CHAPTER XXVIII.

Aside he turnedFor envy, yet with jealous leer malignEyed them askance.

Aside he turned

For envy, yet with jealous leer malign

Eyed them askance.

Another, also by Gillray, is entitled “Guy Faux and Judas Iscariot,” the former represented by Fox, who discovers the desertion of his late colleague, lord Shelburne, by the light of his lantern, and recriminates angrily, “Ah! what, I’ve found you out, have I? Who arm’d the high priests and the people? Who betray’d his mas—?” At this point he is interrupted by a sneering retort from Shelburne, who is carrying away the treasury bag with a look of great self-complacency, “Ha, ha! poor Gunpowder’s vexed! He, he, he!—Shan’t have the bag, I tell you, old Goosetooth!” Burke was usually caricatured as a Jesuit; and in another of Gillray’s prints of this time (published Aug. 23, 1782), entitled “Cincinnatus in Retirement,” Burke is represented as driven into the retirement of his Irish cabin, where he is surrounded by Popish relics and emblems of superstition, and by the materials for drinking whisky. A vessel, inscribed “Relick No. 1., used by St. Peter,” is filled with boiled potatoes, which Jesuit Burke is paring. Three imps are seen dancing under the table.

No. 222. A Strong Dose.

In 1783 the Shelburne ministry itself was dissolved, and succeeded by the Portland ministry, in which Fox was secretary of state for foreign affairs, and Burke, paymaster of the forces, and Lord North, who had joined the Whigs against lord Shelburne, now obtained office as secretary for the home department. Gillray joined warmly in the attacks on this coalition of parties, and from this time his great activity as a caricaturist begins. Fox, especially, and Burke, still under the character of a Jesuit, were incessantly held up to ridicule in his prints. In another year this ministry also was overthrown, and young William Pitt became established in power, while the ex-ministers, now the opposition, had become unpopular throughout the country. The caricature of Gillray followed them, and Fox and Burke constantly appeared under his hands in some ridiculous situation or other. But Gillray was not a hired libeller, like Sayer and some of the lower caricaturists of that time; he evidently chose his subjects, in some degree independently, as those which offered him the best mark for ridicule; and he had so little respect for the ministers or the court, that they all felt his satire in turn. Thus, when the plan of national fortifications—brought forward by the duke of Richmond, whohad deserted the Whigs to be made a Tory minister, as master-general of the ordnance—was defeated in the House of Commons in 1787, the best caricature it provoked was one by Gillray, entitled“Honi soit qui mal y pense,”which represents the horror of the duke of Richmond at being so unceremoniously compelled to swallow his own fortifications (cut No. 222). It is lord Shelburne, who had now become marquis of Lansdowne, who is represented as administering the bitter dose. Some months afterwards, in the famous impeachment against Warren Hastings, Gillray sided warmly against the impeachers, perhaps partly because these were Burke and his friends; yet several of his caricatures on this affair are aimed at the ministers, and even at the king himself. Lord Thurlow, who was a favourite with the king, and who supported the cause of Warren Hastings with firmness, after he had been deserted by Pitt and the other ministers, was especially an object of Gillray’s satire. Thurlow, it will be remembered, was rather celebrated for profane swearing, and was sometimes spoken of as the thunderer. One of the finest of Gillray’s caricatures at this period, published on the 1st of March, 1788, is entitled “Blood on Thunder fording the Red Sea,” and represents Warren Hastings carried on chancellor Thurlow’s shoulders through a sea of blood, strewed withthe mangled corpses of Hindoos. As will be seen in our copy of the most important part of this print (cut No. 223), the “saviour of India,” as he was called by his friends, has taken care to secure his gains. A remarkably bold caricature by Gillray against the government appeared on the 2nd of May in this year. It is entitled “Market-Day—every man has his price,” and represents a scene in Smithfield, where the horned cattle exposed for sale are the supporters of the king’s ministry. Lord Thurlow, with his characteristic frown, appears as the principal purchaser. Pitt, and his friend and colleague Dundas, are represented drinking and smoking jovially at the window of a public-house. On one side Warren Hastings is riding off with the king in the form of a calf, which he has just purchased, for Hastings was popularly believed to have worked upon king George’s avarice by rich presents of diamonds. On another side, the overwhelming rush of the cattle is throwing over the van in which Fox, Burke, and Sheridan are driving. This plate deserves to be placed among Gillray’s finest works.

No. 223. Blood on Thunder.

Gillray caricatured the heir to the throne with bitterness, perhapsbecause his dissipation and extravagance rendered him a fair subject of ridicule, and because he associated himself with Fox’s party in politics; but his hostility to the king is ascribed in part to personal feelings. A large and very remarkable print by our artist, though his name was not attached to it, and one which displays in a special manner the great characteristics of Gillray’s style, appeared on the 21st of April, 1786, just after an application had been made to the House of Commons for a large sum of money to pay off the king’s debts, which were very great, in spite of the enormous income then attached to the crown. George was known as a careful and even a parsimonious man, and the queen was looked upon generally as a mean and very avaricious woman, and people were at a loss to account for this extraordinary expenditure, and they tried to explain it in various ways which were not to the credit of the royal pair. It was said that immense sums were spent in secret corruption to pave the way to the establishment of arbitrary power; that the king was making large savings, and hoarding up treasures at Hanover; and that, instead of spending money on his family, he allowed his eldest son to run into serious difficulties through the smallness of his allowance, and thus to become an object of pity to his French friend, the wealthy duc d’Orleans, who had offered him relief. The caricature just mentioned, which is extremely severe, is entitled “A new way to pay the National Debt.” It represents the entrance to the treasury, from which king George and his queen, with their band of pensioners, are issuing, their pockets, and the queen’s apron, so full of money, that the coins are rolling out and scattering about the ground. Nevertheless, Pitt, whose pockets also are full, adds to the royal treasures large bags of the national revenue, which are received with smiles of satisfaction. To the left, a crippled soldier sits on the ground, and asks in vain for relief; while the wall above is covered with torn placards, on some of which may be read, “God save the King;” “Charity, a romance;” “From Germany, just arrived a large and royal assortment...;” and “Last dying speech of fifty-four malefactors executed for robbing a hen-roost.” The latter is a satirical allusion to the notorious severity with which the most trifling depredators on the king’s private farm were prosecuted. In the background, on theright hand side of the picture, the prince appears in ragged garments, and in want of charity no less than the cripple, and near him is the duke of Orleans, who offers him a draft for £200,000. On the placards on the walls here we read such announcements as “Economy, an old song;” “British property, a farce;” and “Just published, for the benefit of posterity, the dying groans of Liberty;” and one, immediately over the prince’s head, bears the prince’s feathers, with the motto, “Ich starve.” Altogether this is one of the most remarkable of Gillray’s caricatures.

No. 224. Farmer George and his Wife.

The parsimoniousness of the king and queen was the subject of caricatures and songs in abundance, in which these illustrious personages appeared haggling with their tradesmen, and making bargains in person, rejoicing in having thus saved a small sum of money. It was said that George kept a farm at Windsor, not for his amusement, but to draw a small profit from it. By Peter Pindar he is described as rejoicing over the skill he has shown in purchasing his live stock as bargains. Gillray seized greedily all these points of ridicule, and, as early as 1786, he published a print of “Farmer George and his Wife” (see our cut No. 224), in which the two royalpersonages are represented in the very familiar manner in which they were accustomed to walk about Windsor and its neighbourhood. This picture appears to have been very popular; and years afterwards, in a caricature on a scene in “The School for Scandal,” where, in the sale of the young profligate’s effects, the auctioneer puts up a family portrait, for which a broker offers five shillings, and Careless, the auctioneer, says, “Going for no more than one crown,” the family piece is the well-known picture of “Farmer George and his Wife,” and the ruined prodigal is the prince of Wales, who exclaims, “Careless, knock down the farmer.”

Many caricatures against the undignified meanness of the royal household appeared during the years 1791 and 1792, when the king passed much of his time at his favourite watering-place, Weymouth; and there his domestic habits had become more and more an object of remark. It was said that, under the pretence of Weymouth being an expensive place, and taking advantage of the obligations of the royal mail to carry parcels for the king free, he had his provisions brought to him by that conveyance from his farm at Windsor. On the 28th of November, 1791, Gillray published a caricature on the homeliness of the royal household, in two compartments, in one of which the king is represented, in a dress which is anything but that of royalty, toasting his muffins for breakfast; and in the other, queen Charlotte, in no less homely dress, though her pocket is overflowing with money, toasting sprats for supper. In another of Gillray’s prints, entitled “Anti-saccharites,” the king and queen are teaching their daughters economy in taking their tea without sugar; as the young princesses show some dislike to the experiment, the queen admonishes them, concluding with the remark, “Above all, remember how much expense it will save your poor papa!”

No. 225. A Flemish Proclamation.

According to a story which seems to be authentic, Gillray’s dislike of the king was embittered at this time by an incident somewhat similar to that by which George II. had provoked the anger of Hogarth. Gillray had visited France, Flanders, and Holland, and he had made sketches, a few of which he engraved. Our cut No. 225 represents a group from one of these sketches, which explains itself, and is a fair example ofGillray’s manner of drawing such subjects. He accompanied the painter Loutherbourg, who had left his native city of Strasburg to settle in England, and become the king’s favourite artist, to assist him in making sketches for his great painting of “The Siege of Valenciennes,” Gillray sketching groups of figures while Loutherbourg drew the landscape and buildings. After their return, the king expressed a desire to see their sketches, and they were placed before him. Loutherbourg’s landscapes and buildings were plain drawings, and easy to understand, and the king expressed himself greatly pleased with them. But the king’s mind was already prejudiced against Gillray for his satirical prints, and when he saw his hasty and rough, though spirited sketches, of the French soldiers, he threw them aside contemptuously, with the remark, “I don’t understand these caricatures.” Perhaps the very word he used was intended as a sneer upon Gillray, who, we are told, felt the affront deeply, and he proceeded to retort by a caricature, which struck at once at one of the king’s vanities, and at his political prejudices. George III. imagined himself a great connoisseur in the fine arts, and the caricature was entitled “A Connoisseur examining a Cooper.” It represented the king looking at the celebrated miniature of Oliver Cromwell, by the English painter, Samuel Cooper. When Gillray had completed this print, he is said to have exclaimed, “I wonder if the royal connoisseur will understand this!” It was published on the 18th of June, 1792, and cannot have failed to produce a sensation at that period of revolutions. The king is made to exhibit a strange mixture of alarm with astonishment in contemplating the features of this great overthrower of kingly power, at a moment when all kingly power was threatened. It will be remarked, too, that the satirist has not overlooked the royal character for domestic economy, for, as will be seen in our cut No. 226, the king is looking at the picture by the light of a candle-end stuck on a “save-all.”

No. 226. A Connoisseur in Art.

From this time Gillray rarely let pass an opportunity of caricaturing the king. Sometimes he pictured his awkward and undignified gait, as he was accustomed to shuffle along the esplanade at Weymouth; sometimes in the familiar manner in which, in the course of his walks in the neighbourhood of his Windsor farm, he accosted the commonest labourers and cottagers, and overwhelmed them with a long repetition of trivial questions—for king George had a characteristic manner of repeating his questions, and of frequently giving the reply to them himself.

No. 227. Royal Affability.

No. 228. A Lesson in Apple Dumplings.

Then asks the farmer’s wife, or farmer’s maid,How many eggs the fowls have laid;What’s in the oven, in the pot, the crock;Whether ’twill rain or no, and what’s o’clock;Thus from poor hovels gleaning information,To serve as future treasure for the nation.

Then asks the farmer’s wife, or farmer’s maid,

How many eggs the fowls have laid;

What’s in the oven, in the pot, the crock;

Whether ’twill rain or no, and what’s o’clock;

Thus from poor hovels gleaning information,

To serve as future treasure for the nation.

So said Peter Pindar; and in thisrôleking George was represented not unfrequently in satirical prints. On the 10th of February Gillray illustrated the quality of “Affability” in a picture of one of these rustic encounters. The king and queen, taking their walk, have arrived at a cottage, where a very coarse example of English peasantry is feeding his pigs with wash. The scene is represented in our cut No. 227. The vacant stare of the countryman betrays his confusion at the rapid succession of questions—“Well, friend, where a’ you going, hay?—What’s your name, hay?—Where do you live, hay?—hay?” In other prints the king is represented running into ludicrous adventures while hunting, an amusement to which he was extremely attached. One of the best known of these has been celebrated equally by the pen of Peter Pindar and by the needle of Gillray. It was said that one day while king George was following the chase, he came to a poor cottage, where his usual curiosity was rewarded by the discovery of an old woman making apple dumplings. When informed what they were, he could not conceal his astonishment how the apples could have been introduced without leaving a seam in their covering. In the caricature by Gillray, from which we take our cut No. 228, the king is represented looking at the process of dumpling making through the window, inquiring in astonishment, “Hay? hay? apple dumplings?—how get the apples in?—how? Are they made without seams?” The story is told more fully in the following verses of Peter Pindar, which will serve as the best commentary on the engraving:—

THE KING AND THE APPLE DUMPLING.

Once on a time a monarch, tired with whooping,Whipping and spurring,Happy in worryingA poor, defenceless, harmless buck(The horse and rider wet as muck),From his high consequence and wisdom stooping,Enter’d through curiosity a cot,Where sat a poor old woman and her pot.The wrinkled, blear-eyed, good old granny,In this same cot, illum’d by many a cranny.Had finish’d apple dumplings for her pot.In tempting row the naked dumplings lay,When lo! the monarch in his usual wayLike lightning spoke, “What this? what this? what? what?”Then taking up a dumpling in his hand,His eyes with admiration did expand,And oft did majesty the dumpling grapple.“’Tis monstrous, monstrous hard, indeed?” he cried;“What makes it, pray, so hard?”—The dame replied,Low curtseying, “Please your majesty, the apple.”“Very astonishing, indeed! strange thing!”Turning the dumpling round, rejoined the king;“’Tis most extraordinary then, all this is—It beats Pinetti’s conjuring all to pieces—Strange I should never of a dumpling dream!But, Goody, tell me where, where, where’s the seam?”“Sir, there’s no seam,” quoth she, “I never knewThat folks did apple dumplings sew.”“No!” cried the staring monarch with a grin,“How, how the devil got the apple in?”On which the dame the curious scheme reveal’dBy which the apple lay so sly conceal’d,Which made the Solomon of Britain start;Who to the palace with full speed repair’dAnd queen, and princesses so beauteous, scared,All with the wonders of the dumpling art.There did he labour one whole week, to showThe wisdom of an apple dumpling maker;And lo! so deep was majesty in dough,The palace seem’d the lodging of a baker!

Once on a time a monarch, tired with whooping,

Whipping and spurring,

Happy in worrying

A poor, defenceless, harmless buck

(The horse and rider wet as muck),

From his high consequence and wisdom stooping,

Enter’d through curiosity a cot,

Where sat a poor old woman and her pot.

The wrinkled, blear-eyed, good old granny,

In this same cot, illum’d by many a cranny.

Had finish’d apple dumplings for her pot.

In tempting row the naked dumplings lay,

When lo! the monarch in his usual way

Like lightning spoke, “What this? what this? what? what?”

Then taking up a dumpling in his hand,

His eyes with admiration did expand,

And oft did majesty the dumpling grapple.

“’Tis monstrous, monstrous hard, indeed?” he cried;

“What makes it, pray, so hard?”—The dame replied,

Low curtseying, “Please your majesty, the apple.”

“Very astonishing, indeed! strange thing!”

Turning the dumpling round, rejoined the king;

“’Tis most extraordinary then, all this is—

It beats Pinetti’s conjuring all to pieces—

Strange I should never of a dumpling dream!

But, Goody, tell me where, where, where’s the seam?”

“Sir, there’s no seam,” quoth she, “I never knew

That folks did apple dumplings sew.”

“No!” cried the staring monarch with a grin,

“How, how the devil got the apple in?”

On which the dame the curious scheme reveal’d

By which the apple lay so sly conceal’d,

Which made the Solomon of Britain start;

Who to the palace with full speed repair’d

And queen, and princesses so beauteous, scared,

All with the wonders of the dumpling art.

There did he labour one whole week, to show

The wisdom of an apple dumpling maker;

And lo! so deep was majesty in dough,

The palace seem’d the lodging of a baker!

Gillray was not the only caricaturist who turned the king’s weaknesses to ridicule, but none caricatured them with so little gentleness, or evidently with so good a will. On the 7th of March, 1796, the princess of Wales gave birth to a daughter, so well known since as the princess Charlotte. The king is said to have been charmed with his grandchild, and this sentiment appears to have been anticipated by the public, for on the 13th of February, when the princess’s accouchment was looked forward to with general interest, a print appeared under the title of “Grandpapa in his Glory.” In this caricature, which is given inour cut No. 229, king George, seated, is represented nursing and feeding the royal infant in an extraordinary degree of homeliness. He is singing the nursery rhyme—

There was a laugh and a craw,There was a giggling honey,Goody good girl shall be fed,But naughty girl shall have noney.

There was a laugh and a craw,

There was a giggling honey,

Goody good girl shall be fed,

But naughty girl shall have noney.

This print bears no name, but it is known to be by Woodward, though it betrays an attempt to imitate the style of Gillray. Gillray was often imitated in this manner, and his prints were not unfrequently copied and pirated. He even at times copied himself, and disguised his own style, for the sake of gaining money.

No. 229. Grandfather George.

At the period of the regency bill in 1789, Gillray attacked Pitt’s policy in that affair with great severity. In a caricature published on the 3rd of January, he drew the premier in the character of an over-gorged vulture, with one claw fixed firmly on the crown and sceptre, and withthe other seizing upon the prince’s coronet, from which he is plucking the feathers. Among other good caricatures on this occasion, perhaps the finest is a parody on Fuseli’s picture of “The Weird Sisters,” in which Dundas, Pitt, and Thurlow, as the sisters, are contemplating the moon, the bright side of whose disc represents the face of the queen, and the other that of the king, overcast with mental darkness. Gillray took a strongly hostile view of the French revolution, and produced an immense number of caricatures against the French and their rulers, and their friends, or supposed friends, in this country, during the period extending from 1790 to the earlier years of the present century. Through all the changes of ministry or policy, he seems to have fixed himself strongly on individuals, and he seldom ceased to caricature the person who had once provoked his attacks. So it was with the lord chancellor Thurlow, who became the butt of savage satire in some of his prints which appeared in 1792, at the time when Pitt forced him to resign the chancellorship. Among these is one of the boldest caricatures which he ever executed. It is a parody, fine almost to sublimity, on a well-known scene in Milton, and is entitled, “Sin, Death, and the Devil.” The queen, as Sin, rushes to separate the two combatants, Death (in the semblance of Pitt) and Satan (in that of Thurlow). During the latter part of the century Gillray caricatured all parties in turn, whether ministerial or opposition, with indiscriminate vigour; but his hostility towards the party of Fox, whom he persisted in regarding, or at least in representing, as unpatriotic revolutionists, was certainly greatest. In 1803 he worked energetically against the Addington ministry; and in 1806 he caricatured that which was known by the title of “All the Talents;” but during this later period of his life his labours were more especially aimed at keeping up the spirit of his countrymen against the threats and designs of our foreign enemies. It was, in fact, the caricature which at that time met with the greatest encouragement.

In his own person, Gillray had lived a life of great irregularity, and as he grew older, his habits of dissipation and intemperance increased, and gradually broke down his intellect. Towards the year 1811 he ceased producing any original works; the last plate he executed was a drawingof Bunbury’s, entitled “A Barber’s Shop in Assize Time,” which is supposed to have been finished in the January of that year. Soon afterwards his mind sank into idiotcy, from which it never recovered. James Gillray died in 1815, and was buried in St. James’s churchyard, Piccadilly, near the rectory house.

GILLRAY’S CARICATURES ON SOCIAL LIFE.—THOMAS ROWLANDSON.—HIS EARLY LIFE.—HE BECOMES A CARICATURIST.—HIS STYLE AND WORKS.—HIS DRAWINGS.—THE CRUIKSHANKS.

Gillray was, beyond all others, the great political caricaturist of his age. His works form a complete history of the greater and more important portion of the reign of George III. He appears to have had less taste for general caricature, and his caricatures on social life are less numerous, and with a few exceptions less important, than those which were called forth by political events. The exceptions are chiefly satires on individual characters, which are marked by the same bold style which is displayed in his political attacks. Some of his caricatures on the extravagant costume of the time, and on its more prominent vices, such as the rage for gambling, are also fine, but his social sketches generally are much inferior to his other works.

This, however, was not the case with his contemporary, Thomas Rowlandson, who doubtlessly stands second to Gillray, and may, in some respects, be considered his equal. Rowlandson was born in the Old Jewry in London, the year before that of the birth of Gillray, in the July of 1756. His father was a city merchant, who had the means to give him a good education, but embarking rashly in some unsuccessful speculations, he fell into reduced circumstances, and the son had to depend upon the liberality of a relative. His uncle, Thomas Rowlandson, after whom probably he was named, had married a French lady, a Mademoiselle Chatelier, who was now a widow, residing in Paris, with what would be considered in that capital a handsome fortune, and she appears to have been attached to her English nephew, and supplied him rather freely with money. Young Rowlandson had shown at an early age great talent fordrawing, with an especial turn for satire. As a schoolboy, he covered the margins of his books with caricatures upon his master and upon his fellow-scholars, and at the age of sixteen he was admitted a student in the Royal Academy in London, then in its infancy. But he did not profit immediately by this admission, for his aunt invited him to Paris, where he began and followed his studies in art with great success, and was remarked for the skill with which he drew the human body. His studies from nature, while in Paris, are said to have been remarkably fine. Nor did his taste for satirical design fail him, for it was one of his greatest amusements to caricature the numerous individuals, and groups of individuals, who must in that age have presented objects of ridicule to a lively Englishman. During this time his aunt died, leaving him all her property, consisting of about £7,000 in money, and a considerable amount in plate and other objects. The sudden possession of so much money proved a misfortune to young Rowlandson. He appears to have had an early love for gaiety, and he now yielded to all the temptations to vice held out by the French metropolis, and especially to an uncontrollable passion for gambling, through which he soon dissipated his fortune.

Before this, however, had been effected, Rowlandson, after having resided in Paris about two years, returned to London, and continued his studies in the Royal Academy. But he appears for some years to have given himself up entirely to his dissipated habits, and to have worked only at intervals, when he was driven to it by the want of money. We are told by one who was intimate with him, that, when reduced to this condition, he used to exclaim, holding up his pencil, “I have been playing the fool, but here is my resource!” and he would then produce—with extraordinary rapidity—caricatures enough to supply his momentary wants. Most of Rowlandson’s earlier productions were published anonymously, but here and there, among large collections, we meet with a print, which, by companion of the style with that of his earliest known works, we can hardly hesitate in ascribing to him; and from these it would appear that he had begun with political caricature, because, perhaps, at that period of great agitation, it was most called for, and, therefore, most profitable. Three of the earliest of the politicalcaricatures thus ascribed to Rowlandson belong to the year 1784, when he was twenty-eight years of age, and relate to the dissolution of parliament in that year, the result of which was the establishment of William Pitt in power. The first, published on the 11th of March, is entitled “The Champion of the People.” Fox is represented under this title, armed with the sword of Justice and the shield of Truth, combating the many-headed hydra, its mouths respectively breathing forth “Tyranny,” “Assumed Prerogative,” “Despotism,” “Oppression,” “Secret Influence,” “Scotch Politics,” “Duplicity,” and “Corruption.” Some of these heads are already cut off. The Dutchman, Frenchman, and other foreign enemies are seen in the background, dancing round the standard of “Sedition.” Fox is supported by numerous bodies of English and Irishmen, the English shouting, “While he protects us, we will support him.” The Irish, “He gave us a free trade and all we asked; he shall have our firm support.” Natives of India, in allusion to his unsuccessful India Bill, kneel by his side and pray for his success. The second of these caricatures was published on the 26th of March, and is entitled “The State Auction.” Pitt is the auctioneer, and is represented as knocking down with the hammer of “prerogative” all the valuable articles of the constitution. The clerk is his colleague, Henry Dundas, who holds up a weighty lot, entitled, “Lot 1. The Rights of the People.” Pitt calls to him, “Show the lot this way, Harry—a’going, a’going—speak quick, or it’s gone—hold up the lot, ye Dund-ass!” The clerk replies in his Scottish accent, “I can hould it na higher, sir.” The Whig members, under the title of the “chosen representers,” are leaving the auction room in discouragement, with reflections in their mouths, such as, “Adieu to Liberty!” “Despair not!” “Now or never!” While Fox stands firm in the cause, and exclaims—“I am determined to bid with spirit for Lot 1; he shall pay dear for it that outbids me!” Pitt’s Tory supporters are ranged under the auctioneer, and are called the “hereditary virtuosis;” and their leader, who appears to be the lord chancellor, addresses them in the words, “Mind not the nonsensical biddings of those common fellows.” Dundas remarks, “We shall get the supplies by this sale.” The third of these caricatures is dated on the 31st of March,when the elections had commenced, and is entitled, “The Hanoverian Horse and British Lion—a Scene in a new Play, lately acted in Westminster, with distinguished applause. Act 2nd, Scene last.” At the back of the picture stands the vacant throne, with the intimation, “We shall resume our situation here at pleasure,Leo Rex.” In front, the Hanoverian horse, unbridled, and without saddle, neighs “pre-ro-ro-ro-ro-rogative,” and is trampling on the safeguard of the constitution, while it kicks out violently the “faithful commons” (alluding to the recent dissolution of parliament). Pitt, on the back of the horse, cries, “Bravo!—go it again!—I love to ride a mettled steed; send the vagabonds packing!” Fox appears on the other side of the picture, mounted on the British lion, and holding a whip and bridle in his hand. He says to Pitt, “Prithee, Billy, dismount before ye get a fall, and let some abler jockey take your seat;” and the lion observes, indignantly, but with gravity, “If this horse is not tamed, he will soon be absolute king of our forest.”

No. 230. Opera Beauties.

If these prints are correctly ascribed to Rowlandson, we see him here fairly entered in the lists of political caricature, and siding with Fox and the Whig party. He displays the same boldness in attacking the king and his ministers which was displayed by Gillray—a boldness that probably did much towards preserving the liberties of the country from what was no doubt a resolute attempt to trample upon them, at a time when caricature formed a very powerful weapon. Before this time, however, Rowlandson’s pencil had become practised in those burlesque pictures of social life for which he became afterwards so celebrated. At first he seems to have published his designs under fictitious names, and one now before me, entitled “The Tythe Pig,” bears the early date of 1786, with the name of “Wigstead,” no doubt an assumed one, which is found on some others of his early prints. It represents the country parson, in his own parlour, receiving the tribute of the tithe pig from an interesting looking farmer’s wife. The name of Rowlandson, with the date 1792, is attached to a very clever and humorous etching which is now also before me, entitled “Cold Broth and Calamity,” and representing a party of skaters, who have fallen in a heap upon the ice, which is breaking under their weight. It bears the name of Fores as publisher. Fromthis time, and especially toward the close of the century, Rowlandson’s caricatures on social life became very numerous, and they are so well known that it becomes unnecessary, nor indeed would it be easy, to select a few examples which would illustrate all his characteristic excellencies. In prints published by Fores at the beginning of 1794, the address of the publisher is followed by the words, “where may be had all Rowlandson’s works,” which shows how great was his reputation as a caricaturist at that time. It may be stated briefly that he was distinguished by a remarkable versatility of talent, by a great fecundity of imagination, and by a skill in grouping quite equal to that of Gillray, and with a singular ease in forming his groups of a great number of figures. Among those of his contemporaries who spoke of him with the highest praise were sir Joshua Reynolds and Benjamin West. It has been remarked, too, that no artist ever possessed the power of Rowlandson of expressing so much with so little effort. We trace a great difference in style between Rowlandson’s earlier and his later works; although there is a general identity of character which cannot be mistaken. The figures in the former show a taste for grace and elegance that is rare in his later works, and we find a delicacy of beauty in his females which he appears afterwards to have entirely laid aside. An example of his earlier style in depicting female faces is furnished by the pretty farmer’s wife, in the print of “The Tythe Pig,” just alluded to; and I may quote as another example, an etching published onthe 1st of January, 1794, under the title of “English Curiosity; or, the foreigner stared out of countenance.” An individual, in a foreign costume, is seated in the front row of the boxes of a theatre, probably intended for the opera, where he has become the object of curiosity of the whole audience, and all eyes are eagerly directed upon him. The faces of the men are rather coarsely grotesque, but those of the ladies, two of which are given in our cut No. 230, possess a considerable degree of refinement. He appears, however, to have been naturally a man of no real refinement, who easily gave himself up to low and vulgar tastes, and, as his caricature became more exaggerated and coarse, his females became less and less graceful, until his model of female beauty appears to have been represented by something like a fat oyster-woman. Our cut No. 231, taken from a print in the possession of Mr. Fairholt, entitled, “The Trumpet and Bassoon,” presents a good example of Rowlandson’s broad humour, and of his favourite models of the human face. We can almost fancy we hear the different tones of this brace of snorers.

No. 231. The Trumpet and Bassoon.

A good example of Rowlandson’s grotesques of the human figure isgiven in our cut No. 232, taken from a print published on the 1st of January, 1796, under the title of “Anything will do for an Officer.” People complained of the mean appearance of the officers in our armies, who obtained their rank, it was pretended, by favour and purchase rather than by merit; and this caricature is explained by an inscription beneath, which informs us how “Some school-boys, who were playing at soldiers, found one of their number so ill-made, and so much under size, that he would have disfigured the whole body if put into the ranks. ‘What shall we do with him?’ asked one. ‘Do with him?’ says another, ‘why make an officer of him.’” This plate is inscribed with his name, “Rowlandson fecit.”

No. 232. A Model Officer.

No. 233. Antiquaries at Work.

At this time Rowlandson still continued to work for Fores, but before the end of the century we find him working for Ackermann, of the Strand, who continued to be his friend and employer during the rest of his life, and is said to have helped him generously in many difficulties. In these, indeed, he was continually involved by his dissipation andthoughtlessness. Ackermann not only employed him in etching the drawings of other caricaturists, especially of Bunbury, but in furnishing illustrations to books, such as the several series of Dr. Syntax, the “New Dance of Death,” and others. Rowlandson’s illustrations to editions of the older standard novels, such as “Tom Jones,” are remarkably clever. In transferring the works of other caricaturists to the copper, Rowlandson was in the habit of giving his own style to them to such a degree, that nobody would suspect that they were not his own, if the name of the designer were not attached to them. I have given one example of this in a former chapter, and another very curious one is furnished by a print now before me, entitled “Anglers of 1811,” which bears only the name “H. Bunbury del.,” but which is in every particular a perfect example of the style of Rowlandson. During the latter part of his life Rowlandson amused himself with making an immense number of drawings which were never engraved, but many of which have been preserved and are still found scattered through the portfolios of collectors. These are generally better finished than his etchings, and are all more or less burlesque. Our cut No. 233 is taken from one of these drawings, in the possession ofMr. Fairholt; it represents a party of antiquaries engaged in important excavations. No doubt the figures were intended for well-known archæologists of the day.

Thomas Rowlandson died in poverty, in lodgings in the Adelphi, on the 22nd of April, 1827.

Among the most active caricaturists of the beginning of the present century we must not overlook Isaac Cruikshank, even if it were only because the name has become so celebrated in that of his more talented son. Isaac’s caricatures, too, were equal to those of any of his contemporaries, after Gillray and Rowlandson. One of the earliest examples which I have seen bearing the well-known initials, I. C., was published on the 10th of March, 1794, the year in which George Cruikshank was born, and probably, therefore, when Isaac was quite a young man. It is entitled “A Republican Belle,” and is an evident imitation of Gillray. In another, dated the 1st of November, 1795, Pitt is represented as “The Royal Extinguisher,” putting out the flame of “Sedition.” Isaac Cruikshank published many prints anonymously, and among the numerous caricatures of the latter end of the last century we meet with many which have no name attached to them, but which resemble so exactly his known style, that we can hardly hesitate in ascribing them to him. It will be remarked that in his acknowledged works he caricatures the opposition; but perhaps, like other caricaturists of his time, he worked privately for anybody who would pay him, and was as willing to work against the government as for it, for most of the prints which betray their author only by their style are caricatures on Pitt and his measures. Such is the group given in our cut No. 234, which was published on the 15th of August, 1797, at a time when there were loud complaints against the burthen of taxation. It is entitled “Billy’s Raree-Show; or, John Bull En-lighten’d,” and represents Pitt, in the character of a showman, exhibiting to John Bull, and picking his pocket while his attention is occupied with the show. Pitt, in a true showman’s style, says to his victim, “Now, pray lend your attention to the enchanting prospect before you,—this is the prospect of peace—only observe what a busy scene presents itself—the ports are filled with shipping, the quays loaded with merchandise, richesare flowing in from every quarter—this prospect alone is worth all the money you have got about you.” Accordingly, the showman abstracts the same money from his pocket, while John Bull, unconscious of the theft exclaims with surprise, “Mayhap it may, master showman, but I canna zee ony thing like what you mentions,—I zees nothing but a woide plain, with some mountains and molehills upon’t—as sure as a gun, it must be all behoind one of those!” The flag of the show is inscribed, “Licensed by authority, Billy Hum’s grand exhibition of moving mechanism; or, deception of the senses.”

No. 234. The Raree-Show.

No. 235. Flight across the Herring Pond.

In a caricature with the initials of I. C., and published on the 20th of June, 1797, Fox is represented as “The Watchman of the State,” ironically, of course, for he is betraying the truth which he had ostentatiously assumed, and absenting himself at the moment when his agents are putting the match to the train they have laid to blow up the constitution. Yet Cruikshank’s caricatures on the Irish union were rather opposed to ministers. One of these, published on the 20th of June, 1800, is full of humour. It is entitled “A Flight across the Herring Pond.” England and Ireland are separated by a rough sea, over which a crowd of Irish “patriots” are flying, allured by the prospect of honours and rewards. On the Irish shore, a few wretched natives, with a baby and a dog, are in an attitude of prayer, expostulating with the fugitives,—“Och, och! do not leave us—consider your old house, it will look like a big wallnut-shell without a kernel.” On the English shore, Pitt is holding open the “Imperial Pouch,” and welcoming them,—“Come on, my little fellows, there’s plenty of room for you all—the budget is not half full.” Inside the “pouch” appears a host of men covered with honours and dignities, one of whom says to the foremost of the Irish candidates for favour, “Very snug and convenient, brother, I allure you.” Behind Pitt, Dundas, seated on a pile of public offices united in his person, calls out to the immigrants, “If you’ve ony consciences at a’, here’s enugh to satisfy ye a’.” A portion of this clever caricature is represented in our cut No. 235.

No. 236. A Case of Abduction.

There is a rare caricature on the subject of the Irish union, which exhibits a little of the style of Isaac Cruikshank, and a copy of which is in the possession of Mr. Fairholt. From this I have taken merely the group which forms our cut No. 236. It is a long print, dated on the 1st of January, 1800, and is entitled “The Triumphal entry of the Union into London.” Pitt, with a paper entitled “Irish Freedom” in his pocket, is carrying off the young lady (Ireland) by force, with her natural accompaniment, a keg of whisky. The lord chancellor of Ireland (lord Clare) sits on the horse and performs the part of fiddler. In advance of this group are a long rabble of radicals, Irishman, &c, while close behind comes Grattan, carried in a sedan-chair, and earnestly appealing to the lady, “Ierne, Ierne! my sweet maid, listen not to him—he’s a false, flattering, gay deceiver.” Still farther in the rear follows St. Patrick, riding on a bull, with a sack of potatoes for his saddle, and playing on the Irish harp. An Irishman expostulates in the following words—“Ah, long life to your holy reverence’s memory, why will you lave your own nate little kingdom, and go to another where they will tink no more of you then they would of an old brogue? Shure, of all the saints in the red-letter calendar, we give you the preference! och hone! och hone!”Another Irishman pulls the bull by the tail, with the lament, “Ah, masther, honey, why will you be after leaving us? What will become of poor Shelagh and all of us, when you are gone?” It is a regular Irish case of abduction.

No. 237. The Farthing Rushlight.

The last example I shall give of the caricatures of Isaac Cruikshank is the copy of one entitled “The Farthing Rushlight,” which, I need hardly say, is a parody on the subject of a well-known song. The rushlight is the poor old king, George, whom the prince of Wales and his Whig associates, Fox, Sheridan, and others, are labouring in vain to blow out. The latest caricature I possess, bearing the initials of Isaac Cruikshank, was published by Fores, on the 19th of April, 1810, and is entitled, “The Last Grand Ministerial Expedition (on the Street, Piccadilly).” The subject is the riot on the arrest of sir Francis Burdett, and it shows that Cruikshank was at this time caricaturing on the radical side in politics.

Isaac Cruikshank left two sons who became distinguished as caricaturists, George, already mentioned, and Robert. George Cruikshank, who is still amongst us, has raised caricature in art to perhaps the highest degree of excellence it has yet reached. He began as a political caricaturist, in imitation of his father Isaac—in fact the two brothers are understood tohave worked jointly with their father before they engraved on their own account. I have in my own possession two of his earliest works of this class, published by Fores, of Piccadilly, and dated respectively the 3rd and the 19th of March, 1815. George was then under twenty-one years of age. The first of these prints is a caricature on the restrictions laid upon the trade in corn, and is entitled “The Blessings of Peace, or, the Curse of the Corn Bill.” A foreign boat has arrived, laden with corn at a low price—one of the foreign traders holds out a sample and says, “Here is de best for 50s.” A group of bloated aristocrats and landholders stand on the shore, with a closed storehouse, filled with corn behind them; the foremost, warning the boat away with his hand, replies to the merchant, “We won’t have it at any price—we are determined to keep up our own to 80s., and if the poor can’t buy at that price, why they must starve. We love money too well to lower our rents again; the income tax is taken off.” One of his companions exclaims, “No, no, we won’t have it at all.” A third adds, “Ay, ay, let ’em starve, and be d— to ’em.” Upon this another of the foreign merchants cries, “By gar, if they will not have it at all, we must throw it overboard!” and a sailor is carrying this alternative into execution by emptying a sack into the sea. Another group stands near the closed storehouse—it consists of a poor Englishman, his wife with an infant in the arms, and two ragged children, a boy and a girl. The father is made to say, “No, no, masters, I’ll not starve; but quit my native country, where the poor are crushed by those they labour to support, and retire to one more hospitable, and where the arts of the rich do not interpose to defeat the providence of God.” The corn bill was passed in the spring of 1815, and was the cause of much popular agitation and rioting. The second of these caricatures, on the same subject, is entitled, “The Scale of Justice reversed,” and represents the rich exulting over the disappearance of the tax on property, while the poor are crushed under the weight of taxes which bore only upon them. These two caricatures present unmistakable traces of the peculiarities of style of George Cruikshank, but not as yet fully developed.

George Cruikshank rose into great celebrity and popularity as a political caricaturist by his illustrations to the pamphlets of William Houe,such as “The Political House that Jack built,” “The Political Showman at Home,” and others upon the trial of queen Caroline; but this sort of work suited the taste of the public at that time, and not that of the artist, which lay in another direction. The ambition of George Cruikshank was to draw what Hogarth called moral comedies, pictures of society carried through a series of acts and scenes, always pointed with some great moral; and it must be confessed that he has, through a long career, succeeded admirably. He possesses more of the true spirit of Hogarth than any other artist since Hogarth’s time, with greater skill in drawing. He possesses, even to a greater degree than Hogarth himself, that admirable talent of filling a picture with an immense number of figures, every one telling a part of the story, without which, however minute, the whole picture would seem to us incomplete. The picture of the “Camp at Vinegar Hill,” and one or two other illustrations to Maxwell’s “History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798,” are equal, if not superior, to anything ever produced by Hogarth or by Callot.

The name of George Cruikshank forms a worthy conclusion to the “History of Caricature and Grotesque.” He is the last representative of the great school of caricaturists formed during the reign of George III. Though there can hardly be said to be a school at the present day, yet our modern artists in this field have been all formed more or less under his influence; and it must not be forgotten that we owe to that influence, and to his example, to a great degree, the cleansing of this branch of art from the objectionable characteristics of which I have on more than one occasion been obliged to speak. May he still live long among the friends who not only admire him for his talents, but love him for his kindly and genial spirit; and none among them love and admire him more sincerely than the author of the present volume.

FINIS.

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