THE BULLETIN, January 31, 1891

Several Australian newspapers went to unnecessary expense and trouble to let us know that the Earl of Devon was dead, whereupon several of our fust families shook their ill-shaped heads in despair and dropped into a vague conjecture that it was another sad blow for Hingland.

This Earl of Devon was an unsociable blackguard known, until two years ago as Lord Courtenay. He had been kicked off the turf, kicked out of the Clubs, and morally kicked out of the Insolvency Court, where he used to turn up periodically with schedules of debts ranging from a hundred thousand down to five thousand pounds, the assets being, as a rule, about half a crown. He was a disgrace to humanity and a staunch Tory, and he expired from the results of sinful folly and blueblooded wickedness at the age of fifty five, leaving his coronet in pawn and his next male heir to chuck about a vote in the destinies of the British nation.

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THE BULLETIN, February 14, 1891

That podgy nobleman, the Duke of Argyle, writes thus upon the agitation for Home Rule in Scotland: -

I never hear a word about Home Rule for Scotland, except the report of a few foolish speeches in the papers. As we don’t know what Home Rule means even for Ireland, there is no use in discussing that enigmatical phrase as applied to Scotland. All the wealth and prosperity of Scotland dates from the Union, (with England - Ed )and it would be putting back the clock indeed to go back to our former state of “single blessedness,” which was one of great poverty and frequent distress.

Just so. Also the wealth and prosperity of America dates from the hanging of Major ANDRE (during the American War of Independence - Ed), and the fall of Holland dates from the great fire of London, but it doesn’t follow that there is any connection between these events, all the same. Further, the KELLY gang date from about the time of the City of Glasgow Bank failure, and half-a-dozen revolutions broke out in Europe almost immediately after the first Bishop arrived in Melbourne, and the Duke of Argyle himself probably dates from the time somebody was hanged in Siam. When a Duke starts to draw an inference something is certain to go wrong.

Editor's Note:
The Bulletin was stongly Republican and denounced "Foreign Titles." See earlier feature -
Link: What The Bulletin Stands For