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Chiswick, and his wife raised a monu- father had left him a small fortune, and

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The hand of him here torpid lies,

That drew the essential forms of grace. Here closed in death the attentive eyes That saw the manners in the face.

this placed him in a position which gave him leisure to indulge in talents, which he had manifested at an early age. These were caricaturing and song

ment to his memory, bearing the following inscription: "Here lieth the body of William Hogarth, Esq., who died Oct. 26th, 1764, aged 67 years." A mask, a laurel wreath, a palette, pen-writing. Even at school he had shown cils, and book, inscribed Analysis of extraordinary talent in turning to ridiBeauty," are carved on one side of the cule any prominent feature of those monument, with some verses, which, who annoyed him. But this is a story by the way, are not worth quoting. Dr. related of almost every clever boy,-a Johnson wrote four lines which are story which has furnished very many somewhat better, but which are cer- pictures of rebellion to scholastic autainly not worthy of the Doctor, or of thority, which it were better, perhaps, the painter: altogether to repress. The world seems too satisfied in taking scholastic insubordination as a proof of talents. When Sayer grew up he soon gave a proof of his talent, and finding that the majority of the caricaturists were upon the side of the people, and few or none upon that of the government, he ap pears to have been partly biassed by early predilections, and partly by inte rest, in taking the ministerial side in the warfare of political pasquinade, song, and print. He appears to have, in his earliest specimens, courted the favour of the Right Hon. William Pitt, who was then, by his extraordinary genius, astonishing the nation, and alarming the opposition. On May the 7th, 1782, Mr. Pitt made his first motion for the reform of the representation,-a motion which procured him considerable popularity, but which was defeated by a small majority. Under the Shelburne administration, Mr. Pitt held office as Chancellor of the Exche quer, but the alliance of the Whigs and Tories drove this ministry from office. Another body, similar in construction to this, seceded from Lord North, and professed themselves the friends and supporters to the court, in opposition to the new ministry. Of these Pitt was the recog

One must not omit to add that the latter days of Hogarth, himself a caricaturist, were wearied out by attacks by anonymous brothers of the art. After the publication of his "Analysis of Beauty," a great number of caricatures were launched forth against him, and every possible means taken to annoy and disturb him. His ridicule of the absurd idolatry shown to the ancient masters by those who, with pretended taste, formed large collections of copies, called forth a large print, wherein he is represented in the act of undermining the sacred monument of all the best painters, sculptors, &c., in imitation of the Greek Erostratus, who, in the distance, is seen firing the Temple of Diana; other caricatures represent him in his studio, where are hung parodies of his paintings. The artists of these works are anonymous, but we cite them-and we have not mentioned a tythe of the prints launched against Hogarth-to shew that when he died, in October, 1764, he left many behind him to follow in the career of political caricaturists. His greatest persecutor, if we ex-nised and powerful leader in the House cept Wilkes, Charles Churchill, did not long survive the victim whose death he rejoiced to have caused. He died at Calais in November of the same year. Caricature was carried on after the death of Hogarth by various hands, the most noted of whom was

of Commons, and James Sayer, the volunteer caricaturist in the print shops of London. One of his earliest productions is a large caricature published on the 5th of May, 1783, founded upon a speech made by one of the opposition Lords, in the Upper House, immediately after the formation of the new ministry, who, speaking of Lord North, the son of a captain merchant, at Yar- had expressed himself as follows:mouth, and after being articled to an "Such was the love of office of the attorney, passed his examination, and noble Lord, that, finding he would not was entered on the roll. Sayer, how-be permitted to mount the box, he had ever, did not need to follow the labor- been content to get up behind." The ious and dry study of the law. His new Whig coach, with Fox's crest on

JAMES SAYER,

the panels, is drawn by two miserable blocks, bearing the portraits of the hacks through a rough road, jogging popular political leaders of the day. So' and nearly being upset, every minute, that the historian of political warfare, by some of the large stones thrown turning over the many similar prints in its way by the opposition, and by which like exigences have called forth, which one of the wheels has received cannot but remember, with a sigh, that a very serious fracture. Lord North there is "nothing new" under the sun. is holding on behind with an air of Another plate, by the same hand, realarm, whilst Fox and the Duke of presents Britannia pointing with her Portland, seated on the box, are join- finger, and directing the attention of ing in their efforts to draw in the the coalition (Fox and North, who are reins. Contemplating this print one joined together something like the cannot but think upon the many times Siamese twins) to a distant block and a which the subject has been repeated. gallows, by which the artist means to Almost every ministry has been typi- insinuate that a violent and shameful fied by a coach, and the reins of go- death was the proper destination of the vernment have been spoken of in the ministry. Here we may remark, that same terms as the reins of the stage Britannia at this period was the presid coachman. We need but turn over a ing genius of caricature, and that John very few leaves of our contemporary Bull had not arisen to the prominence Punch to find the same idea repeated which he at present occupies. over and over again.

Aided by such means as these out of doors, which gradually undermined whatever popularity the ministry had, Pitt shewed that he was no unskilful leader of an opposition. He let the ministry, by ceaseless provocation and other parliamentary tactics, make themselves ridiculous in the eyes of the House, so that their majority of sixty gradually dwindled down to a ridiculously small number. In July the parliament separated, and the ministry were left to prepare some great measures which they were about to bring forward for the consideration of the legislature.

Parliament met on the 11th of November, and the first measure which was brought forward was the bill for the regulation of India. It passed through the House of Commons by large majorities, and out of doors the people at large were interested in its fate. "The Politicians of London, who are at present a most numerous corporation" - writes Horace Walpole,

On the 21st of April, 1783, Sayer again satirized the whole of the ministry, and the print is valuable by afford ing the historian undoubted portraits of the New Whig Administration, as it was called. The plate is entitled, "The Razor's Levee; or the Heads of the New Whig A- -n on a broad bottom." The scene is the shop of a barber, who is busily engaged in arranging a quantity of blocks, representing the members of the coalition ministry. He is particularly occupied on the heads of Fox and North, joined on one stand, to intimate what some of the present day would call an unprincipled coalition. On a wall immediately behind are the heads of Cromwell and Charles the 1st, in a curious juxtaposition, apparently to intimate that the most opposite principles were for the first time brought together. Over the fireplace is a new map of Great Britain and Ireland, from which Ireland is nearly torn away. The celebrated are warm on a bill for the new reguWestminster publican, Sam House, of lation of the East Indies, brought in whom we shall hereafter have to speak, by Mr. Fox. Some of his associates and who described himself as "a pub-apprehended his being beaten, but his lican and republican," sits in front with a pot of beer, and looks on admiringly. This caricature cannot also fail to call to mind similar prints of a more modern date. When Mr. Gilbert Albert à Becket first started that rabid political paper, Figaro in London-the illustrative cut on the title had the same scene as the one described. Figaro, the barber, is about to sharpen his razor, and to proceed to operate upon various

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marvellous abilities have hitherto triumphed, and on two divisions in the House of Commons he had majorities of 109 and 114. . . . The forces will be more nearly balanced when the Lords fight the battle. . . In Parliamentary engagements a superiority of numbers is not vanquished by the talents of the commanders, as often happens in more martial encounters. His competitor, Mr. Pitt, appears by no means an ade

H

quate rival.
Just like their fathers,
Mr. Pitt has brilliant language, Mr.
Fox solid sense, and such luminous
powers of displaying it clearly, that
mere eloquence is but a Bristol stone
when set by the diamond reason."

(the offices of marshal of the Court of Exchequer, receiver of the six-penny duties, and cursitorship,) and the artist to gratify his patron, came out with a triumphant set of plates, "The Fall of Phaeton," wherein Fox is represented as falling headlong from the car of state, the reins being snatched by royalty, the influence of the King being used to throw out that great minister. In another, published the 12th January 1784, Sayer has attempted a parody of Milton's passage descriptive of the assembling of the fallen angels, exhibiting Fox as the political Satan, surrounded by his satellites Lords Portland, Carlisle, Cavendish, Keppel, and North, and also Edmund Burke; all his followers have rueful countenances, but Fox encourages them; he

The opponents of this India Bill declared that it was an infringement of the Company's rights, and that it would give immense influence to ministers. Some said that Fox aimed at a sort of supreme India Dictatorship, and on this account they gave him the title of "Carlo Khan." Out of doors the caricaturists were at work as busily as ever. Caricatures, squibs, and pamphlets, were showered down upon him fast and furiously. Sayer came out on the 25th of November with a print called "A Transfer of India Stock," wherein the minister is represented as carrying the "With high words that bore India House on his shoulders to St. Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised James'; a hint of course of the transfer Their fainting courage, and dispell'd their fears," of power. Sayer appears to be assi- Leaving James Sayer, comfortably duously courting the notice of Wil- enjoying his place, and passing in affluliam Pitt, and on the 5th of Decem-ence a life, presenting no other remarkber issued his most famous production, able occurrence than the issue from time a caricature which is very inferior to to time of a strong political lampoon, or most of his works, but which had an a smart caricature, we must now proceed extraordinary sale; and which accom- to take up the thread of caricature plished the end for which it was history as exemplified in the life of intended. It bears the title of " Carlo Khan's Triumphal Entry into Leadenhall Street," and represents Fox as Carlo Khan, seated upon the back of an elephant, the face of the animal being that of Lord North. The elephant is led by the celebrated Edmund Burke, as Fox's imperial trumpeter; Burke having been the loudest supporter of the India Bill in the House of Commons. A bird of ill omen on the top of a neighbouring house is croaking forth the impending doom of

the monarch.

"The night crow cried foreboding luckless time."

Fox is said to have acknowledged that his India Bill received its severest blow in public estimation from this caricature, which had, as we have before said, a prodigious sale, and the effect of which was increased by a multitude of pirated copies and imitations. On the 17th of December the bill was thrown out by a majority of nineteen, and on the night of the 18th, the King dismissed his ministers, and gave the seals into the hands of Lord Temple. When Pitt came into power, he rewarded the caricaturist with a profitable place,

Gilray.

We are moreover almost

obliged to pursue this course, because the most notable instances in both lives run parallel with each other.

JAMES GILRAY

has perhaps the most famous name in political pasquinading in the world. His life being passed in a most exciting period, when the world was undergoing such a transition as possibly we shall not see again, he had a greater opportunity of influencing the mass, ignorant and excitable as most of the populace then were, than any modern caricaturist can hope for. His father, who bore the same name as himself, was born Sept. 3rd, 1720, at Lanark. He enlisted early in life, and was present at the famous battle of Fontenoy, where he lost an arm; on his return to England, he became an out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital, and in order to add something to the very small dole which the government afforded to its veterans, became sexton to the Moravian burial ground in that parish. He married, but who or when, we are not told. His celebrated son was born about the middle of the last century.

When of sufficient age, he was, like Hogarth before him, and William Sharp the eminent line engraver, bound apprentice to a silver or heraldic engraver. This sedentary, and if not laborious, at least fatiguing business, did not please him; and having imbibed a taste for private theatricals, he ran away to join a company of strolling players. If the monotony of an engraver's bench, and of having his head continually bent down watching the strokes of his burin, were tiresome, he now found that he had escaped from one kind of drudgery to embrace a worse. The hardships he had to endure, the mean and dishonest shifts which the strollers are put to; the sordid way of life, so different from the glowing pictures before the scenes, totally destroyed the illusion which he had formed, and uprooted any love which he had for the life of an actor. He returned to his father, and entered his name as one of the students of the Royal Academy. His style of drawing, vigorous, free, and masculine as it is, will witness that he did not neglect his lessons. He appears first to have obtained work from the booksellers, and illustrated Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," in an edition which was published in 1784. His master in the art was most likely Ryland, a well known artist of the time.

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Agreeably to this intimation, an immense multitude assembled in St. George's Fields, where Lord George addressed them in an inflammatory speech. Then the procession marched, six abreast, over London Bridge to Old Palace Yard, where they behaved riotously, and annoyed and insulted the members who were entering the house. We need not here go any further into the history of the No Popery" riots. In his admirable tale of Barnaby Rudge," Charles Dickens has already made that period of history popular. The caricaturists did their part in ridiculing the rioters, and in throwing the whole proceeding into contempt. An anonymous print probably gives us a very good specimen of what sort of men these rioters were. The "no popery man" appears to have been of the lowest kind of rabble, and has his hat ornamented by a cockade, on which is written, No Popery." The subscription of the plate is entitled, "No Popery, or the Newgate Reformers." The rioter is in the act of shouting, "Down with the Bank," a consummation which was indeed devoutly wished by a great majority of the concourse of thieves and low people, who formed the supporters of Lord George.

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The riot went on with fury for some days, but on Saturday, 8th June, 1780, after a great many of the rioters had been Caricature, however, was soon found killed by the soldiery, and a yet greater to be his forte, and he very early gave number had perished through excessive intimation of his powers. In 1779 he intoxication, and some by being left published, as far as we can ascertain, helplessly drunk in the burning houses, his first plate, which appears to be an tranquillity was restored. On the folimitation of the very successful Sayer,lowing Saturday, Lord George Gordon as it bears that artist's monogram. This was committed to the Tower, whence was called "Paddy on Horseback," and he was subsequently brought to trial contains a joke, which at that time for high treason. He escaped convicwas, perhaps, new; namely, of an tion, and was committed to Bedlam, Irishman riding with his back to the having shown sufficient proofs of inhorse's head, and the horse, moreover, sanity. Lord Amherst, who after the being represented by a bull, intimating, death of General Wolfe had obtained no doubt, the headstrong tendency of the credit of the conquest of Canada, the Irishman for that kind of verbal directed the military operations against error. Gilray made his appearance in these rioters. His severity rendered a stirring time. Lord George Gordon, him unpopular, and he became the butt whom Walpole designates as "The Jack of the caricaturists; one by Sayer, (an of Leyden of the age," was at the head admirable portrait,) represents the of a society termed the "Protestant General as killing geese, (in allusion Association," and after various inflam- to the rioters,) whilst he is so occupied matory speeches, gave notice, on the 26th of May, 1780, of his intention on the 2nd of June following, of presenting a petition against the toleration of the Roman Cattholics, signed by above a hundred thousand men,

he is made to declare, "If I had the power I'd kill twenty in an hour." By another plate we are made acquainted with the fact, that a rumour existed that the King (George III.) was secretly inclined to Popery; he is represented as

583084

however, had their caricaturists, and from the style of some of these it would seem that Rowlandson worked for them.

kneeling before an altar, and wearing ble print by Gilray, represents the prothe dress of a monk; a picture of the bable fate of the obnoxious Ministers; it Pope hangs above the door, on one side, is called "Britannia aroused," and the whilst on the other a print of Martin genius of the country has hold of Fox Luther is dropping in neglected frag- by one leg, and of Lord North by the ments from the wall. To the fanatical shoulder, and is about to dash them to ultra Protestant party, the great Burke pieces in her ire. Another, bearing the had also made himself particularly ob-old title of "a long pull, and a strong noxious, on account of his advocacy of pull," represents King George the III. the Catholic emancipation. With the and Fox, pulling each different ways, mob he obtained credit for a character by the halters of an ass, which is laden under which he was often pictured; with packages like sand-bags, labelled namely, that of being a concealed Jesuit. taxes. The ass, of course, typifies the In another of these humorous prints, British nation. The road to which Fox we shall find that the personification of would take the animal leads to "ReJohn Bull, under which the British na-publicanism," the other to "Absolute tion at the present moment is so often Monarchy;" republican being a term typified, was not yet (1780) invented, of reproach applied to Fox's party; they, or rather since it is taken from the satirical fable of Swift and Arbuthnot, had not become popular: Britannia, with her faithful lion and her red-cross shield, In March 1784, the dissolution of supplies his place. We meet this latter the unpopular ministry took place, and figure in various plates, and in many William Pitt, then only in his twentydifferent attitudes, Sometimes she sits fifth year, was firmly established as dejected and weeping, at others exulting. prime minister of England. His colThe different political views of the cari-leagues were those who were well known caturists inducing them to clothe her in as the "King's friends," and he united regal purple or in rags; or to represent her as victorious, or destitute and about to be executed. But shortly after this time we have a faint gleam of the coming glory of the effigies of John Bull. In the month of April, 1780, an unpopular ministry had been defeated, and a caricature called "The Bull over-drove; or the Drivers in Danger," represents the British bull in a rage kicking at the ministers; the kings of France and Spain are standing by, and the latter exclaims, "I wish I was out of the way, he beats the bulls of Spain."

in himself the offices of First Lord of the Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. The royal hand was shown in many ways, in turning out the coalition, and in establishing the Pitt ministry, and for once the nation and the monarch were on the same side. "Addresses were poured in upon the Crown, thanking the king for exerting his perogative against the palladium of the people," writes Walpole, and the great whig families were, in the election which ensued, turned out of seats which they had hitherto regarded as their own.

Parallel circumstances call forth simi- But the most remarkable contest perlar ideas, the history of caricatures is haps ever witnessed in the history of not free from plagiarism any more than elections took place at Westminster. It any other art; our readers will recall had been represented previous to the many touches in Punch similar to dissolution by Sir Cecil Wray and Fox. that of the "Bull over-drove;" but in Wray deserted his side, and turned to 1784 we have a subject from the pencil the Court, and the king resolved to turn of Gilray, which has since been repeated Fox out, and place Admiral Hood in by Mr. Leech, in Punch. Pitt in the his seat. The poll was opened on the character of the infant Hercules, is 1st of April, and continued without instrangling the two serpents of the coa- termission until the 17th of May, 1784. lition, Fox and Lord North. The coa- For the first few days Fox was in the lition must have been extensively un-minority, but eventually he was returned popular, from the multitude of songs, by a majority of 236 over Sir Cecil pasquinades, and pictures, which were Wray. published against them. There seems to be in the nature of such connections, something extremely disagreeable to the English nation. A bold and forci

No political event seems to have given birth to a greater number of songs, squibs, and caricatures, than this election. Sir Cecil had, in the for

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