"How well I remember my first group of 'Young Men,'" pursued _Mr. Punch_, musingly. "There was swift and scathing DOUGLAS JERROLD, with his tossed and tangled mane of grey hair. GILBERT ABBOTT À BECKETT, too, the whimsically witty, the drolly satirical, the comically caustic. HENRY MAYHEW, of course, and, a little later, his brother HORACE, the simple, lovable 'PONNY.' HENNING, NEWMAN and BRINE, were my earliest Artists. HENNING drew the first Cartoon, whilst NEWMAN and BRINE, and, later, HINE, between them, were responsible for most of the smaller cuts, head-and-tail-pieces, pictorial puns, and sketchy silhouettes, wherewith _Punch's_ early pages abounded.
"In the fourth Number of _Punch_, published on August 7th, 1841, first appeared the soon-to-be-famous signature of 'JOHN LEECH.'"
"Ah! JOHN LEECH," cried the attentive ANNO DOMINI. "A name to conjure with! How did that 'Star swim into your ken'?"
"There was a certain clever, scholarly, and genial gentleman," responded _Mr. Punch_, "who had lately published, under the pseudonym of 'PAUL PRENDERGAST,' an extremely funny _Comic Latin Grammar_. 'PAUL PRENDERGAST' was, in reality, Mr. PERCIVAL LEIGH, originally a medical gentleman, the well-beloved 'Professor' of later _Punch_ days. The _Comic Latin Grammar_ had been admirably illustrated by a personal friend, and fellow-student, of LEIGH's named LEECH. The services of _both_ of the contributors to the _Comic Latin Grammar_ were soon enlisted in my interests.
"Another of LEECH's medical student friends was ALBERT SMITH, and he before long was penning his 'Physiology of London Evening Parties' (illustrated by PHIZ--HALBOT KNIGHT BROWNE--NEWMAN, and others) for my pages. KENNY MEADOWS, WATTS PHILLIPS, ALFRED 'CROW-QUILL' (FORRESTER), JOHN GILBERT, and others, drew also for the young Journal, the printing of which had been taken over by the Whitefriars firm of BRADBURY AND EVANS, with whom as proprietors and fast friends, _Punch_ has ever since been happily associated.
"As early as my Fourth Volume," pursued _Mr. Punch_, "it became obvious that, in the person of 'Our Fat Contributor,' a certain 'MICHAEL ANGELO TITMARSH' was writing and drawing for _Punch_.
As we hope, gentle public, to pass many happy hours in your society, we think it right that you should know something of our character and intentions. Our title, at a first glance, may have misled you into a belief that we have no other intention than the amusement of a thoughtless crowd, and the collection of pence. We have a higher object. Few of the admirers of our prototype, merry Master PUNCH, have looked upon his vagaries but as the practical outpourings of a rude and boisterous mirth. We have considered him as a teacher of no mean pretensions, and have, therefore, adopted him as the sponsor for our weekly sheet of pleasant instruction. When we have seen him parading in the glories of his motley, flourishing his baton (like our friend Jullien at Drury-lane) in time with his own unrivalled discord, by which he seeks to win the attention and admiration of the crowd, what visions of graver puppetry have passed before our eyes! Golden circlets, with their adornments of coloured and lustrous gems, have bound the brow of infamy as well as that of honour--a mockery to both; as though virtue required a reward beyond the fulfilment of its own high purposes, or that infamy could be cheated into the forgetfulness of its vileness by the weight around its temples! Gilded coaches have glided before us, in which sat men who thought the buzz and shouts of crowds a guerdon for the toils, the anxieties, and, too often, the peculations of a life. Our ears have rung with the noisy frothiness of those who have bought their fellow-men as beasts in the market-place, and found their reward in the sycophancy of a degraded constituency, or the patronage of a venal ministry--no matter of what creed, for party _must_ destroy patriotism.