CANADIAN “SEARCH-LIGHT” 1891 Sir John Tenniel - Pacific Scandal PUNCH CARTOON

Original 10 3/4 inch x 8 1/8 inch Single-Sided Wood Engraved Cartoon page titled THE CANADIAN “SEARCH-LIGHT” from Punch, September 5, 1891.

The Pacific Scandal was a political scandal in Canada involving bribes being accepted by 150 members of the Conservative government in the attempts of private interests to influence the bidding for a national rail contract. The Pacific Scandal originated when Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald and his Conservative colleagues Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Hector-Louis Langevin went looking for campaign funds for the 1872 general election. Sir Hector-Louis Langevin left politics in 1873 because of his role in the Pacific Scandal. After the death of Macdonald in 1891 he was implicated with MP Thomas McGreevy in the so-called McGreevy-Langevin scandal. This affair was even uglier. It involved kickbacks from federal contracts to McGreevy. Langevin stepped down as public works minister and was exiled to the backbenches until he left politics in 1896. McGreevy was sentenced to a year in jail.

The cartoon was wood engraved by Joseph Swain (1820 -1909) from an illustration by Sir John Tenniel (1820 - 1914), both were regulars on Punch magazine.

Punch, or The London Charivari, was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration.

The page is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.