I think it is Voltaire who observes that the English nation are
mad every seven years: he might have added that there are local
fits which seize some parts of the country at other times; but this
madness, like the fermentation of liquors, proves the spirit of the
people.
In the following series of prints Mr. Hogarth has delineated the
progress of this malady, in four of its most remarkable stages, with
that broad and characteristic humour peculiar to himself. He has
presented us with the mirror of a contested election, the British
Saturnalia; in which is displayed what Abbé Raynal most emphatically
calls "the majesty of the people!"--an expression, says the same
writer, "which would alone consecrate a language."
The first print was published February 24, 1755, and inscribed to the
Right Hon. Henry Fox.--Plate II., February 20, 1757, to Sir Charles
Hanbury Williams, Ambassador to the Court of Russia.--Plate III.,
February 20, 1758, to the Hon. Sir Edward Walpole, Knight of the
Bath.--Plate IV., January 1, 1759, to the Hon. George Hay, one of
the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.
The original pictures are now in the possession of Mrs. Garrick, at
Hampton.
It appears from the _Grub Street Journal_ of June 13, 1734, that
the same subject had been previously attempted by another artist,
under the title of "The Humours of a Country Election." It must be
acknowledged that the inscriptions to some of the compartments have
a striking similarity to the scenes represented by Hogarth. "The
candidates very complaisant to a country clown," etc. "The candidates
making an entertainment for the electors and their wives; at the
upper end of the table the parson of the parish," etc.
In 1759 was published, in four cantos, a poetical description of
these prints, introduced by the following remarkable advertisement,
dated
"CHEAPSIDE, _March 1, 1759_.
"For the satisfaction of the reader, and in justice to the
concealed author, I take the liberty, with the permission of Mr.
Hogarth, to insert in this manner that gentleman's opinion of the
following cantos, which is--That the thoughts entirely coincide
with his own; that there is a well-adapted vein of humour
preserved through the whole; and that though some of his works
have been formerly explained by other hands, yet none ever gave
him so much satisfaction as the present performance.
"JOHN SMITH."
Had Mr. Hogarth's taste for poetry been in any degree equal to his
skill in painting, he would scarcely have given so strong a sanction
to this wretched attempt at Hudibrastic humour, which is coarse,
dull, mean, and very unworthy of the scenes which it professes to
celebrate.[57]