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"Little Miss Budget" Swainse, Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 92. (April 16, 1887): pp 186-187.

 

 

               

 

 

Commentary on the Text

 

 

Little Miss Budget

 

W. H. Sm-th (the Family Butler):“Dessert, Miss? Oh dear, no! You’ll have to wait a bit yet. We’ve only just got to the second course!!”

 

When we first began working on this Wiki, we were interested in looking at the role that food and consumption played in relation to varying levels of class and status in the nineteenth century. Our group chose a cartoon from the April 16, 1887 edition of Punch Magazine entitled “Little Miss Budget.”

 

The image on this cartoon depicts a tall, slightly plump butler and a young female dinner guest. The butler is finely groomed, wears a formal suit, and is about to carry a bottle of wine into his master’s dining room. The butler is detained from his task by responding to a young girl who stands at the bottom of the staircase of a large elegant house. She is dressed in a formal two-piece frilly dress with black stockings and boots.

 

We chose to write about this cartoon because of its intriguing caption: “W.H. Sm-th (the Family Butler). ‘Dessert, Miss? Oh dear, no! You’ll have to wait a bit yet. We’ve only just got to the second course!!’” Since we had originally intended to focus our research on the differences between classes in terms of food and consumption, when we first saw the girl standing on the staircase we immediately assumed her to be of a lower class order than those throwing the dinner party. This assumption was based around the idea that because she was asking for dessert after only the first course, she must be unaware of the lengthiness of high class dinner parties and the vast number of courses that such a dinner contained.

 

            In our research, we discovered that during the nineteenth century, the institution of dinner varied greatly depending on one’s social and economical status. For well-to-do families, dinner was arranged into a series of elaborate courses. In such dinners, a guest might begin eating around seven o’ clock at night—since it was growing increasingly popular for those of higher social class to dine later and later—and could last upwards of two hours. Jennifer Davies explains that for members of the upper class, “[D]inner was not designed to be filling. Instead it had become a passport to good society” (Davies, 140).

 

            Servants played an important role in the preparation and presentation of food. In addition to acting the part of “waiter” during an upper class dinner, it was also common for the family butler to stand behind his master’s chair and watch the progression of the meal. He would estimate exactly when each person was going to finish his or her plate and would signal the kitchen through the ringing of a bell to begin arranging the next course. After each course, “[T]here would be a large-scale disruption and bustle while the servants carried away the dishes and brought and arranged another complete course” (Todd, 265). If this transition between courses did not take place quickly enough, the master and mistress of the house would generally be termed as ill hosts and their cook considered incompetent by the dinner guests.

 

            For the lower and working classes however, dinners were not nearly so elaborate. During the nineteenth century, agricultural wages were at an all-time low. Due to the Enclosure Acts, which stripped many farmers of the land they needed to raise their livestock and generate food, and the Corn Laws, which drastically raised the prices of bread, many farmers and laborers were forced to switch to potatoes as a replacement for bread. However, even this means of nourishment was soon stripped away as the potato blights of 1845 ravaged Irish crops bringing famine to multitudes (Davies, 157).

 

            In the lower class meals, men generally ate much better than did women and children in the family. It is likely that the non-working members of the family were living below levels of adequate sustenance, with the male earner consuming a majority of the food brought into the house (Nelson 103).

 

            Based on what we know about the diet and income of the lower class, it is reasonable to infer that dinners for low class families were simple affairs that induced more stress than relief. Food for the lower class was more of a necessity than an opportunity for social interaction; it provided the calories needed to fuel the family for hard work. Food became fuel and was thus far less entertaining on a daily basis than the elaborate dinner parties of the upper class.

            Considering these differences in dining habits between the wealthy and the poor, we interpreted the Punch cartoon to be a comical illustration of the disparity between classes. We thought that by asking for dessert after the first course the little girl pictured is unintentionally proving that she is from a lower class where dinners are generally simple and set forth on the table all at once. This was our first interpretation of the cartoon; however, after we had finished writing about food and consumption, we uncovered in Punch, a second page of the “Little Miss Budget” cartoon.

 

           

 

 

 

           This second page of “Little Miss Budget” presents a monologue from the Butler, Mr. W. H. Sm---th,  expressing his concern that Miss Budget has been neglected and left outside to wait while the family inside is “dawdling” and taking much too long at their meal. The butler’s role here is to urge the reader to sympathize with Little Miss Budget and furthermore to cast a negative light on the guests on the other side of the door. The butler also calls attention to the figures of Mr. Goschen and Mr. Millais and introduces a bottle of wine which holds the label “closure.”

            The butler, who speaks to the little girl on the stairs, talks about how sorrowful it is that the partakers of the meal, who are on the opposite side of the door, should exclude her for so long, and he expresses his wish that they would cease their conversation, finish their course, and move on to dessert—thus allowing for the little girl to enter and participate in the meal.  He continues to explain that since the wine the party has already consumed is not sufficiently moving the meal along, he will now serve the “Closure” wine he holds in his hand. These images can serve as symbols for processes and terms that were being newly introduced into British politics in 1887.

 

            The guests who partake of the multi-course meal can be seen as those who are in debate over a subject. Mr. Goschen and Mr. Sm---th are in favor of concluding the debate and moving on to a discussion of the budget. It is implied that the other guests, desiring to prolong debate in order to delay the budget discussion are using a tactic known as filibuster. This is a governmental means of prolonging debate in order to prevent the passage of particular legislation. Mr. W. H. Sm---th, proposes the introduction of closure, a term that had just entered British politics in the 1880s under the direction of Prime Minister Gladstone.

 

             A concept that originated in France, “cloture” or “closure” literally means “to fence.” It is also occasionally referred to as a “guillotine.”  Gladstone introduced it into British politics in order to quell Irish Nationalism and their persistent use of obstructionism (which is closely related to filibuster) in parliament. The term “closure” is used today in nations around the world and allows for debate to cease if the motion for closure receives a majority vote and in parliament’s case, the permission of the Speaker of the House of Commons. In this way, the setting of the lengthy dinner party, the butler’s proposed intervention, and Little Miss Budget’s anxious desire to join the party can be seen as a metaphor for the interaction between obstructionism and filibuster, “closure,” and the national budget.

 

            At first we were pleased that we had been able to read this cartoon not only on its surface level—as a comic about class and consumption—but on a deeper level that discusses some of the issues and terminology of Victorian era politics. However, on a third reading of the cartoon and the accompanying text, it became clear that it was not only the term “closure” that deserved close inspection but also the figures of Mr, Goschen, Mr. Sm---th, and Mr. Millais.

 

             It was all very confusing at first. We discovered that G. J. Goschen was the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time our cartoon was published, and we also identified Mr. Millais as a popular Pre-Raphaelite painter by the name of Sir John Everett Millais. Furthermore, we found that W.H. Smith was another member of parliament who worked closely with G. J. Goschen on matters such as the Irish Home Rule, the budget, and foreign and domestic affairs. The identification of these key figures provided the difficulty of discovering the particular event in which all of these figures were involved.

 

            It is important to note that in the years leading up to this particular moment in British politics, parliament had been in deep conflict over the issue of how to deal with Ireland—whether to control it completely or allow some leeway for self-government or to grant complete independence. It is also important to note that there were several splits occurring in the major political parties in Britain at the time, especially in regards to the Liberal Party who were led by Prime Minister Gladstone. Debate after debate was held over these issues. “Goschen’s speeches . . .  had been largely occupied with urging on public consideration the supreme necessity of fighting parliamentary obstruction by improved procedure, and of maintaining in Ireland the supremacy of the law” (Elliot, 121).

 

            In spring of 1887, another politician, Mr. Balfour, proposed his ‘Criminal Law Amendment Bill’ which suggested that the law be strictly upheld against Irish Nationalists who favored violence, uprisings, and obstructionism as means of gaining independence. “Five nights of debate had been given to the first reading of the Crimes Bill, and seven more were consumed before the Bill was read a second time” (Elliot, 125). Finally, after prolonged and violent discussion within Parliament, closure was employed to stop the obstructionism of the Irish Nationalists, and the bill was passed. Here we see why the figures of G.J. Goschen, who opposed obstructionism and supported the Crimes Bill, and of W. H. Smith, who employed closure as means of gaining these ends, fit into our political cartoon.

 

Mr. Millais is also mentioned in order to heighten our respect for Little Miss Budget since he had painted many beautiful portraits of young girls, and Miss Budget apparently resembles one of them. One of his most celebrated paintings, “Cherry Ripe” is very similar to the cartoon artist’s portrayal of Miss Budget. Since a girl by the name of Budget is portrayed as being beautiful enough to serve as inspiration for one of the nineteenth century’s greatest painters, we can see that the issue of the budget in parliament was one that was very precious to many British politicians and citizens.

 

            In concluding the results of our research, we feel that both our initial reading of “Little Miss Budget” as well as our further in-depth readings should be taken together in interpreting the cartoon. We believe that the artist of this illustration chose the setting of a long drawn out aristocratic dinner party in order to convey the political ideas that were prevalent during the late nineteenth century. If the little girl, Miss Budget, can be viewed as a personification of the actual budget, then the length of the dinner party may also be viewed as a representation of the lengthy filibuster, and the dinner’s many courses may be compared to Goschen’s many attempts to end debate over the Crimes Bill and pass his proposed budget. In this way, the choice of setting for “Little Miss Budget” is not only appropriate in presenting the social inadequacies of its time, but is also a brilliant way of aiding the common public into understanding complicated political issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                Works Cited

 

 

 

 

 

Baldry, A. Lys. Millais. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack.

 

 

 

 

 

Davies, Jennifer. The Victorian Kitchen. London: BBC Books, 1989.

 

 

 

 

 

Elliot, Arthur D., Hon. The Life of George Jaochim Goschen: First Viscount Goschen: 1821-1907. Vol. II. 39 Paternoster Row, London, New York, Bombay, Calcutta: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1911.

 

 

 

 

 

“Mr. Gladstone Defeated.” The New York Times June 8, 1886. February 14, 2008.< http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-<free/pdf?res=9E06E6D61738E533A2575BC0A9609C94679FD7CF>.

 

 

 

 

 

“Mr. Goschen Proposes Radical Changes.” The New York Times March 27, 1888. February 8, 2008.<http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807E2DD1138E533A25754C2A9659C94699FD7CF>.

 

 

 

 

 

Nelson, Michael. “Social Class trends in British Diet 1860-1890.” Food, Diet and Economic Change Past and Present. Ed. Catherine Geissler. New  Ed. Catherine Geissler. New York: Leicester University Press. 1993. P. 101-132.

 

 

 

 

 

Spinner, Thomas J., Jr. ­George Joachim Goschen: The Transformation of A Victorian Liberal. London: Cambridge University Press, 1973

 

 

 

 

 

Todd, Janet, ed. Jane Austen in Context. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

Tate Online. March 27, 1888. February 8, 2008.<http://www.tate.org.uk/research/researchservices/archive/showcase/resu lts.jsp?>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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                Project Group Members

 

Member Name	University	Course
Allison Engelke	Western Washington University	Eng 310
Jonathon Ehlinger	Western Washington University	Eng 310
Christina Garcia	Western Washington University	Eng 310

 

 

             

 

 

 

 

Project Completed: Winter Quarter, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

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