"Well, my friends, what do you think of Punch? Has he satisfied your expectations? He tries to make himself amusing, the fault must be yours, should he not prove successful." 

"Punch disdains to make too large professions; but he may be allowed to promise (without compromising his dignity) the he will 'Hold the mirror up to Nature,' and touch on the subjects of the day with all the fearlessness of a just Chronicler of the Times, and which his universality justifies...The subjects he selects are as multifarious as the law permits him to indulge in, or the hacknied theme of literature allows him to embrace. Politics and Polemics he shuns as the Scylla and Charibdis of his fate. As public matters are his game, he 'Shoots folly as it flies,' and lays his cudgel about him, without looking to the right or to the left, neither sparing friend or foe...It may be truly said of Punch, he is "the wisdom that crieth out in the streets," as well as the sage of the drawing-room and the boudoir.