as earnest as you please in intent, but it must be smiling in method .” 59 But they have not always been " good -natured , especially the caricature. This gives essentially a distorted view , and it has a distinctive purpose. Its main object is not simply to create
a laugh, - an ulterior motive lies beyond the laugh. It must thus be classed with the editorial as a means of influencing
public opinion ,61 and even of rousing international hatreds.62 69 New York Evening Post, October 8 , 1910 . 60 Augustin Filon gives an interesting account of political caricature, par
ticularly of the exchange of caricatures between the Whigs and the Tories at the time of the Revolution of 1688 . The Whigs having called to their aid the Dutch caricaturists, the Tories used their sketches to their own ends by slightly changing the figures. The Dutch caricaturists rendered efficient service against the pretender and his family .-- La Caricature en Angleterre, chap . III.
The political caricatures of Hogarth and his quarrel with his
quondam friend, John Wilkes, are discussed by Filon in chap . VII. The entire work deals almost exclusively with political caricature . 61 The caricatures of Punch undoubtedly influenced public opinion in Eng
land at the time of the American Civil War and it is frequently said that Sir
John Tenniel's cartoons did much to tighten the strain between England and America . It is a question not yet decided as to what was the real opinion of England
in regard to the Civil War in America, but there is not a shadow of doubt as to what was the attitude of the London Punch . This is conveyed not only by
the text, but even more by the cartoons and caricatures that cover the period
of the war. If the first cartoon of Lincoln (May 11, 1861) represented him as strong and intelligent, he quickly became in its pages “ the bearded ruffian , a repulsive compound of malice, vulgarity and cunning.”
Theamende honorable madeafter Lincoln 's death — " Britannia Sympathizes with Columbia.” — May 6 , 1865, and the poem of Tom Taylor's on Abraham Lincoln scarcely atoned for the years of caricature preceding , especially since it has recently been shown how divided was the sentiment of the Punch
staff. — G . S . Layard, A Great “ Punch ” Editor Being the Life, Letters, and Diaries of Shirley Brooks, pp . 245 - 248. That these facts were not forgotten and that an effort was made to make
use of them in stirring up strife between England and America is seen in a facsimile issue of Punch made up of cartoons that had appeared in Punch during the Civil War and the years immediately following and bore on the
cover the inscription “ As England sees U . S . shown in Punch.” It was offered for sale in October, 1915 . - An account is given in the New York Evening Post, October 22, 1915. Full accounts of the original cartoons are given in G . S . Layard , A
Great “ Punch " Editor Being the Life, Letters, and Diaries of Shirley Brooks, London, 1907. M . H . Spielmann in his History of Punch barely alludes to the subject.
The cartoons, comments,and poems relating to the Civil War that were published in Punch have been collected and edited by W . S . Walsh under the title Abraham Lincoln and the London Punch .
62 “ The art of newspaper caricature as carried on abroad is savage to an extent that we, on this side of the Atlantic , neither practice nor e
