The great success which “Punch” had attained to in 1847-8 produced a crop of imitators, among which were “the Man in the Moon,” “Puck,” “Pasquin,” “the Spark,” “Diogenes,” etc., and early in 1848 my brother and I started the “Puppet Show,” which, as the first number chanced to make its appearance just after the French revolution of February, leapt at once into temporary success. Humorous authors of an original turn were exceedingly rare in those days, and we thought ourselves lucky in securing the co-operation of two smart young writers just out of their teens, James Hannay and Sutherland Edwards, who between them had written the eight or ten numbers of “Pasquin,” a clever and exceedingly pungent satirical journal, which after a transitory existence, had either frightened by its brutal boldness, or tired out with its weekly losses, the timid capitalist who financed the speculation.

Hannay was then a shock-headed young fellow of twenty, who, after a brief spell in her majesty's navy, had retired from the service, written a clever little book called “Biscuits and Grog,” and been for a while on the staff of the “Morning Chronicle” newspaper. He had parted with the proprietors of that moribund “daily” on the reverse of friendly terms, and attacked the paper ruthlessly in “Pasquin” as long as this smartly-written publication lasted.

Another favourite butt for Hannay's savage satire was Eumsey Forster—the Jenkins of the “Morning,” or, as Hannay dubbed it, the “Fawning Post”—who had supplanted the ci-devant midshipman in the affections of some pretty barmaid at a London tavern which they both frequented.