Mark Lemon was reappointed as editor and Henry Mayhew was given the role of "suggester-in-chief". In December 1842 it was decided to sell the magazine to Bradbury & Evans. However, sales of 10,000 were needed to cover the costs of the venture.
In the early years Punch Magazine sold about 6,000 copies a week. John Leech, Cheap Clothing, Punch Magazine (1845) Although the magazine supported Moral Force Chartists it was totally opposed to those such as Feargus O'Connor who advocated the use of force to obtain the vote. The magazine also campaigned against the Corn Laws, the 1834 Poor Law and reform of parliament. This powerful indictment of capitalism was supported by cartoons such as Capital and Labour and Cheap Clothing, by John Leech, that illustrated the growth of inequality that was taking place in Britain during the 1840s. In 1843 Punch Magazine published Thomas Hood's poem, The Song of the Shirt. Politicians were seen as corrupt and self-seeking and only Radicals such as Joseph Hume were treated with respect.Įmployers who treated their workers badly were also condemned. The prime minister, Sir Robert Peel, also came under attack for the unfair taxes he had introduced and was often referred to as "Sir Rhubarb Pill, M.P., M.D., the new state physician." Other politicians who suffered from the caustic wit of Punch Magazine included Henry Brougham, Benjamin Disraeli and Daniel O'Connell. It pointed out that Prince Albert had a yearly allowance of £30,000, whereas the total amount spent on educating the poor in England was only £10,000. The magazine campaigned against the high cost of the monarchy. Early targets included the monarchy and leading politicians. For the first few years of its existence, the magazine developed a reputation as "a defender of the oppressed and a radical scourge of all authority". In an article entitled The Moral of Punch, Mark Lemon wrote that he hoped the journal would help, "destroy the principle of evil by increasing the means of cultivating the good". The first edition of Punch Magazine was printed by Joseph Last of Fleet Street and published on Saturday, 17th July 1841. Punch front cover that first appeared in Januaryġ849. As well as John Leech, who was with the magazine from the start, Richard Doyle and Archibald Henning produced the drawings. Douglas Jerrold was probably the most important journalist on the magazine, but other writers who contributed included Shirley Brooks, William Wills and William Makepeace Thackeray. Lemon and Mayhew recruited a team of young journalists and artists. Mark Lemon and Henry Mayhew found three other men to help finance the magazine, the printer, Joseph Last, the engraver, Ebenezer Landells and the businessman, Stirling Coyne. Mayhew, remarked "A capital idea! Let's call the paper Punch."
During the meeting at the Edinburgh Castle, someone remarked that a humourous magazine, like good punch, needed lemon.
Others invited to the original meeting included Douglas Jerrold, a journalist with the reputation for campaigning against poverty, and John Leech, a medical student whose drawings had impressed Lemon. Lemon and Mayhew were both reforming liberals and the plan was to combine humour and political comment. One evening at the beginning of June, 1841, Mark Lemon and Henry Mayhew, met at the Edinburgh Castle public house in the Strand, London, to discuss the possibility of starting a new journal.