1-150-213 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'A Step in Reform. Suggested to Mr. John Bright, while he is About It', 1858. This cartoon shows Mr John Bright, the Quaker. Bright was an outspoken advocate of parliamentary reform and peppered his numerous speeches with attacks on British aristocracy. In a poem entitled Mr Bright's Next, Punch also described his attacks on slavery, Catholicism, Russian serfdom, the House of Lords, Ireland and America. In this cartoon, though, Punch is suggesting that Mr Bright turn his attention to the worst excesses of fashion. These included pegtop trousers and the crinoline. From Punch, or the London Charivari, December 25, 1858.