
with a stick--even of the size allowed by law.

There is one portion of the drama we wish was omitted, for it always
saddens us--we allude to the prison scene. PUNCH, it is true, sings in
durance, but we hear the ring of the bars mingling with the song. We
are advocates for the _correction_ of offenders; but how many generous
and kindly beings are there pining within the walls of a prison, whose
only crimes are poverty and misfortune! They, too, sing and laugh, and
appear jocund, but the _heart_ can ever hear the ring of the bars.

We never looked upon a lark in a cage, and heard him trilling out
his music as he sprang upwards to the roof of his prison, but we felt
sickened with the sight and sound, as contrasting, in our thought,
the free minstrel of the morning, bounding as it were into the
blue caverns of the heavens, with the bird to whom the world was
circumscribed. May the time soon arrive, when every prison shall be
a palace of the mind--when we shall seek to instruct and cease to
punish. PUNCH has already advocated education by example. Look at his
dog Toby! The instinct of the brute has almost germinated into reason.