Chapter IX: Part 9

[129] This drummer was in the early part of his life a trooper in Cromwell's army; and as almost all this regiment of saints considered themselves in St. Paul's dragoons, our drummer occasionally preached, exhorted, and expounded. When the Parliamentary army was disbanded, or put under other commanders, the manners of the people had a sudden and violent change; extreme strictness was succeeded by universal dissipation, and the whole nation displayed their abhorrence of their late rulers, and loyalty to their new sovereign, by general licentiousness. A drum beat to a psalm tune would no longer attract an audience; but still it was a favourite instrument, and our heroic trooper, being free from military engagements, drummed his way through the kingdom with a forged pass. Happening to beat up in the neighbourhood of Tedworth, he attracted the notice of a Mr. Mompesson, who seized the martial instrument, and punished the bearer. From that time his ears were assailed by a perpetual drumming, and his house for two or three years haunted by apparitions. It attracted the notice of several of the neighbouring clergy, and his Majesty Charles the Second, wishing to be satisfied about every particular, sent down a number of persons to converse with this noisy spirit; but during the time they stayed no spirit appeared, neither was the sound of a drum heard. Notwithstanding this, poor dub-a-dub was tried at Salisbury assizes, found guilty of being a wizard, and luckily escaped with only transportation for life.

Upon this story was founded Addison's play of _The Drummer, or the Haunted House_, which has too much good sense to be generally relished at the theatres.

The Cock Lane ghost was engaged in scratching and hammering a very short time before the plate was published. This ridiculous imposture attracted the notice of many respectable characters. That one man, whose writings are a mirror of truth and philosophy, and whose life was an honour to human nature, should be so far under the influence of superstition as to attend this nocturnal nonsense, draws a pitying sigh.

[130] On the late John Wesley's particular opinions I do not presume to make any comment; but his zealous and unremitting exertions in what he deemed a good cause, added to the primitive simplicity of his manners, entitled him to high respect.

Mr. Glanville was the patriarch of witchcraft, and therefore a very proper high priest in the temple of credulity. As his book gained him a good benefice, and as a number of his proselytes consider _Sadducismus Triumphatus_ entitled to equal credence with holy writ, I have subjoined a few extracts for the edification of those who may not think the volume from which they are taken worth perusal. It abounds with examples of barbarity, flowing from a blind and bigoted credulity, at which human nature shudders.

A relation of the strange witchcraft, discovered in the village of Mohra, in Swedeland, about the year 1670:--

"The news of this witchcraft coming to the king's ear, his Majesty was pleased to appoint commissioners, some of the clergy and some of the laity, to make a journey to the town above mentioned to examine the whole business. The commissioners met on the 12th of August at the parson's house, and to them the minister and several people of fashion complained, with tears in their eyes, of the miserable condition they were in, and therefore begged of them to think of some way whereby they might be delivered from that calamity. They gave the commissioners very strange instances of the devil's tyranny among them: how, by the help of witches, he had drawn some hundreds of children to him, and made them subject to his power; how he hath been seen to go in a visible shape through the country, and appeared daily to the people; how he had wrought upon the poorer sort, by presenting them with meat and drink, and this way allured them to himself; with other circumstances to be mentioned hereafter. They therefore begged of the Lords Commissioners to root out this hellish crew, that they might regain their former rest and quietness; and the rather, because the children, which used to be carried away in the country or district of Esdaile, since some witches had been burnt there, remained unmolested.

"Examination being made, there were discovered no less than three-score and ten witches in the village aforesaid; three-and-twenty of which, freely confessing their crimes, were condemned to die; the rest, one pretending she was with child, and the others denying, and pleading not guilty, were sent to Faluna, where most of them were afterwards executed.

"Fifteen children, which likewise confessed they were engaged in this witchery, died as the rest; six-and-thirty of them, between nine and sixteen years, who had been less guilty, were forced to run the gauntlet: twenty more, who had no great inclination, yet had been seduced to these hellish enterprises, because they were very young, were condemned to be lashed with rods upon their hands for three Sundays together, at the church door; and the aforesaid six-and-thirty were also doomed to be lashed this way once a week for a whole year together. The number of seduced children was about three hundred, etc. The above narrative is taken out of the public register, where all this, with more circumstances, is related."--_Glanville_, p. 494.

"At Stockholm, in the year 1676, a young woman accused her mother of being a witch, and swore positively that she had carried her away at night; whereupon both the judges and ministers of the town exhorted the old woman to confession and repentance. But she stiffly denied the allegations, pleaded innocence; and though they burnt another witch before her face, and lighted the fire she was to burn in before her, yet she still justified herself, and continued to do so till the last; and remaining obstinate, was burnt. A fortnight or three weeks after, her daughter, who had accused her, came to the judges in open court (weeping and howling), confessed that she had accused her mother falsely, out of a spleen she had against her for not gratifying her in a thing she desired, and had charged her with a crime of which she was perfectly innocent. Hereupon the judges gave orders for _her_ immediate execution."--Horneck's _Introduction to a Narrative of Witchcraft, etc._--_Glanville_, p. 481.

These are the horrid effects of credulity. For the dreadful devastations made among the human race by superstition, we may read the history of the Inquisition. Among myriads of examples, I was much struck by the following:--

"Along with the Jews that were to be burnt at an _auto-da-fe_, there was a girl not seventeen years of age, who, standing on that side where the queen sat, petitioned for mercy. She was wonderfully pretty; and looking at the queen, while her eyes streamed with tears, in a most pathetic tone of voice exclaimed, 'Will not the presence of my sovereign make an alteration in my fate? Consider how short a period I have lived, and that I suffer for adherence to a religion which I imbibed with my mother's milk. Mercy! mercy! mercy!' The queen turned away her eyes,--was evidently moved by compassion, but--durst not ask the holy fathers for even a respite."--_M. d'Aunoy_, p. 66.

What unlimited power! A queen dares not intercede for the pardon of a young girl, guilty of no other crime than adhering to the faith of her ancestors!

One of the most shocking circumstances that attend these consecrated murders, is the indulgences which the Roman pontiffs have attached to the executioners. Those who lead the poor condemned wretches to the fire, and throw them into the flames, gain indulgences for one hundred years. They who content themselves with only seeing them executed, obtain fifty. What horror! The most detestable crimes, the most unnatural cruelties, are made a means of obtaining pardons from the God of mercy!

[131] Whitfield's _Hymns_, p. 130.

[132] See Mr. Burke's pamphlet on the French Revolution.

[133] This is a fair representation of what the Guards were then. The highly-disciplined troop commanded by his Royal Highness of York defy satire.

[134] See John Wilkes' history of the man after God's own heart.

[135] Hogarth seems to have thought that Mr. Pitt wished to be a perpetual dictator; and, in truth, the Secretary's own assertion in some degree justified the supposition: "He would not be responsible for measures which he was no longer allowed to guide." Whether the artist was right or wrong in his opinion, I do not presume to assert: I have endeavoured to describe characters as he has delineated them; but with respect to this great man, the safest way will be to quote his contemporaries. I have subjoined two portraits, drawn in his own day; let the reader adopt that which pleases him best. They prove how difficult it is to ascertain what were the abilities of a statesman from any accounts given during his life. One party assert that Mr. Pitt unites, with the eloquence of Cicero and the force of Demosthenes, the conciseness of Sallust and the polished periods of Isocrates! Another,--but to extract a part is not doing justice to the writers.

CHATHAM.

"As this lord has long been dead to the world, we shall speak of him as a man that has been.

"A remarkable reflection, arising from the character of Lord Chatham, strikes us: No statesman was ever more successful, and no statesman ever deserved less to have been so.

"This man entered into the army very early in life, and there he ought to have remained. His enterprise, his rashness, and his scrupulous sense of honour, were qualities extremely proper in the profession of arms, and would have adorned any military station, except that of a chief commander. But the field he renounced for the Cabinet, and ceased to be a good soldier that he might be a bad statesman. In nature, he was rash, impetuous, haughty, and uncontrollable; and these dangerous properties were neither tempered nor improved by education. To those advantages which are acquired by study, and those great views which are communicated by habits of reflection, he was entirely a stranger. His quickness was not corrected by judgment, and his mind frequently was tired of the objects presented to it before it could perceive or comprehend them. In a country where eloquence is little known, his noise and vociferation acquired that name; and without the experience of common sense, he was extolled as superior to Demosthenes or Tully. His speeches were not wanting in fire, but they were innocent of thought. He was perhaps the only man of his time who could harangue for many hours without communicating one distinct and well-digested idea to his audience. In estimating his own merit he knew no bounds. His vanity was excessive: he saw every man inferior to himself: on every man, therefore, he lavished his contempt. Capricious to the most boyish excess, he was perpetually forming resolutions, which he abandoned before he could put them in execution. Yet his instability, through a fortuitous and whimsical concurrence of circumstances, generally led the way to success. The happy blunders of his administration procured him a reputation to which he had no title. Every scheme he planned ought to have miscarried. We admire his good fortune, not his wisdom. Popularity was the idol to which he bowed--a certain proof that his conduct was not influenced by those superior ideas which arise in high, liberal, and virtuous minds. Yet to this idol he would have sacrificed everything: it would have sacrificed everything to him. He possessed that intemperate pride which, instead of guarding him from indecent errors, led him to indiscretions; and a respectable character was seldom a security from the licentious fury of his tongue. In private life he was restless, fretful, unsocial, and perpetually affecting complaints which he did not feel: in public life he was weak, headstrong, imprudent, and had no quality of a good minister but enterprise. If he had continued in his first profession, he might have served his country with honour; but his ambition prompted him to assume the character of a statesman, and he abused it.

"On the whole, he possessed virtues; but his passions hurried them into excess, and he did not even wish to restrain them."

Hear the other side:--

CHARACTER OF THE LATE EARL OF CHATHAM.

"The Secretary stood alone; modern degeneracy had not reached him; original and unaccommodating--the features of his character had the hardihood of antiquity. No State chicanery, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sunk him to the vulgar level of the great; but overbearing and persuasive, his object was--England; his ambition--fame! Without dividing, he destroyed party; without corrupting, he made a venal age unanimous. France sunk beneath him. With one hand he smote the house of Bourbon, and wielded with the other the democracy of England. The sight of his mind was infinite; and his schemes were to affect, not England and the present age only, but Europe and posterity. Wonderful were the means by which these schemes were accomplished; always seasonable, always adequate, the suggestion of an understanding animated by ardour, and enlightened by prophecy. The ordinary feelings which make life amiable and indolent--those sensations which allure and vulgarize--were unknown to him. A character so exalted, so strenuous, so various, so authoritative, astonished a corrupt age, and the Treasury trembled at the name of Pitt through all her classes of venality. Corruption imagined, indeed, that she found defects in this statesman, and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories; but the history of his country and the calamity of his enemies answered and refuted her. Nor were his political abilities his only talents; his eloquence was an era in the senate, peculiar and spontaneous, familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instinctive wisdom: not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the conflagration of Tully; it resembled sometimes the thunder and sometimes the music of the spheres. He did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtlety of argumentation; nor was he for ever on the rack of exertion, but rather lightened on the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind, which, like those of his eye, were felt, but could not be followed. Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, reform, or subvert; an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder, and rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority: something that could establish or overwhelm empire, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe."

At the time of Lord Chatham being interred, it was intimated in the public prints that an epitaph descriptive of his talents and services was to be inscribed on his tombstone; and that any one writing such an epitaph would render an acceptable service to the committee who had the management of his monument. The following was sent, but as it was unkindly rejected by them, it is here inserted:--

"HERE LIES THE BODY OF WILLIAM PITT, EARL OF CHATHAM;
A GREAT AND ELOQUENT STATESMAN,
WHOM THE KING DID NOT CONSULT OR EMPLOY,
AND WHOM THE KING WAS RESOLVED NEVER TO CONSULT
OR EMPLOY;
A MOST INFORMED AND ENLIGHTENED SENATOR,
A MOST CONVINCING AND PERSUASIVE ORATOR,
WHOSE OPINIONS AND ADVICE THE PARLIAMENT HEARD WITH MOST
ILLIBERAL IMPATIENCE,
AND WHOSE ARGUMENTS THEY TREATED WITH MOST
SOVEREIGN CONTEMPT.
THESE WERE THE SENTIMENTS,
AND THIS THE CONDUCT, OF BOTH KING AND PARLIAMENT.
TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF HIS ABILITIES,
AND THEIR WISDOM,
THAT KING AND THAT PARLIAMENT HAVE
ERECTED THIS MONUMENT."

[136] It has been generally called a Cheshire cheese. Having never seen this pride of the English dairy with a hole bored through the middle, I have ventured to pronounce it a millstone.

[137] Lord Bute is said to be personified by one of the Highlanders: as I cannot ascertain which, my reader must discover it--if he can. The fireman is probably intended for the Duke of Bedford.

[138] If Hogarth must be so unmercifully abused for what he inserted, he is entitled to some credit for what he erased. I hope this blot in his original design will not be considered as an additional blot on his escutcheon.

[139] The small pyramid upon a little pedestal immediately behind him is, I think, an afterthought. It much resembles the ornament inscribed "Cyprus," which was painted on Hogarth's chariot, and might possibly be intended to carry some allusion to himself, for the stream of water from one of the garretteers just touches the point.

[140] Hogarth seems to have had a strong antipathy to the politics of this year. In later impressions of Plate 8 of "The Rake's Progress" will be found a halfpenny with the same date, in which Britannia is represented in the character of a maniac, with dishevelled hair, etc.

[141] If this sign of the Castle were not inscribed "_New_castle Inn," we should take it for a very old castle indeed. Its being in so ruinous a state, the frame shattered, and off one hook, describes the Duke's interest at that time. His Grace might be termed a Father of the Church, for he had promoted almost every bishop in the kingdom, and during the continuance of his administration an archbishop's levee could not have a more sable appearance. He resigned, or was turned out, which the reader pleaseth; and at his succeeding levee--there was not one ecclesiastic!

[142] Lord Besborough and the Honourable Robert Hampden were, I think, joint Postmasters-General this year; a short time after, Lord Egmont had the situation of Lord Besborough, but soon resigned.

[143] The Prince of Wales was born on the 12th of August 1762. Just after her Majesty was safely in her bed, the waggons with the treasure of the Hermione entered Saint James's Street, on which the king and the nobility went to the window over the palace gate to see them, and joined their acclamations on two such joyful occasions. From hence the procession, consisting of twenty waggons, etc., proceeded to the tower.--_Annual Register, 1762, Art. August_.

[144] In the _London Magazine_ for September 1762, I find the following explanation:--

"The subject of this print is, as its title expresses it, 'The
Times.' The first object is a quarter of the globe on fire, supposed
to be Europe; and France, Germany, and Spain, denoted by their
respective arms, are represented in flames, which appear to be
extending themselves to Great Britain itself. And this desolation
is continued and increased by Mr. P----, who is represented by the
figure of Henry VIII., with a pair of bellows blowing up those
flames which others are endeavouring to extinguish. He is mounted
on the stilts of the populace. There is a Cheshire cheese hanging
between his legs, and round the same '£3000 per annum.' The manager
of the engine-pipe is L---- B----, who is assisted in working the
engine by sailors, English soldiers, and Highlanders; but their good
offices are impeded by a man with a wheel-barrow, overladen with
_Monitors_ and _North Britons_, brought to be thrown in to keep up
the flame. The respectable body depictured under Mr. P----, are the
m---- of London, who are worshipping the idol they had formerly set
up; whilst a German prince, who alone is sure to profit by the war,
is amusing himself with a violin among his miserable countrymen. It
is sufficiently apparent who is meant by the fine gentleman at the
dining-room window of the Temple Coffeehouse, who is squirting at
the director of the engine-pipe, whilst his garretteers are engaged
in the same employment. The picture of the Indian alludes to the
advocates for the retaining our West India conquests, which, they
say, will only increase excess and debauchery; and the breaking down
the Newcastle Arms, and the drawing up the patriotic ones, refer to
the resignation of a noble Duke, and the appointment of a successor.
The Dutchman smoking his pipe, with a fox peeping out beneath him,
the emblem of cunning, waiting the issue; the waggon with the
treasures of the Hermione; the unnecessary marching of the militia,
signified by the Norfolk jig; the dove with the olive branch; and the
miseries of war, are obvious, and need no explication."

In a newspaper of the day is the following whimsical description of
the characters the writer chooses to say were really intended:--

"The principal figure, in the character of Henry VIII., appears
to be not Mr. P----, but another person, whose power is signified
by his bulk of carcase, treading on Mr. P----, represented by
3000. The bellows may signify his well-meant though ineffectual
endeavours to extinguish the fire by wind, which, though it will
put out a small flame, will cherish a large one. The guider of the
engine-pipe I should think can only mean his M----, who unweariedly
tries, by a more proper method, to stop the flames of war, in which
he is assisted by all his good subjects both by sea and land,
notwithstanding any interruption from _Auditors_ or _Britons_,
_Monitors_ or _North Britons_. The respectable body at the bottom can
never mean the magistrates of London: Mr. H---- has more sense than
to abuse so respectable a body. Much less can it mean the judges. I
think it may as likely be the Court of Session in Scotland, either
in the attitude of adoration, or with outspread arms, intending to
catch their patron should his stilts give way. The Frenchman may
very well sit at his ease among his miserable countrywomen, as he
is not unacquainted that France has always gained by negotiating
what she lost in fighting. The fine gentleman at the window, with
his garretteers, and the barrow of periodical papers, refers to the
present contending parties of every denomination. The breaking of
the Newcastle Arms alludes to the resignation of a great personage;
and the replacing of them by the sign of the Four Clenched Fists
may be thought emblematical of the great economy of his successor.
The Norfolk jig signifies in a lively manner the alacrity of all
his Majesty's forces during the war; and G. T. (George Townshend)
_fecit_, is an opportune compliment paid to Lord Townshend, who, in
conjunction with Mr. Wyndham, published _A Plan of Discipline for
the use of the Norfolk Militia_, quarto, and had been the greatest
advocate for the establishment of our present militia. The picture of
the Indian alive from America, is a satire on our late uncivilised
behaviour to the three chiefs of the Cherokee nation who were lately
in this kingdom, and the bags of money set this in a still clearer
point of view, signifying the sums gained by showing them at our
public gardens. The sly Dutchman with his pipe seems pleased with the
combustion, from which he thinks he shall be a gainer; and the Duke
of Nivernois, under the figure of a dove, is coming from France to
give a cessation of hostilities to Europe."

[145] In the first impressions, considering Mr. Pitt as a tyrant, he introduced him in the character of Henry VIII.; this was afterwards properly altered.

[146] "There are strong prejudices in favour of straight lines, as constituting true beauty in the human form, where they never should appear. A middling connoisseur thinks no profile has beauty without a very straight nose; and if the forehead be continued straight with it, he thinks it is still more sublime. The common notion that a person should be straight as an arrow, and perfectly erect, is of this kind. If a dancing-master were to see his scholar in the easy and gracefully turned attitude of the Antinous, he would cry shame on him, and tell him he looked as crooked as a ram's horn, and bid him hold up his head as he himself did."--_Preface to the Analysis of Beauty_, p. 8.

[147] Of Ramsay's manner, Churchill had an opinion similar to Hogarth's. Speaking of Scotland, he says,

"From thence the Ramsays, men of 'special note,
Of whom one paints as well as t'other wrote."

--_Prophecy of Famine._

[148] The British Lion seems by no means delighted at the distribution he is forced to make. The strong arm, drawing a long lever, has distorted his mouth, and, though gagged, his wry face shows his agony.

[149] Among the admirable things recorded as Mr. Wilkes' jests, is a remark upon this same _red_ book: "Sir, it is the only book now red" (_read_).

[150] See the _North Briton_.

[151] As a paint-pot and brushes are placed in the corner, it is supposed Hogarth intended to represent Himself as one of the group: perhaps this may be the figure.

[152] The porter with his knot upon his head, and a pipe in his mouth, leans against the pillory.

[153] Let it be observed, that in this, as well as in many more of Mr. Hogarth's prints, the buildings are reversed: in the drawing from whence the engraving was made they were right.

[154] To be told that I am wrong in some of their names will not surprise me. The figure presenting a snuff-box, I judged to be Earl Temple, from his face having been originally etched without features, and a nose and chin added. Another with a riband, whose back only is seen, from its similarity to an engraving after the design of a noble marquis, I have denominated Lord Winchelsea. A higher figure, on his left hand, is possibly the Duke of Bedford; the interrogating profile, with a hat on, somewhat lower, has the air of Mr. Rigby.[155] I have conjectured that a gentleman remarkably rotund is intended for Lord Melcombe; the noble lord beneath him may be designed for the Duke of Devonshire; and the grave senator in spectacles, above the ear-trumpet, is perhaps Earl Bath.

[155] The rail, which I have said was perhaps intended to divide the Commons from the Lords, might yet be designed to divide the men most active in the Opposition from the Ministry. To either supposition there are objections which I cannot solve.

[156] A man in a porter-house, classing himself as an eminent literary character, was asked by one of his companions what right he had to assume such a title? the reply was remarkable: "Sir, I'd have you know, I had the honour of chalking Number 45 upon every door between Temple Bar and Hyde Park Corner."

[157] The public must certainly have had the same opinion, for at that period Mr. Wilkes was in the meridian of his popularity. Though not exactly like Gay's hare in the fable, he had many friends, and Mr. Nichols relates, that a copperplate printer informed him near four thousand copies of this etching were worked off in a few weeks. These must necessarily have been sold, and we may naturally infer were bought by his friends.

[158] Equally memorable was his reply to a friend who requested him to sit to Sir Joshua Reynolds, and have his portrait placed in Guildhall, being then so popular a character that the Court of Aldermen would willingly have paid the expense. "No," replied he, "No! they shall never have a delineation of my face, that will carry to posterity so damning a proof of what it was. Who knows but a time may come when some future Horace Walpole will treat the world with another quarto volume of historic doubts, in which he may prove that the numerous squinting portraits on tobacco papers and halfpenny ballads, inscribed with the name of John Wilkes, are 'a weak invention of the enemy,' for that I was not only unlike them, but, if any inference can be drawn from the general partiality of the fair sex, the handsomest man of the age I lived in."

[159] If Hogarth at first intended it for a caricature, who knows but the old lion might have repented himself, for he afterwards threw the original drawing into the fire; it was snatched out by Mrs. Lewis.

[160] That Hogarth should be unseen by all, and yet seen by Virtue, if not a blunder, is very nearly allied to it.

[161] This remark extends no further than to the figure of Churchill. In the little design on a palette, which was added some time after the print was published, there is much wit.

[162] These angry strains had, I suppose, their origin in Hogarth having on some occasion charged Churchill with falsehood. The accusation might probably allude to personal satire, and the bard's warmest admirers must admit, that though his characters are highly drawn, and still more highly coloured, they are rather political than historical, rather poetical than biographical. An uneducated painter, who had not taste enough to conceive that poetry, however animated, could make that truth which he knew to be falsehood, might possibly give his opinion in very displeasing terms.

[163] Porter was the poet's favourite beverage; but though he quaffed more _entire butt than bard beseems_, he drank still deeper draughts from the fountain of Helicon. Many of his stanzas breathe inspiration.

[164] Much wretched writing, in both verse and prose, concerning this contest between the pencil and the pen, was inserted in the prints of the day. The following explanation, indifferent as it may be thought, is the best I happen to have seen:--

"The bear with a tattered band represents the former strength and abilities of Mr. Hogarth; the full pot of beer likewise shows that he was in a land of plenty. The stump of a headless tree, with the notches, and on it written 'Lie,' signifies Mr. Hogarth's former art, and the many productions thereof, wherein he has excelled even nature itself, and which of course must be but lies, flattery, and fallacy, the painter's prerogative; and the stump of a tree only being left, shows that there can be no more fruit expected from thence, but that it only stands as a record of his former services. The butcher's dog trampling on Mr. Churchill's Epistle alludes to the present state of Mr. Hogarth, who is now reduced from the strength of a bear to a blind butcher's dog, not able to distinguish, but degrading, his best friends; or perhaps giving the public a hint to read that Epistle, where his case is more fully laid before them. The next matter to be explained is the subscription-box, and under it is a book said to contain _A List of Subscribers to the North Briton_, as well as one of _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_. Mr. Hogarth mentioned the _North Briton_ to avoid the censure of the rabble in the street, who he knew would neither pity nor relieve him; and as Mr. Churchill was reputed to be the writer of that paper, it would seem to give a colour in their eyes of its being intended against Mr. Churchill. Mr. Hogarth meant only to show his necessity, and that a book entitled _A List of Subscribers to the North Briton_ contained in fact a list of those who should contribute to the support of Mr. Hogarth in old age. By the book entitled _A New Way to Pay Old Debts_, he can only mean this, that when a man is become disabled to get his livelihood and much in debt, the only shift he has left is to go a-begging to his creditors.

"There are likewise in this print some of his old tools, without any hand to use them."

[165] This thought might possibly be suggested by one of Shakspeare's witches:

"Sleep shall neither night nor day
Hang upon his pent-house lid,
He shall live a man forbid," etc.

How admirable a contrast is formed by Robert Lloyd's description of an opposite character!

"Dull folly,--not the wanton wild,
Imagination's younger child,
Had taken lodgings in his face,
As finding that a vacant place."

[166] "Little did the sportive satirist imagine that the power of pleasing was so soon to cease in both! Hogarth died in four weeks after the publication of this poem, and Churchill survived him but nine days. In some lines which were printed in November 1764, the compiler of these anecdotes took occasion to lament that

"'Scarce had the friendly tear,
For Hogarth shed, escap'd the generous eye
Of feeling pity, when again it flow'd
For Churchill's fate. Ill can we bear the loss
Of Fancy's twin-born offspring, close allied
In energy of thought, though different paths
They sought for fame!--Though jarring passions sway'd
The living artists, let the funeral wreath
Unite their memory!'"

--_Nichols' Biographical Anecdotes of Hogarth._

[167] In Mr. Churchill's will was the following item:--

"I desire my dear friend John Wilkes, Esq., to collect and publish my works, with the remarks and explanations he has prepared, and any other he thinks proper to make."

Could Mr. Churchill really think it was possible that notes by Mr. Wilkes, or any other man, would justify his malignant attack upon Hogarth?

[168] What a satire upon himself! What an apology for Hogarth's print!

[169] This is a very singular acknowledgment: it is, I believe, the first instance of a person feeling himself flattered at being told that he had murdered an old man.

[170] He frequently engraved a ticket for one series of prints, and presented it with another.

[171] See the engraved title-page to vol. ii.

[172] In the reduced copy I have ventured to abridge this title, though the very ingenious baptisms of sundry modern prints would have given ample countenance to the old inscription. For example: A girl hugging a dog in her arms is, with great attention to analogy, called "Nature;" and a woman with a large mallet in one hand, and a tenpenny nail in the other, "Art."

A female with a consumptive curd-and-whey countenance, that would not have got her a lover even in Otaheite, they have miscalled "Beauty;" and a little gorged misshapen boy, with swollen cheeks, and a bow and arrow, they kindly inform you is "Love."

A farmer's daughter with a basket on her arm, in which are two pigeons quarrelling for a straw, and drawing it different ways, is christened "Conjugal Peace;" and a very picturesque landscape, with a crowd of figures in the background, baptized "Solitude!"

Innumerable other instances might be given; but these are sufficient to prove, that in erroneous inscription Hogarth is not alone.

[173] This good gentleman was undoubtedly designed to place his hand upon his heart; but Hogarth had either heard of some examples similar to one which was lately seen at Dr. John Hunter's, or has, as in many other instances, reversed the drawing.

[174] The Countess Spencer, who has dignified the arts by making several very elegant drawings, has given a sanction to this baptism in a print lately engraved by Bartolozzi.

[175] The pit was formerly the seat of the critics, and dread of authors; our critics of the present day have _taken to_ the green boxes.

[176] The father of Huggins was warden of the Fleet Prison, and in that office guilty of extortion, cruelty, breach of trust, and many other crimes; he accumulated a considerable fortune, and died at ninety years of age. His son William was educated for holy orders, and sent to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he took the degree of M.A., but on the death of his elder brother gave up all thoughts of entering into the church. In 1757 some flattering verses were addressed to him on his version of Ariosto: they are preserved in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xxvii. p. 180; but, except by the author and the person to whom they are written, were probably never read through. A specimen of his translation from Dante, which was published in the _British Magazine_ for 1760, exhibits an unequivocal proof that Mr. Huggins was worthy of his encomiast. He died the 2d of July 1761, and left to posterity a MS. tragedy, a MS. translation of Dante, a MS. farce, and though last, not least in estimation--two thousand pounds per annum.

[177] He was a respectable performer on the violin, some years chapelmaster at Antwerp, and several seasons leader of the band at Marybone Gardens. He published a collection of musical compositions, to which was annexed a portrait of himself, characterized by three lines from Milton:

"Thou honour'dst verse, and verse must lend her wing
To honour thee, the priest of Phœbus' quire,
That tun'st her happiest lines in hymn or song."

He died in 1750, aged seventy years, and gives one additional name to a catalogue I have somewhere seen of very old professors of music, who, saith my author, "generally live unto a greater age than persons in any other way of life, from their souls being so attuned unto harmony, that they enjoy a perpetual peace of mind." It has been observed, and I believe justly, that thinking is a great enemy to longevity, and that, consequently, they who think least will be likely to live longest. The quantity of thought necessary to make an adept in this divine science must be determined by those who have studied it.

[178] In thus bringing to shame the ignorant or prejudiced audience who could be blind to his genius, he hath been right worthily imitated by sundry great writers in this our day.

[179] I once saw the following MS. note in the marginal leaf of this oratorio: "If the writer of this had his desserts,

"Full soon would injur'd Judith slay him,
Or pious Jael, Siser-a him."

[180] At a time when Doctor Shippen, I mean the astronomical Shippen, was principal of Brazennose College, the musical professor died, and the Doctor offered himself as a candidate for the place. To the science he was a total stranger, but by strength of interest carried the election, though opposed by a gentleman highly eminent for his musical abilities.

In less than twelve moons the professor of astronomy died, and the electors, ashamed of their former conduct, went in a body to the musical gentleman they had before rejected, and offered him the vacant astronomical chair. He was weak enough to refuse; because, forsooth, he did not understand astronomy, and died without place, pension, or university honour.

Even now these things are managed in much the same way. A nobleman who had the privilege of appointing a chorister to Christ Church, Cambridge, sent them one who was not only ignorant of music, but croaked like an old raven, because the fellow had a vote for a Huntingdonshire borough. This gave rise to the following epigram:--

"A singing man, and cannot sing!
From whence arose your patron's bounty?
Give us a song!--Excuse me, sir,
My voice is in another county."

[181] "A chief betokeneth a senatour, or honourable personage, borrowed from the Greek, and is a word signifying a head; and as the head is the chief part in a man, so the chief in the escocheon should be a reward of such only, whose high merites have procured them chief places, esteem, or love amongst men."--GUILLIM.

[182] "The bearing of clouds in armes (saith Upton) doth import some excellencie."

[183] Originally printed _docter_, but altered.

[184] One of them, but I know not which, is said to be intended for Doctor Pierce Dod, physician to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, who died August 6, 1754. Another for Doctor Bamber, a celebrated anatomist, physician, and accoucheur, to whose estate the present Gascoyne family succeeded, and by whose surname two of them have been baptized.

[185] When very young, I was once in company with the Chevalier at the house of a Doctor Cheyne Harte, in Shrewsbury, and I remember his person having a strong resemblance to this print. I also recollect that he carried his gold, silver, and copper coin in his coat pocket. He had uncommon skill in his profession, but was ridiculously ostentatious, and is said to have expended near a thousand guineas in a set of gold instruments. At this species of foppery Hogarth has well hinted, in the laced or Dresden ruffles with which he alone is decorated. His portrait was painted at Rome by the Chevalier Riche. Beneath it is the following inscription: "Joannes Taylor, Medicus in Optica expertissimus, multisque in Academiis celeberrimis Socius."

[186] To this volume there is the longest title I remember to have seen: it might serve for a table of contents; and containing a sort of brief abstract of his adventures, I have inserted it:--

"_The Life and Extraordinary History of Chevalier John Taylor_,
Member of the most celebrated Academies, Universities, and Societies
of the learned--Chevalier in several of the first courts of the
world--illustrious (by patent) in the apartments of many of the
greatest Princes,[187] Ophthalmiater Pontifical, Imperial, and
Royal--to his late Majesty--to the Pontifical Court--to the Person
of her Imperial Majesty--to the Kings of Poland, Denmark, Sweden,
etc.--to the several Electors of the Holy Empire--to the Royal
Infant Duke of Parma--to the Prince of Saxe-Gotha, Serenissime,
brother to her Royal Highness the Princess Dowager of Wales--to the
Prince Royal of Poland--to the late Prince of Orange--to the present
princes of Bavaria, Modena, Lorraine, Brunswick, Anspach, Bareith,
Liege, Salzbourg, Middlebourg, Hesse Cassel, Holstein, Zerbst,
Georgia, etc.--Citizen of Rome, by a public act in the name of the
senate and people--Fellow of that College of Physicians--Professor
in Optics--Doctor in Medicine, and Doctor in Chirurgery, in several
universities abroad; who has been on his travels upwards of thirty
years, with little or no interruption, during which he has not only
been several times in every town in these kingdoms, but in every
kingdom, province, state, and city of the least consideration--in
every court,[188] presented to every crowned head and sovereign
prince in all Europe, without exception: containing the greatest
variety of the most entertaining and interesting adventures, that,
it is presumed, has ever yet been published in any country or in any
language."

[187] When he was once enumerating the honours he had received from the different princes of Europe, and the orders with which he had been dignified by innumerable sovereigns, a gentleman present remarked that he had not named the King of Prussia; and added, "I suppose, sir, he never gave you any order?" "You are mistaken, sir," replied the Chevalier: "he gave me a very peremptory order to quit his dominions."

[188] On his return from a tour on the Continent, he once met a plain man, who, addressing him with great familiarity, was repulsed with a cold formal frown,--and, "Sir, I really don't remember you." "Not remember me! why, my goodness, Doctor! we both lodged on one floor in Round Court." "Round Court,--Round Court,--Round Court?--Sir, I have been in every court in Europe, but of such a court as Round Court I have no recollection."

[189] _September 16, 1736._ "On Thursday Mrs. Mapp's plate of ten guineas was run for at Epsom. A mare, called Mrs. Mapp, won the first heat, when Mrs. Mapp gave the rider a guinea, and swore, if he won the plate she would give him a hundred."

_September 23, 1736._ "Mrs. Mapp continues making extraordinary cures: she has now set up an equipage, and on Sunday waited on her Majesty."

_October 19, 1736, London Daily Post._ "Mrs. Mapp being present at the acting of _The Wife's Relief_, concurred in the universal applause of a crowded audience. This play was advertised by the desire of Mrs. Mapp, the famous bone-setter from Epsom."

_October 21, 1736._ "On Saturday evening there was such a concourse of people at the Theatre Royal in Lincoln's-Inn Fields to see the famous Mrs. Mapp, that several ladies and gentlemen were obliged to return for want of room. The confusion at going out was so great, that several ladies and gentlemen had their pockets picked, and many of the former lost their fans, etc. Yesterday she was elegantly entertained by Doctor Ward, at his house in Pall Mall."

"On Saturday, and yesterday, Mrs. Mapp performed several operations at the Grecian Coffeehouse, particularly one upon a niece of Sir Hans Sloane,[190] to his great satisfaction, and her credit. The patient had her shoulder-bone out for about nine years."

_December 22, 1737._ "Died last week, at her lodgings near Seven Dials, the much talked of Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter, so miserably poor, that the parish was obliged to bury her."

[190] I have heard it suggested that this harlequin figure, received as Mrs. Mapp, was really intended for Sir Hans Sloane.

[191] He was originally in partnership with his brother, a drysalter in Thames Street. By a fire which broke out in an adjoining house, their joint property was destroyed, and Mr. Ward escaped by clambering over the tops of several houses in his shirt.

In the year 1717 he was returned member for Marlborough, but by a vote of the House of Commons declared not duly elected. It is imagined that he was in some manner connected with his brother John Ward (immortalized by Mr Pope) in the South Sea Bubble, for he left England rather abruptly; and during his residence abroad, is supposed to have turned Roman Catholic.

It was during his exile that he acquired such a knowledge of medicine and chemistry as was afterwards the means of raising him to a state of affluence. About the year 1733 he began to practise physic, and combated for some time the united efforts of argument, jealousy, and ridicule, by each of which he was opposed. By some lucky cures, and particularly one on a relation of Sir Joseph Jekyl, Master of the Rolls, he triumphed over his enemies; was, by a vote of the House of Commons, exempted from being visited by the censors of the college, and called in to the assistance of George the Second, whose hand he cured; and in lieu of a pecuniary compensation, was, at his own request, permitted to ride in his gaudy and heavy equipage through St. James's Park, an honour seldom granted to any but persons of rank. Besides this, the King gave a commission to his nephew, the late General Gansel.

He distributed medicine and advice to the poor gratis. There is as bad a print as I have seen representing him thus employed. By such conduct he acquired great popularity, and was, indeed, entitled to great praise.

He died December 21, 1761, at a very advanced age, and left the receipts for compounding his medicines to Mr. Page, member for Chichester, who bestowed them on two charitable institutions, which have derived considerable advantage from the profits attending their sale.

In the _London Chronicle_ for February 27, 1762, is the following intimation:--

"A monument is going to be erected in Westminster Abbey, next to that
of Mr. Dryden's, to the memory of Joshua Ward, of Whitehall, Esq., on
which will be placed a fine bust of the deceased, that had been long
in his possession."

[192] The veil which was then spread over this science has been partly removed by the publication of Doctor Buchan's _Domestic Medicine_,--a treatise which I have frequently heard reprobated by gentlemen of the Faculty, for laying open to the world, in language so perspicuous, those mysterious secrets which had been before disguised in dog Latin: it has, however, gone through more editions than any book in this language, except _Robinson Crusoe_ and the _Pilgrim's Progress_.

[193] The poet, in this instance, laboureth under a mistake; for I am informed by a gentleman learned in the law, that if a physician neglecteth to receive his fees, and his patient recovereth, he hath no legal claim, neither will an action lie; but if his patient dieth, an action against the executors is good: the Court will admit the claim, and the jury find a verdict, with full costs of suit.

This is very proper, and proveth that _law_ and _equity_ are the same; and that if a physician _doth his business_, he can recover his reward; but if he neglecteth, and _his patient doth not die_, why should he have any remuneration?

[194] What caricature is in painting, burlesque is in writing; and in the same manner the comic writer and painter correlate to each other. But here I shall observe, that as in the former the painter seems to have the advantage, so it is in the latter infinitely on the side of the writer; for the monstrous is much easier to paint than describe, and the ridiculous to describe than paint. And though perhaps this latter species doth not in either science so strongly affect and agitate the muscles as the other, yet it will be owned, I believe, that a more rational and useful pleasure arises to us from it.

"He who should call the ingenious Hogarth a burlesque painter, would, in my opinion, do him very little honour; for sure it is much easier, much less the subject of admiration, to paint a man with a nose or any other feature of a monstrous size, or to expose him in some absurd or monstrous attitude, than to express the affections of men on canvas. It has been thought a vast commendation of a painter to say, his figures seem to breathe; but surely it is a much greater and nobler applause, that they appear to think."

This is Fielding's opinion, and the _fiat_ of such a writer ought to have great weight; for his characters and Hogarth's pictures are drawn from the same source.

[195] I have adhered to Hogarth's orthography.

[196] She was suspected to have been concerned in the murder of Mr. Nesbit in 1729, near Drury Lane, for which one Kelly, _alias_ Owen, suffered death. The only ground of his conviction was a bloodied razor, that was known to be his property, being found under the murdered man's head. Kelly died protesting his innocence, and solemnly asserted that he had lent the razor to a woman whose name and habitation he did not know.

[197] It appeared on the trial that Mrs. Duncombe had only fifty-four pounds in her box; and fifty-three pounds eleven shillings and sixpence were found upon Malcolm.

[198] One part of her defence was, it must be acknowledged, rather weak: she declared that seventeen pounds of the money found in her hair was sent to her by her father; but on inquiry, it was proved that he lived in a state of extreme and pitiable poverty in the city of Dublin, where she was born.

[199] The crowd was so great, that a Mrs. Strangeways, who lived in Fleet Street, near Serjeants' Inn, crossed the street from her own house to Mrs. Coulthurst's, on the opposite side of the way, over the heads and shoulders of the populace.

[200] This paper he sold for twenty pounds; and the substance of it was printed in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1733. Peddington died September 18, 1734.

[201] The late Mr. Barry, whose works are an honour to his age and country, and would alone give celebrity and immortality to the English school, in his picture of "Elysium," or the state of final retribution, has introduced Sir Isaac Newton looking at the solar system, which an angel is to him uncovering. This is one of the most sublime and poetical thoughts I ever saw expressed upon canvas.

[202] That his conquests have in their consequences rendered the people he subdued unhappy, must be admitted, and is to be lamented. Though I am inclined to suspect that the narrations of Bartholomew de las Casas, and some other writers, are greatly exaggerated, we have indisputable evidence of such oppression, murder, and massacre, as must make every reader shudder. If the same system is still pursued,--and I fear it has been but little softened,--the evil will correct itself; and who will not rejoice at the total extirpation of these merciless tyrants, and emancipation of that unhappy race whom they have so long enslaved? Let us not, from this, censure the extension of commerce, or civilisation of the savage; for both these great objects ultimately tend to make men wiser, better, and happier. To the beardless philosopher, who adopts the fascinating visions of Rousseau, is an advocate for the blessings of barbarism, and contends for the superiority of the savage to the civilised animal, I earnestly recommend the perusal of Mickle's _Introduction to the Lusiad_. If the arguments adduced by that excellent writer--and, from intimate personal knowledge, I venture to add, excellent man--will not convince him, and he still languishes for pathless wilds, let him retreat from civilised society to the frozen rocks of Kamtschatka, or join the Aborigines of New Holland.

[203] "When he promised a new hemisphere, it was insisted upon that no such hemisphere could exist; and when he had discovered it, asserted that it had been known long before. The honour was given to the Carthaginians; and, to prove they deserved it, a book of Aristotle's was quoted, which Aristole never wrote. It was further said, that one Martin Behem went from Nuremburg to the Straits of Magellan, in 1460, with a patent from the Duchess of Burgundy, who, as she was not alive at that time, could not issue patents."--VOLTAIRE.

[204] Some authors have said from the port of Gomera, and dated his departure on the 6th of September. This _momentous_ point must be decided by those who study minute chronology; and we are so fortunate as to live in the same age with a writer who can determine the day of the month and day of the week when Adam was created:

"Adam created, Friday, October 28, 4004; died, 3034 before Christ, aged 930."--Trusler's _Chronology_.