We have a Prince of Wales! Whilst, however, England is throwing up its million caps in rapture at the advent, let it not be forgotten to whom we owe the royal baby. In the clamorousness of our joy the fact would have escaped us, had we not received a letter from Colonel SIBTHORP, who assures us that we owe a Prince of Wales entirely to the present cabinet; had the Whigs remained in office, the infant would inevitably have been a girl.
7.--THE FIRST MENTION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. 1841.]
The first number of _Punch_ came out on the 17th July, 1841, at 13, Wellington Street, Strand. There was a good demand for it, two editions of five thousand copies each being sold in two days. This demand was caused by advertising in various ways, including the distribution of 100,000 copies of a printed prospectus that was nearly identical with the draft whose first page has been shown here.
Onourd Sur,--This cums hopin youl xcuse the liberty I take in addresin yu, which ime shure you wont think anythink ov, wen I tell yu my objec, which is to make nown a very valubel speeches of hedukashun threw the medium of your valubel collums. I mean drawring bin klasses: i ave bin studdiing hunder Mistr Gander, and wot I rite for his to send yu a speciment of my drawring after receivin six lessons. Yu are at liberty to make any huse ov this that yu please, am yure obedent servant to command,
P.S.--i wouldn't mind 'a guiney a week' to make a few more drawrings ov the same karacter as wot I ave sent; or i dont mind havin a go at politix hif yu wood make it wurth mi wile.
8.--A SUPPOSITITIOUS OFFER TO "PUNCH." 1842.]
From the first Volume of _Punch_ I have chosen the five pictures here numbered 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. No. 2 is the first picture in _Punch_, a distinction that gives importance to this little sketch [the same size as the original] of a broken-down man at work on the tread-mill. By the first picture, I mean the first that was printed on the numbered pages of _Punch_--this is on page 2 of Vol. I.--for the _Introduction_ contained three wood-cuts, and there was the outside wrapper--of which I shall speak later. But this little cut in No. 2 is really the first of Mr. Punch's famous gallery of black-and-white art. It was drawn by William Newman, and this is one of his so-called "blackies"--little _silhouettes_ that were paid for at the rate of eighteen shillings per dozen.