Part 14 (1/2)
Bull's Vital Spirits.” Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is carefully drawing off what he requires into a small bucket for the ”Public Service.” ”You see,” he says to Mr. Bull, who looks admiringly on, ”I am not a quibbling pettifogger, I am a man of my word; for you see I have thrown away the great _war_ spiggot, and have subst.i.tuted a small _peace_ one in its stead, which will cause an unknown saving to you.” This is all very well; but the gouty Regent has also tapped the vat on the other side, and draws off the supplies in a copious stream into a receptacle labelled, ”Deficiencies of the Civil List.” His friends and boon companions are bringing up a fresh supply of empty vessels to be filled in their turn; one carries a barrel marked, ”For household troops and standing army”; another is labelled, ”Sinecures, places, and pensions”; a third, ”For cottages and pavilions”; and a fourth, ”60,000 for fun.” ”Come, my friends,” says the prince, ”make haste and fill your buckets, whilst Van is keeping noisy Johnny quiet with fine speeches and promises of economy, which I am determined not to practise as long as I can get anything to expend; and while he is saving at the spiggot, we will have it out of the bunghole.”[73]
_Preparing for the Match, or the 2nd of May, 1816_, has reference to the marriage of the Princess Charlotte of Wales, who, as we have already seen, was on that day united to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg. It had been preceded by a well-designed but most indelicate satire, labelled _Royal Nuptials_, published by J. Johnstone on the 1st of April, in which the prince is seen landing on our sh.o.r.es in a state of dest.i.tution, with a pitiable lack of certain necessary articles of clothing, which are being handed to him by John Bull in the guise of a countryman. The _dramatis personae_ are seven in number: Prince Leopold, John Bull, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the gouty Regent, the Princess Charlotte, old Queen Charlotte, with her snuff-box, and, behind her, an old woman intended, I believe, for the poor old king himself.
The same year we find two other indelicate subjects: _A Bazaar_, a skit upon the immorality and costume of the period, comprising thirty figures; and another, in allusion to the marriage of the Princess Mary with her cousin, the Duke of Gloucester, on the 22nd of July, 1816. To those who have a.s.serted that George Cruikshank ”never pandered to sensuality ... or raised a laugh at the expense of decency,” that ”satire in his hands never degenerated into savagery or scurrility,” I would commend the serious consideration of the three satires I have last named.
THE ELGIN MARBLES.
At the time Egypt was in the power of the French, during the early part of the century, Lord Elgin had quitted England upon a mission to the Ottoman Porte. A great change has taken place in the att.i.tude and bearing of the Turks towards other European nations during the last half century; but even at this time the contempt and dislike which had characterized them in their behaviour towards every denomination of Christians still prevailed in full force. The success, however, of the British arms in Egypt, and the expected rest.i.tution of that province to the Porte, seem to have wrought a wonderful and instantaneous change in the disposition of that power and its people towards ourselves;[74] and Lord Elgin, availing himself of these favourable circ.u.mstances, obtained in the summer of 1801, access to the Acropolis of Athens for general purposes, with a concession to ”make excavations and to take away any stones that might appear interesting to himself.” The result (shortly stated) was the excavation of the once celebrated ”Elgin marbles,” about which, if we are to credit the report from which we glean this information, his lords.h.i.+p would seem to have expended (including the interest of capital) some 74,000. The committee recommend the House, under these circ.u.mstances, coupled with the valuations which they had obtained from competent authorities, that 35,000 was ”a reasonable and sufficient price to be paid for the collection,” and their purchase appears to have been completed on the basis of these figures, a fact which forms the subject of the artist's undated and admirable satire of _John Bull Buying Stones at the Time his Numerous Family Want Bread_.
Unsigned, and under date of 25th of November, 1816, I find a caricature published by Fores, which seems to me due to the hand of George Cruikshank. It is ent.i.tled, _The Nightmayor_, ”painted by Fuzeley,” and represents a debased woman in the stertorous sleep of drunkenness, whose muddled dream-thoughts revert to the experiences with which her evil habits have made her so frequently familiar. The gin drinker has been brought before the Lord Mayor any number of times for being ”drunk and disorderly,” and accordingly her _nightmare_ a.s.sumes the form of the city official, who sits upon the body clothed in his robes and invested with the insignia of his office. Appended to the satire are the following lines:--
”The night mayor flitting through the evening fogs, Traverses alleys, streets, courts, lanes, and bogs, Seeking some love-bewilder'd maid by gin oppress'd, Alights--and sits upon her downy breast.”
The only other caricature of George I have to notice under date of 1816 is ent.i.tled, _State Physicians Bleeding John Bull to Death_. (*)
1817.
In our third chapter we referred to the distress which prevailed amongst the industrial cla.s.ses during the two years which followed the fall of Bonaparte.[75] We meet with an exceedingly rare pictorial satire by George Cruikshank, which relates to this state of things; it bears the t.i.tle of, _John Bull Brought up for a Discharge, but Remanded on Account of Extravagance and False Schedule_, and was published by Fores on the 29th of March, 1817. John Bull, a bankrupt, is being publicly examined as to the causes of his failure: ”Being desired by the court to give some explanation [on the subject of the prodigious difference between his debts and his a.s.sets], he said that he had been persuaded originally to join with some of the paris.h.i.+oners in indicting his neighbour, Mr.
Frog, for keeping a disorderly house; that they had engaged to bear their part of the expenses, but had all sneaked off one by one, and left him to pay the whole, and carry on the proceedings. It had at last, after being moved from one court to another, become a suit in Chancery; and he had been advised by the gentleman whom he had always consulted on these matters, and who was now dead, to go on and persevere, for that he would be sure to get a final decree in his favour, and all the costs. He had at last, in fact, got a decree in his favour, about two years since, before Lord Chancellor Wellington, and for the costs; but not a farthing had ever been paid, nor was it likely to be; on the contrary, Mr. Frog had surrendered himself, and gone to prison, where he was now living at this moment, at his [Mr. Bull's] expense. Besides, the house in question was now opened again under a new license, granted by the magistrates of the district ... or rather, a renewal of the old one, in favour of the brother of the person who had kept it formerly, ... and the new landlord had taken down the late sign of the Bee Hive, and put up the old one of the _Fleur-de-lis_; but it was nearly as disorderly as ever, and the magistrates were obliged to keep up a great number of special constables to preserve the peace of the neighbourhood.”[76]
John Bull, in his best blue coat and white waistcoat, and suffering under an attack of gout is going through the ordeal of his public examination before the judge. In front of this functionary is the bankrupt's schedule, on which we read the following items:--
”Amount of Income 24,000,000 Expenditure 80,000,000 Dr. Nick Frog 10,000,000 Paul Bruin 1,000,000 Frank Force-child 8,000,000 Will Eagle Eye 6,000,000 Ferd. Faithless 30,000,000.”
In the body of the court, and separated from the commissioner by a wooden enclosure, the upper edge of which is lined with bayonets pointing inwards, are a number of the bankrupt's wretched creditors, whom Death, clothed in a red coat and armed with a mace, vainly strives to keep quiet. ”Ck. fect.” in such faint letters that they might easily escape detection, is appended to this remarkable composition.
In our third chapter we also referred to the serious disturbances which followed and were the consequences of the public discontents of 1817, and the fact that the names of four informers, Castle, Oliver, Edwards, and Franklin were identified with those of the chief fomenters of sedition in the metropolis and the northern counties.[77] In further ill.u.s.tration of the satires in which these fellows put in an appearance, we have one by George Cruikshank (published by Fores on the 1st of July), and labelled, _Conspirators, or Delegates in Council_. We may here mention that on the 9th of June, one Watson, a surgeon, was tried for high treason at Westminster Hall, and acquitted on the 16th, whereupon the Attorney General abandoned the prosecution against Thistlewood, Preston, and Hooper, who were also indicted under a like charge. All the accused were in indigent or humble circ.u.mstances, and the chief witness against them appears to have been Castle. Among the five persons sitting round the table, we recognise Castle (whose villainous face is turned towards us) and Oliver. The others we cannot identify. The aristocratic looking gentleman receiving them so blandly is my Lord Castlereagh. ”Don't you think, my lord,” says the person next him, ”Don't you think that our friends Castle and Oliver should be sent to Lisbon or somewhere, as consul-generals or envoys?” ”Can't you,” says his lords.h.i.+p to the beetle-browed ruffians by way of rejoinder, ”Can't you _negotiate_ for some boroughs?” John Bull, looking through the window at these negotiations, with much indignation, and recognising in these fellows the rascals by whom he has been ”ensnared into [committing] criminal acts,” hints in very plain terms that the conduct pursued by such men was the high road to political favour in 1817. Among the papers on the table we notice a ”Plan for the attack on the Regent's carriage;”[78] a bundle of ”treasonable papers to be slipped into the pockets of some duped artisans;” another, indicating the ”means to be taken to implicate Sir Francis Burdett, Lord Cochrane,” and other popular agitators of that day; ”A list of victims in Ireland,” and so on. On the floor at his lords.h.i.+p's feet lie some of the tri-coloured flags unfurled at the Spafields meeting; the obvious inference intended to be conveyed being of course that the Government were really at the bottom of the popular disturbances.
_R-y-l Condescension, or a Foreign Minister Astonished_, published by Fores on the 15th of September, 1817, is one of George Cruikshank's most finished but at the same time indelicate compositions. It refers to the rumours affecting the Princess Caroline's reputation which preceded the ”bill of pains and penalties,” to which we have already alluded. It appears to us to have originated out of the following circ.u.mstance. It was a.s.serted that at a masked ball which the princess had given shortly after she left England to the then King of Naples, Joachim Murat, she appeared in three different disguises; that in one of these, ”The Genius of History,” she had appeared in so unclothed a state as to call for particular observation; her third disguise was a Turkish costume. It was further a.s.serted that in her changes of dress she had been a.s.sisted, not by her female attendants, but by the person with whom her name was so familiarly a.s.sociated. In the sketch before us, Her Royal Highness's corpulent and redundant figure is clothed in a tight-fitting Turkish dress and trousers, her head being covered by a ponderous turban. The five figures composing her ”suite” are the Courier Bartolomeo Bergami, his brothers Louis and Vollotti Bergami, his sister, and William Austin, the youth she had adopted,[79] and who, it was proved, slept in her bed-chamber. The whole are decorated with the crosses and ribbons of the absurd order which she was said to have inst.i.tuted. The courtly, well dressed foreign gentleman to whom she is introducing these vulgar persons appears to be intended for Metternich, who, while thanking Her Royal Highness for her ”condescension,” looks the very picture of unfeigned but well-bred astonishment.
DEATH OF PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.
In the evening of the 18th of November, 1817, a mournful procession, at which all the great officers of state attended, quitted Claremont House _en route_ for Windsor. At the impressive ceremony which followed, Garter King at Arms proclaimed its melancholy purport in the following words: ”Thus it has pleased Almighty G.o.d to take out of this transitory life, unto His Divine mercy, the late most ill.u.s.trious Princess Charlotte Augusta, daughter of His Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales, Regent of the United Kingdom.” It was even so. The pride and hope of the nation, the heiress of the crown, was on the 6th of November delivered of a still-born child, and within a very few hours afterwards had succ.u.mbed to the unlooked-for and fatal exhaustion which followed.
The grief which this occasioned was so universal that every one seemed to realize the fact that he or she had sustained an individual loss; scarcely perhaps in English history had the death of a member of a royal family been more sincerely and truly regretted. The mournful event is referred to by the artist in a more than usually touching sketch, ent.i.tled, _England's Hope Departing_. Among the medical attendants of Her Royal Highness who followed her to the grave, was the accoucheur, Sir Richard Croft, Bart. This distinguished gentleman was so deeply affected with the unlooked-for result, that his mind refused to recover its tone, and within a month afterwards he committed self-destruction.
Other pictorial satires of George Cruikshank, bearing the date of 1817, are: _Fas.h.i.+onables of 1817_, two figures--a male and female--outrageously caricatured, a rough affair, altogether differing from his usual style; the well-known _double entendre_, _A View of the Regent's Bomb_, which, with our knowledge of his sensitiveness on the subject of his personal appearance, must have given the exalted personage thus outrageously satirized the greatest possible mortification; _The Spa Fields Orator Hunting for Popularity to do Good_, (*) a punning satire on ”Orator” Hunt; _A Patriot Luminary Extinguis.h.i.+ng Noxious Gas_ (etched from the design of another artist); and two admirable designs bearing the t.i.tles of _Vis-a-Vis_ and _Les Graces_. The same year we meet with one of the earliest of his alliterative satires, afterwards so frequently to be seen among the famous ill.u.s.trations to the ”Comic Almanack”: _La Belle a.s.semblee, or Sketches of Characteristic Dancing_, miscellaneous groups, comprising in all thirty figures (exclusive of the orchestra), engaged in a country dance, a Scotch reel, an Irish jig, a minuet, the German waltz, a French quadrille, the Spanish bolero, and a ballet ”Italienne.” The walls are hung with pictures of dancing dogs, a dancing bear, a dancing horse, rope dancing, the dance of St. Vitus, and ”Dancing Mad.” Besides this, we find the same year two large sheets showing the _Striking Effects produced by Lines and Dots, for the a.s.sistance of every Draughtsman_, suggested by, but a very vast improvement on, G. M. Woodward's _Multum in Parvo, or Liliputian Sketches, showing what may be done by Lines and Dots_.
1818. ADULTERATION OF TEA.
A report of the House of Commons, showing how four million pounds weight of sloe, liquorice, and ash-tree leaves were annually mixed with Chinese teas in England, was supplemented by a trial in the Court of Exchequer, in which a grocer named Palmer was fined in 840 penalties, for the fabrication of spurious tea. It appeared that there was a regular manufactory of imitation tea in Goldstone Street, which was composed of thorn leaves, which, after pa.s.sing through a peculiar process, were coloured with logwood; the same leaves, after being pressed and dried, were laid upon sheets of copper, coloured with verdigris and Dutch pink, and sold as _green_ tea. These revelations led, in 1818, to the artist's admirable caricature of _The T Trade in Hot-water, or a Pretty Kettle of Fish: dedicated to J. Canister and T. Spoon, Esquires_. Besides these, we have the same year: _An Interesting Scene on Board an East Indian_, a very coa.r.s.e but admirable performance; _Introduction to the Gout_ (a fiend dropping a hot coal on the toe of a _bon vivant_); _A Fine Lady, or the Incomparable_, in which it appears to us that Robert had a hand; _Les Savoyards_ and _Le Palais Royal de Paris_; _Comparative Anatomy, or the Dandy Trio_; and _The Art of Walking the Streets of London_, eight subjects, etched by the artist after the design of George Moutard Woodward.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Designed, Etched and Published by_ GEORGE CRUIKSHANK. _November 1st, 1829._
”A SCENE IN KENSINGTON GARDENS, OR FAs.h.i.+ONS AND FRIGHTS OF 1829.”
_Face p. 152._]
On the 4th of December, 1818, the number of convicts lying under sentence of death in his Majesty's gaol of Newgate, amounted to no less than sixty, of whom ten were females; probably not three of these unfortunate beings would have been hung now-a-days. Under the Draconian laws, however, then in force, people were hung in scores for pa.s.sing forged one-pound Bank of England notes; and this barbarous state of things, disgraceful to a Christian country, led to the famous and telling satire of the _Bank Restriction Note_, one of the very few which seem to have escaped oblivion, and which, having been repeated and reproduced in all the latest essays which have been written on him, calls for no extra description from ourselves. It is said to have had the effect desired, and that ”no man or woman was ever hanged after this for pa.s.sing forged one-pound Bank of England notes.”
1819.