GENERAL UNEASINESS--CARICATURES THEREON--ADDINGTON’S
NEPOTISM--NAPOLEON’S DISCOURTESY TO LORD WHITWORTH--TRIAL OF
JEAN PELTIER.
‘The Political Cocks’ (by Ansell, March 27, 1803) is very graphic.
Napoleon, a game cock armed with terrific spurs, is calling across
the Channel to Pitt, who, standing on the British Crown, is crowing
lustily. Napoleon says, ‘Eh Master Billy, if I could but take a flight
over this brook, I would soon stop your Crowing. I would knock you off
that Perch, I swear by Mahomet, the Pope, and all the Idols I have ever
worshipped.’ Pitt, however, replies, ‘Tuck-a-roo--too--that you never
can do!!!’
[Illustration: THE POLITICAL COCKS.]
This was a fine time for the caricaturists, and their works came thick
and fast. Telling their own tale, they need no explanation. ‘An Attempt
to swallow the World’ (artist unknown, April 6, 1803) shows Napoleon
attempting this difficult feat--John Bull looking on, and remarking,
‘I’ll tell you what, Mr. Boneypartee, when you come to a little spot I
have in my eye, it will stick in your throat and choak you.’
West (April 6, 1803) engraved ‘John Bull teased by an Earwig.’
Napoleon, drawn very small, is on John Bull’s shoulder, pricking his
cheek with his little sword. This annoys the old man, and, looking
up angrily from his meal of bread (Ceylon), and cheese (Malta), he
says, ‘I tell you what, young one--if you won’t let me eat my bread
and cheese in peace and comfort, I’ll blow you away, you may depend
upon it.’ To which the _Earwig_ replies, ‘I will have the Cheese, you
Brute, you; I have a great mind to annihilate you, you great overgrown
Monster.’
‘Easier to say than to do’ (I. Cruikshank, April 14, 1803) shows
Bonaparte seated before a _New Map of the World_, attempting to erase
the British Isles. A Dutchman, with a lighted candle, suggests, ‘Got
for d--n de ting--here take te candle, and burn tem out.’ On the other
side, a Spaniard says, ‘Here, my friend, take the paste-brush, and
stick a piece of your three-coloured flag over them.’ Whilst a Jew,
who has a label coming out of his pocket, ‘Subscription to new loan,’
says, ‘I tink if I lend a little more monish at Turty per shent, it
will soon annihilate dem.’ Bonaparte reflects: ‘I cannot scrape these
little islands out of the map. As for your plan, Mynheer, we did try to
burn them once, but they would not take fire; and let me tell you, Don
Diego, they are not so easily overrun with any flag as you may think!
I believe Moses’s plan the best; that, and a threat now and then may
probably do the business.’
‘An Attempt to undermine John Bull, or working through the Globe’
(Roberts, April 16, 1803), shows Napoleon standing on ruins,
surrounded by ‘Territories pickaxed with impunity’--Switzerland,
Italian Republic, Batavian Republic; and he is now commencing
operations with his pickaxe on John Bull, saying, ‘O, the Pick axe
is infinitely the best way--I shall soon be at the little fellow,
that’s his abode, I know it by the white cliffs.’ John Bull is lying
down, sword in hand, with his ear on the ground, and says, ‘I hear you
burrowing away, my fine fellow; but it won’t do.--As soon as you pop
your head above the surface, you shall be saluted with a few of John
Bull’s pop-guns.’
Another caricature (artist unknown, April 16, 1803), called ‘A stoppage
to a Stride over the Globe,’ shows a colossal Napoleon bestriding the
World, whilst a small John Bull, on England, is hacking at his foot,
with a sword. Napoleon, in disgust, is calling out, ‘Ah! who is it
dares to interrupt me in my progress?’ ‘Why, ’tis I, little Johnny
Bull, protecting a little spot I clap my hand on, and d--n me if you
come any farther--that’s all.’
Ansell, too, the same date (April 16, 1803), drew ‘The Governor of
Europe, Stoped in his career, or Little B----n too much for great
B----te.’ Here a huge Bonaparte has attempted to put his foot on
Britain, and John Bull has cut it off. Napoleon, dancing with pain and
loss of blood, drops his sword, yells out, ‘Ah, you tam John Bull!!
You have spoil my _Dance_!! You have ruined all my Projets.’ Little
John Bull, pointing to his native land, says, ‘I ax pardon, Master
Boney, but as we says, _Paws off, Pompey_, we keep this little spot to
ourselves, you must not dance here Master Boney.’
Rowlandson (May 1, 1803), brought out ‘John Bull listening to the
quarrels of State affairs.’ Napoleon is talking to the Chancellor,
and says, ‘And so--if you do _so_, I do _so_.’ The Chancellor, in an
evident fright, exclaims tremulously, ‘Oh! Oh!!’ whilst old John Bull
looks on, listening, all eyes and expectation, with his hair on end,
‘I declare my very wig stands on end with curiosity. What can they be
quareling about? O that I could but be let into the secret! If I ax
our gentleman concerning it, it is ten to one if he tells me the right
story.’
[Illustration]
On May 2, 1803, Gillray produced a very effective caricature called
‘Doctor Sangrado curing John Bull of Repletion, with the kind offices
of young Clyster pipe[70] and little Boney. A hint from Gil Blas.’
John Bull is seated, very weak indeed, held up by Lord Hawkesbury. Fox
and Sheridan are behind, bringing warm water, and everybody in the
drawing is exhorting the patient to ‘Courage.’ Addington is performing
the operation, and the blood streams forth copiously. Napoleon catches
in his cocked hat, Ceylon, Malta, Cape of Good Hope, and West Indies;
whilst young Clyster pipe holds out his hat, labelled ‘Clerk of the
Pells,’ and catches a stream ‘3,000_l._ per annum.’ This scandalous
job, his father having given him this lucrative sinecure when he was
very young, excited much adverse comment at the time.
‘Britannia repremanding a Naughty Boy!’ (artist unknown, May 3, 1803).
Britannia, with a helmet on her head, her shield by her side, a spear
in one hand, and a birch rod in the other, stands on the shore at
Dover. On the top of the cliffs is a crown on a cushion. Napoleon,
attired, as usual, in an enormous cocked hat, stands on the shore at
Calais, whimpering, ‘I’m tired of this great hat, I will have that
crown.’ But says Britannia: ‘Stay where you are, you little troublesome
Urchin. If once you cross the Dyke you’ll get a good birchin!’
‘Lunar Speculations’ is the whimsical title of a picture by Ansell,
May 3, 1803. Bonaparte is looking through a large telescope, mounted
on a tripod, at the moon; and he is saying: ‘I wonder the Idea never
struck me before! The place would easily be taken, and has undoubtedly
great capabilities--Besides they would make me Emperor:--and then, the
sound of the Title EMPEROR OF THE FULL MOON--oh! delightful! I’ll send
for Garner[71] and his balloons and set about the scheme immediately.’
John Bull, looking at him quizzically, and holding his very fat sides,
says: ‘What! going to revolutionize the Moon, Bonny? That’s a good one,
however--To be sure, you talk’d of paying a visit to my little island,
and one should certainly be as easily accomplished as the other.’
The situation was getting more strained daily, and Napoleon did not
mend matters by his studied discourtesy to Lord Whitworth.
* * * * *
‘Indeed,’ said Whitworth, ‘you mistake,
We wish a lasting peace to make.’
‘Pay more respect to treaties, then,’
Cried Nap, and raised his voice again;
‘What use are treaties?--all my eye--
If violated--fie--oh fie--
What use are treaties? woe to those
Who don’t respect them--they’re my foes;
Yes, they’re my foes--I tell you flat,
And I don’t value them--not that.’
This said, his argument to back,
He with his fingers gave a crack,
* * * * *
The Company were all ashamed,
And his indelicacy blamed;
His manners were so ungenteel,
That each now turn’d upon his heel.
England’s Ambassador was bent
The Consul’s conduct to resent.
He sent a note of all that pass’d
From the beginning to the last,
Then sought for passports, as advis’d;
At this the Consul was surpris’d;
But England now was irritated,
For in the _Moniteur_ ’twas stated,
That she could never, single handed,
Contend with France--so he demanded
His passports--likewise he averr’d,
That war, he to suspense, preferr’d.
His lordship’s wish they strove t’ evade,
The passports daily were delay’d.
Lord Whitworth, soon as they were granted,
Set off for London, as he wanted.
By way of parenthesis, I may say that Napoleon made loud complaint
about the libels published about him in England; and, to show the
impartiality of the Government, and their desire to do justice, even at
a time when war between the two countries was almost morally certain,
a Frenchman, named Jean Peltier, was prosecuted for libelling him, the
indictment being ‘That peace existed between N. Bonaparte and our Lord
the King; but that M. Peltier, intending to destroy the friendship
so existing, and to despoil said Napoleon of his consular dignity,
did devise, print, and publish, in the French Language, to the tenor
following, &c.’
It is never worth while to go into the words of the libel (which
appeared in a periodical called _L’Ambigu_), which is purely political,
and which would never be noticed nowadays. I only introduce the episode
to shew that the English Government even went out of their way to
conciliate Bonaparte, and that the libel, as usual, sprang from French
sources.
He was unanimously found guilty, and judgment was to have been
delivered next term, but, war being renewed, he was never called upon
to appear.