Chapter XII

Political Sketches of HB. (continued).--Lord John
Russell.--"Jonah."--Reduction of the Stamp on Newspapers.--How it was
evaded.--Arguments of the Opponents of the Measure.--Hard and Soft
Soap _versus_ Newspapers.--Strange Arguments of the Newspaper
Proprietors of the Day.--"The Rival Newsmongers."--Brougham Watches
for the Door of Preferment being Opened.--"The Gheber Worshipping the
Rising Sun."--Made Lord Chancellor.--"A Select Specimen of the Black
Style."--A Scene in the House of Lords.--"The Duel that Did Not Take
Place."--Dissolution of Parliament in 1834.--Brougham's Royal
"Progress" through Scotland.--Annoyance of William IV., who Determines
to Get Rid of Him.--"The Fall of Icarus."--"The Vaux and the
Grapes."--The Irish Coercion Bill of 1833.--Irish Disaffection which
led Up to It.--List of Irish Crimes for One Year.--Scenes between
English and Irish Members.--"Prisoners of War."--Good Effects of the
Coercion Bill.--Irish Agitators of 1833 and 1883 Compared.--O' Connell
and the Irish Peasant.--Unscrupulous Political Conduct of
O'Connell.--"The Comet of 1835."--"Doctor Syntax [_i.e._ Peel] on his
Faithful Steed in Search of the Picturesque."--Amazing Number of HB's
Political Sketches.--His failings.--His Imitators and their Fate.
_pp._ 254-276.

CHAPTER XIII.

John Leech.--Birth.--At Charterhouse.--The "Coach Tree."--Early
Efforts in Drawing brought to the notice of Flaxman.--Apprenticed to
Whittle, an Eccentric Medical Man.--Transfer of Leech's
Indentures.--Early Work.--Applies to Illustrate "Pickwick."--Style not
Matured till 1840.--An Attack on Dickens.--Attack on "Phiz."--Attack
on D'Israeli.--"Bentley's Miscellany."--Joins _Punch_.--Marriage.--The
"Right-hand Man in Punch's Cabinet."--"Illuminated
Magazine."--Portraits of Leech in _Punch_.--Douglas Jerrold and Albert
Smith.--Douglas Jerrold and A Beckett.--Leech at a Fancy Ball.--Albert
Smith and the Wide-awake Innkeepers at Chamounix.--George Cruikshank
Borrowing from Leech.--Influence of Cruikshank on Leech.--The Two
Compared.--Abhorrence of Frenchmen.--Mistake in "The Battle of Life."
_pp._ 277-293.