The duty on malt from July 5, 1785, to the same day 1786, produced
a million and a half of money, from a liquor which invigorates the
bodies of its willing subjects to defend the blessings they enjoy,
while that from Stygian gin enervates and incapacitates.
One of the brewers (or Chevaliers de Malte, as an impertinent
Frenchman styled Humphrey Parsons, when the King of France inquired
who he was) within one year contributed fifty thousand pounds to
his own share. The sight of a great London brewery exhibits a
magnificence unspeakable. The vessels evince the extent of the trade.
Mr. Meux of Liquorpond Street can show twenty-four vessels containing
thirty-five thousand four hundred barrels of wholesome liquor,
which enables our London porter-drinkers to perform tasks that ten
gin-drinkers would sink under.
[38] This gentleman has been very properly baptized the _Herring
Poet_.
[39] It is directed to the Trunkmaker, and contains five enormous
folios, titled as follows:--_Lauder on Milton_. _Politics_, vol.
999. _Modern Tragedies_, vol. 12. _Hill on the Royal Society_, and
_Turnbull on Ancient Paintings_. The two last are worthy of a better
fate, for one has some wit, and the other many sensible remarks.
[40] It is not 400 years since a Baron of this realm was tried for
high crimes and misdemeanours, and one of the chief accusations
exhibited against him was, that he suffered himself to be carried
about his garden by two of his own species.
[41] It is said, I don't know upon what authority, to be intended as
a burlesque delineation of John Stephen Liotard, of whom Mr. Walpole
thus writes in p. 195 of his _Anecdotes_:--
"Devoid of imagination, and one would think of memory, he could
render nothing but what he saw before his eyes. Freckles, marks of
the small-pox, everything found its place; not so much from fidelity,
as because he could not conceive the absence of anything that
appeared to him."
This miserable personage may, however, be only intended to show the
state of the arts at that time, when an English painter, if not
excellent in portraits, had no other patronage than that of those
gentlemen who put out signs of Blue Lions, Green Dragons, and Red
Harts. Thanks to the talents of our immortal bard, it is not so now.
Whether the artists of the present day drain copious draughts of
humble porter, or fill their flagons with Falernian or French wines,
let not the memory of their patron poet be forgotten. "He merits all
their wonder, all their praise!"
[42] This wretched being was painted from nature. His cry was, "Buy
my ballads, and I'll give you a glass of gin for nothing."
[43] This _infernal broth_ is vulgarly called "Strip-me-naked," and
has almost invariably that effect.
[44] This is an unnatural and violent exaggeration.
[45] The church in view is _St. George's, Bloomsbury_. Ralph, in his
_Critical Review of the Buildings in London_, properly observes that
"this structure is ridiculous and absurd even to a proverb. That the
builder mistook whim for genius, and ornament for taste, and that
the execrable conceit of displaying a statue of the king on the top
of it excites laughter in the ignorant, and contempt in the judge of
architecture."
[46] Two of these harpies have names highly descriptive of their
professions--"Gripe" and "Killman."
[47] I hope I shall not be censured for inserting a quotation from
Fingal as the motto to an imitation of Rembrandt. Both poet and
painter delighted in darkness, and each of them sometimes introduced
a sublime and majestic figure, which beamed through the gloom "like
the new moon seen through a gathered mist, when the sky pours down
its flaky snow, and the world is silent and dark."
[48] This little winged periwinkle is engraven in a very different
style from the rest of the plate, much of which is a sort of _aquæ_
tint. Many impressions were taken off without this figure.
[49] On the blade is engraven a dagger, the arms of our metropolis.
[50] This has been generally thought intended for a portrait of
Hume Campbell, who, like some of his boisterous brethren of the
present day, distinguished himself by a sort of savage elocution more
consonant to Billingsgate than a court of law. Others have said it
was designed for Doctor William King, Principal of St. Mary Hall,
Oxford, and in proof of their assertion refer to an ascertained
portrait in Worlidge's view of "Lord Westmoreland's Installation,"
1761, to which it has a striking resemblance.
[51] On the scraps are inscribed, "We have found this man a pestilent
fellow, a mover of sedition among the Jews, ringleader of the sect,"
etc. etc. etc.
[52] While the plate remained in the hands of Mrs. Hogarth
impressions were sold at that price, but were afterwards reduced to
three shillings.
[53] With each infant was then sent some little memorial by which it
might be known at a future day. The following lines were written by
an unfortunate widow, and pinned to the breast of a child who was
received into the hospital:
"Go, gentle babe, thy future life be spent
In virtuous purity and calm content;
Life's sunshine bless thee, and no anxious care
Sit on thy brow, and draw the falling tear;
Thy country's grateful servant may'st thou prove,
And all thy life be happiness and love."
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago, a person of respectable appearance
went to the hospital, and requested to see the chapel, great room,
etc. He then desired to speak with the treasurer, to whom he
presented a ten-pound bank note, expressing a wish that it might be
recorded as a small but grateful memorial from the first orphan who
was apprenticed by the charity. He added, "I was that orphan, and in
consequence of the education I here received, have had the power of
acquiring an independence with integrity and honour."
[54] Several other pictures were presented to the hospital by the few
eminent painters who then lived in London.
"The donations in painting which several artists presented to the
Foundling Hospital were among the first objects of this nature which
engaged the public attention. The artists observing the effects that
these paintings produced, came, in the year 1760, to a resolution
to try the fate of a public exhibition of their works. This effort
had its desired effect. The public were entertained, and the artists
were excited to emulation."--_Strange's Inquiry into the Rise and
Establishment of the Royal Academy_, p. 63.
This gives Hogarth a right to be classed, if not among those who were
founders of the Royal Academy, as one of the first causes of its
establishment.
[55] Be this as it may, certain it is that the boy, who was
afterwards so great a Jewish legislator, bears a very strong
resemblance to the Egyptian princess. That the artist meant by this
family likeness to hint that he was of royal descent, I do not
presume to assert.
[56] The head is said to be copied from a youth of the name of
Seaton. The attitude and general air very much resemble that of
Delilah, in a picture painted by Vandyke, of Samson seized by the
Philistines, now in the Emperor's gallery at Vienna.
[57] These prints were promised to the subscribers sooner than they
could be completed; and in consequence of their being delayed, the
following advertisement was inserted in the _Public Advertiser_ of
February 28, 1757:--
"Mr. Hogarth is obliged to inform the subscribers to his Election
prints that the three last cannot be published till about
Christmas next, which delay is entirely owing to the difficulties
he has met with to procure able hands to engrave the plates: but
that he neither may have any more apologies to make on such an
account, nor trespass any further on the indulgence of the public
by increasing a collection already sufficiently large, he intends
to employ the rest of his time in portrait-painting; chiefly this
notice seems more necessary, as several spurious and scandalous
prints have lately been published in his name," etc.
This fretful appeal must have been written under the influence of
momentary spleen, which might possibly originate in his coadjutor's
disappointing, and by that means forcing him to violate his
engagements with the public. There is no other apology for his
indulging a thought of quitting that walk in which he indisputably
led, for another in which he must not only follow, but be far behind
some of his contemporaries.
[58] Sir George Saville saw this in its true light. One of the
supporters of the Bill of Rights being desirous of introducing Sir
George's name among the members of the society, made application to
the worthy Baronet for his permission to propose him. Sir George
declined the honour, and pleaded his engagements being so numerous
that he had not time to attend, etc. etc. "We do not expect your
attendance," replied his friend; "we do not expect your constant
attendance; but the sanction of your name would be a tower of
strength to the society; and as you see by the public prints, the
manner we conduct ourselves, and the business we do, you must
approve, I think you cannot refuse us your name." "I do not," said
Sir George, "make any objection to your conduct, which I have thought
very regular and systematic, but I really dislike the title you have
adopted; I observe that you meet, read a string of observations, and
then make a motion for adjourning to dinner in the next room; there
each man drinks his two bottles to most patriotic and constitutional
toasts. In the next paper appear advertisements, that on the
following Monday the supporters of the Bill of Rights will meet
again. Dinner on table precisely at four o'clock. You dine, and
drink your wine; your secretary gives us the same information in the
succeeding prints, and again adds, that--dinner will be on the table
precisely at four o'clock. All these circumstances induce me to think
you should alter your title; instead of 'Supporters of the Bill of
Rights,' call yourselves what you really are, 'Supporters of the Bill
of Fare!'"
[59] This has been pronounced, I know not upon what authority, to be
intended for the late Thomas Potter, Esq.
[60] In page 21 of a quarto pamphlet published in 1755, and entitled,
"The Last Blow, or an unanswerable vindication of the society of
Exeter College, being a reply to the Vice-Chancellor, Dr. King,
and the writers of the _London Evening Post_," is the following
paragraph:--
"The next character to whose merits we would do justice is the
Rev. Dr. C--ss--t (Cosserat). But as it is very difficult to
delineate this fellow in colours sufficiently strong and lively,
it is fortunate for us and the Doctor that Hogarth has undertaken
the task. In the print of 'An Election Entertainment,' the public
will see the Doctor represented sitting among the freeholders,
and zealously eating and drinking for the sake of the new
interest. His venerable and humane aspect will at once bespeak
the dignity and benevolence of his heart. Never did aldermen at
Guildhall devour custard with half such an appearance of love to
his country, or swallow ale with so much the air of a patriot.
These circumstances the pencil of Hogarth will undoubtedly make
manifest; but it is much to be lamented that his words also
cannot appear in this print, and that the artist cannot delineate
that persuasive flow of eloquence which could prevail upon
copyholders to abjure their base tenures and swear themselves
freeholders. But this oratory (far different from the balderdash
of Tully and Doctor King, concerning liberty and our country),
as the genius of mild ale alone could inspire, this fellow alone
could deliver."
[61] I think it is recorded in Mr. Joseph Miller's _Reports_, that
our British Solomon often asserted that scratching was too great a
luxury for a subject to enjoy.
[62] This woman was remarkable for performing at fairs, country
hops, etc. in the neighbourhood of Oxford, and known by the name of
Fiddling Nan.
[63] This is a portrait of the present Sir John Parnell, nephew to
the poet. He was introduced into this print by his own request,
declaring at the same time that, from his being so generally known in
Ireland, his face would help the sale of the engraving.
[64] It is supposed to be the portrait of an Oxford bruiser who went
by the name of Teague Carter.
[65] A mashing-tub seems a sufficiently capacious vessel, but sinks
to nothing when compared with a bowl which, it is recorded, was
filled with punch on the 15th of October 1694, at the expense of
Admiral Russel. The Admiral's punch was made in a fountain situated
in the centre of a large garden, the terminus to four long gravel
walks, canopied with orange and lemon trees. In each walk was a table
the length of the avenue, covered with a cold collation, consisting
of every luxury which the season produced; and in the basin of
the fountain, which the gallant seaman chose to call a little
basin, for the entertainment of a few friends, were the following
ingredients:--Four hogsheads of brandy, eight hogsheads of water,
twenty-five thousand lemons, twenty gallons of lime juice, thirteen
hundredweight of fine Lisbon sugar, five pounds of grated nutmegs,
three hundred toasted biscuits, and lastly, a pipe of dry mountain
Malaga. Over the fountain was erected a large canopy to keep off the
rain, and in a little boat, built for the purpose, a boy belonging to
the fleet rowed round the basin, and served this cordial beverage to
the company. More than six thousand men partook of this mighty bowl.
[66] This alludes to the alteration of the style in the year 1752, a
measure which gave great umbrage, and excited a violent clamour among
the advocates for old customs and adherents to ancient forms.
[67] Kirton was a tobacconist in Fleet Street, but injured his
circumstances and destroyed his constitution by his active zeal in
the Oxfordshire election of 1754.
[68] This is said to be intended for the late Duke of Newcastle,
his Grace having exerted all his influence in support of the
Naturalization Bill: the nose of the effigy gives some probability to
the conjecture.
[69] Under the portrait of a Mr. Cholmondeley of Vale Royal, in
Cheshire, engraved about the same time with these prints, are the
following quaint lines:
"In this plain garb a senator is shown,
Who never bought a vote, nor sold his own."
[70] This print undoubtedly gave the hint for a transaction in which
Punch was made the principal agent at a late Shaftesbury election.
[71] By the condescending humility of men of high rank, and the
aspiring ambition of men of no rank, they to all appearance become
equal at every general election. The following is one among the few
instances of an independent spirit in a candidate's address:--
"TO THE GENTLEMEN, CLERGY, AND FREEHOLDERS OF THE COUNTY OF YORK.
"GENTLEMEN,--I have had the honour to represent the county of
York in three successive Parliaments: I have been diligent in my
attendance, and have performed my duty with a clear and unbiassed
conscience. I have now an opposition declared against me, for
what reasons I do not know, except that I am not disposed to obey
the dictates of the associators at York. I do not wish to serve
you upon such terms. I will never go to Parliament in fetters;
nor did I, nor ever will I disguise my principles, which all go
to the support of our excellent constitution in Church and State.
I avow myself an enemy to tumults, sedition, and rebellion, and
will never support any but a British interest. Consistently with
that, I am a friend to the people, and am determined to preserve
my independency, yielding neither to any influence of ministers,
nor to any clamours of a faction.
"Upon these principles I shall esteem it a high honour to be
returned for this great county, and shall be thankful for your
support.--I am, gentlemen, etc.,
"EDWIN LASCELLES.
"_September 12, 1780._"
In Mr. Edmund Burke's speech to the electors of Bristol, on the 3d
of November 1774, he gave such cogent reasons for not signing any
engagement to obey in all cases the instructions of his constituents,
that I cannot resist the temptation of inserting an extract, for the
contemplation of those who are advocates of a contrary system:--
"Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory
of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest
correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his
constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their
opinion high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is
his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfaction
to theirs; and above all, ever and in all cases to prefer their
interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment,
his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any
men, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your
pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust
from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your
representative owes you not only his industry, but his judgment;
and he betrays instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your
opinion.
"My worthy colleague says his will ought to be subservient to
yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If government were a
matter of will upon any side, yours, without question, ought to be
superior. But government and legislation are matters of reason and
judgment, and not of inclination; and what sort of reason is that in
which the determination precedes the discussion, in which one set
of men deliberate and another decide, and where those who form the
conclusion are three hundred miles distant from those who hear the
argument?
"To deliver an opinion is the right of all men; that of constituents
is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a representative ought
always to rejoice to hear, and which he ought always most seriously
to consider. But authoritative instructions; mandates issued, which
the member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to
argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment
and conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of the
land, which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and
tenor of our constitution.
"Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and
hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent
and advocate against other agents and advocates; but Parliament is a
deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the
whole; where not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide,
but the general good resulting from the general reason of the whole.
You choose a member, indeed; but when you have chosen him, he is not
a member of Bristol, but he is a member of Parliament. If the local
constituent should have an interest, or should form an hasty opinion,
evidently opposite to the real good of the rest of the community,
the member of that place ought to be as far as any other from any
endeavour to give it effect."
[72] In the year 1739 Admiral Vernon took Portobello with six ships
only. The public gratitude to him was boundless: he was sung in
ballads; at the ensuing general election in 1741 he was returned for
three different corporations; but above all, his portrait covered
every signpost; and he may be, figuratively, said to have sold the
ale, beer, and purl of all England for six years.
[73] This sign has a very whimsical appearance: it represents our
merry monarch in a great tree, enveloped in a black wig, decorated
with a point lace cravat, and environed with three crowns. Two
Parliamentary troopers, riding beneath the branches, do not perceive
that this faithless "Defender of the Faith," and so forth, is
immediately above them. This curious delineation is evidently copied
from some country sign, and gives a very exact representation of
one I remember to have seen in a village in Shropshire, with the
following _poetical_ inscription:--
"This oak, the glory of the wood, may well be called a royal thing,
For once upon its branches there perched a great king;
And while the king was perched upon the branches so high,
The Roundhead rebels under him they all passed by."
[74] When Ware the architect was told of this piece of satire, he
said the artist must be a very foolish fellow; for if he had painted
the coachman as a shorter man, or made him stoop, he might have
driven through the gateway with his head upon his shoulders.
[75] John Shoreditch, in the reign of Edward III., sued the county of
Middlesex (for which he was returned to Parliament) to recover his
wages. In some letters from the dead to the living, published about
the year 1761, one signed with his name concludes as follows:
"If I was now upon earth--either nobleman or commoner--I should
choose peace and quiet, both public and private: I should be
happy in preserving religion and morality among my countrymen,
instead of suborning them to take the oath falsely about bribery
and corruption; debauching their minds, by giving them money that
is of no use to their families, and keeping them in continual
drunkenness, that renders them incapable of serving themselves or
their country.
"To this I attribute the loss of that which was common in my
time, but in yours is found only in romances and novels--I mean
simplicity of manners among the country people. Rustic innocence
was then as common among the men as among the women; but there
is scarce any mode of vice or folly which is not at this period
equally known and practised by both sexes; and in the most
obscure villages to as great a degree as in the most polished
cities. Let us consider that a million of money was spent in
treats and bribery at the last general election; and if we take
into the calculation the contested elections, for some of which
there were three or four candidates, and the money that is spent
by their friends on these occasions, we shall not find the
computation too high. What place, then, will not the influence
of this immense sum extend to? Not even the smallest hamlet can
escape; and you may as well look for purity of manners, innocence
and simplicity, among the Capuans of old, or in your Covent
Garden, as in any place that an election guinea has found its way
to.--I am, etc."
[76] I am tasteless enough to prefer this to Garrick between Tragedy
and Comedy. From Hogarth the hint was indisputably taken; but
exquisite as is the face of Thalia, the countenance of the actor,
from the contention of two passions, has assumed a kind of idiotic
stare, of which our honest farmer has not an iota. In the true spirit
of Falstaff, he says, or seems to say, "D'ye think I do not know ye?
Ha! ha! ha! he! he! he!!"
[77] Swift boasted that he made it a rule never to give his voice
for the appointment of any man to any situation for which that man
was not better qualified than his opponent. Being once applied to
for his interest in the recommendation of a curate, because he was
a very good sort of man, though a very vile preacher, he said he
would willingly, if in his power, recommend him to be a bishop,
because that was a business in which preaching was not wanted, but
in a curate it was wanted every week. Being once asked by one of his
parishioners which of two candidates he would advise him to vote for
as a Parliament man, in a warmly contested Irish election, Swift
desired he would first consider what was the business of a Parliament
man; and secondly, which of the parties was best qualified for that
business; and then he would want no advice. If your vote, added he,
could make a lord or a duke, as they are people who need not do any
business at all, you might toss up a halfpenny, and vote for the man
who came up heads.
[78] By a letter we see out of his pocket, this appears to be Doctor
Shebbeare, who was put on the pillory, and confined in prison;
not for writing in the cause of his country, but for printing and
publishing the sixth letter to the people of England, in which
he most impudently and audaciously abuses George the First and
the present royal family. The Doctor frequently said in a public
coffeehouse, that he would have a pillory or a pension. In each of
these points he was gratified; Lord Mansfield complimented him with
the first, and Lord Bute rewarded him with the second. The honour he
enjoyed long ago, the emolument he died in the receipt of a very few
years since.
[79] The late Doctor Barrowby persuaded a dying man, that being much
better he might venture with him in his chariot to the hustings in
Covent Garden, to poll for Sir George Vandeput. The unhappy voter
took his physician's advice, and in less than an hour after his
return--expired.
[80] This sagacious-looking gentleman is said to be intended as a
portraiture of the late Bub Doddington, afterwards Lord Melcombe.
[81] It has been thought that this carries some allusion to a
circumstance which happened at the contested Oxfordshire election
in 1754, when an outrageous mob, in the old interest, surrounded a
post-chaise and attempted to throw it into the river; but Captain
T----, who was in the carriage, shot a chimney-sweeper that was a
ringleader in the assault, and his followers dispersed.
[82] About the year 1740, when party disputes ran very high, a
gentleman of superior talents and undeviating integrity offered
himself as a candidate for a town in the West of England. The first
person whose vote he solicited asked him if he was a Whig or a Tory?
"Neither," was the reply; "I profess myself a moderate man, and when
administration act right, will vote with them,--when wrong, against
them." "And be these really thy principles!" said the elector; "be
these really thy principles! Then thou shalt not have my vote; but
I'll give thee a piece of advice. Thou seest my door; it leads into
the street, the right-hand side of which is for the Tories, the left
for the Whigs; and for a cold-blooded moderate man like thee, there
is the kennel, and in it I advise thee to walk, for thee be'st not
decided enough for any other situation."
[83] This must indisputably be considered as the lawyer's mansion,
not merely because it has a better appearance than any house we have
seen in the foregoing prints, but because a parchment label, which
hangs out of an upper window where a clerk is writing, is inscribed
"Indintur." Had the artist thought it worth while to have consulted
Master Henry Dilworth, or any other eminent schoolmaster, this
orthography had been corrected.
[84] When many of those gentleman who had been very active in the
Revolution, and materially contributed to the success of our great
deliverer, applied to a nobleman high in office for the first places
in the State, he answered their requests by referring them to the
Roman history: "There," says he, "you will find that geese twice
saved the Capitol; but I never heard that those geese were made
Consuls."
[85] "Vermin" is a coarse phrase, but I think in a degree
appropriate. How similar are the effects attendant on a swarm of
pettifogging lawyers settling in a country town, to those resulting
from a swarm of noxious and destructive insects settling in a garden!
[86] A nobleman, whose name it is not necessary to record, was so
struck with the wit of this motto, that he had it inscribed upon a
common eight-day clock.
[87] The life of Andrew Marvel forms a fine contrast to the life
of a modern patriot. He was the son of a clergyman who resided
at Kingston-upon-Hull, in Yorkshire, at which town he was born
in the year 1624. His first appearance in public business was as
an assistant to John Milton, when that inspired poet was Latin
secretary to the Protector. A little before the Restoration he was
chosen representative for his native town, and afterwards re-elected
for the same place, and had a seat in that Parliament which began
at Westminster, May 8, 1661. In this station he discharged his
trust with the utmost fidelity, and always displayed a particular
regard for those by whom he was elected; for he regularly sent the
particulars of every proceeding in the House to the heads of the town
which he represented, and to these accounts always joined his own
opinion. This gained so much upon their affections, that they allowed
him an honourable pension during the whole time he sat in Parliament,
which was until his death. By his actions and writings he rendered
himself obnoxious to the ruling powers; notwithstanding which,
Charles the Second much delighted in his company. Having one evening
passed some hours with this good-humoured monarch, his Majesty next
morning sent Lord Treasurer Danby to find out his lodgings. Mr.
Marvel's apartments were up two pair of stairs, in a little court
in the Strand, where he was writing when the Lord Treasurer rather
abruptly opened the door. Surprised at so unexpected a visitor, Mr.
Marvel told his Lordship he believed he had mistaken his way. Lord
Danby replied, "Not, now I have found Mr. Marvel;" adding, "I come
with a message from his Majesty, who wishes to know what he can do to
serve you." "I know," replied Marvel, "the nature of courts too well
to lay myself under the obligation; for whoever is distinguished by
a prince's favours, is certainly expected to vote in his interest."
Lord Danby told him that his Majesty was sensible of his merits, and
on that account alone desired to know if there were any place at
Court which he would be pleased with. These offers, though urged with
the greatest earnestness, had no effect. He told the nobleman, that
to accept them with honour was impossible; because, added he, "I must
either be ungrateful to the King in voting against him, or false to
my country in giving in to the measures of the Court. The only favour
therefore which I beg of his Majesty is, that he will esteem me to be
as dutiful a subject as any he has; and more in his proper interest
by refusing these offers than if I had accepted them." The Lord
Danby, finding that no argument would prevail, told him that the King
had ordered him a thousand pounds, which he requested him to receive
as a token of royal favour. This last offer was rejected with the
same stedfastness as the first, though, soon after the Lord Treasurer
was gone, he was under the necessity of sending to a friend to borrow
a guinea. The greatest temptations of riches or honours could never
bribe him to depart from what he thought the interest of his country,
neither could the most imminent dangers deter him from pursuing it.
He died, not without strong suspicions of being poisoned, August the
16th, 1678, in the fifty-eighth year of his age, and was interred in
the Church of St. Giles' in the Fields. Highly to the honour of the
inhabitants of Kingston-upon-Hull, they in the year 1683 contributed
a sum of money for a monument to the memory of this best of men and
most incorruptible of senators; but the then minister of St. Giles'
forbade its being erected in that church, on account of the following
epitaph which was inscribed on it:--
"Near this place lieth the body of Andrew Marvel, Esq., a man so
endowed by nature, so improved by education, study, and travel;
so consummated by experience and learning, that joining the most
peculiar graces of wit with a singular penetration and strength
of judgment, and exercising all these in the whole course of his
life with unalterable steadiness in the ways of virtue, he became
the ornament and example of his age; beloved by good men, feared
by bad, admired by all, though imitated, alas, by few, and scarce
paralleled by any. But a tombstone can neither contain his character,
nor is marble necessary to transmit it to posterity; it is engraved
in the minds of this generation, and will be always legible in his
inimitable writings. Nevertheless, he having served near twenty years
successively in Parliament, and that with such wisdom, dexterity,
integrity, and courage as became a true patriot, the town of
Kingston-upon-Hull, from whence he was constantly returned to that
assembly, lamenting in his death the public loss, have erected this
monument of their grief and gratitude.
"Heu fragile humanum genus! Heu terrestria vana!
Heu quem spectatum continet urna virum!"
In Mr. Mason's animated _Ode to Independency_, the dignified virtue
of this truly patriotic character is described
"In thoughts that breathe, and words that burn."
[88] "Such were the words of the bards in the days of song, when the
king heard the music of harps, and the tales of other times."--_Songs
of Selma_, p. 302.
[89] In the early impressions it is spelt _Prusia_. It has been said
with great confidence, that after twenty-five were worked off, this
error in orthography was discovered and amended. I have seen at least
fifty, and think it probable that all which were subscribed for were
delivered before any alteration was made in the spelling.
[90] This word is explained in the _Slang Dictionary_ as a cant
expression for the threat of a blow.
[91] The fifer is designed for the portrait of a young lad who was
much noticed by the late William Duke of Cumberland; and who, from
the propriety of his conduct, was first rewarded with a halberd, and
afterwards promoted to a pair of colours.
[92] This is said to be the portrait of a fellow known by the name
of Jockey James, a most frequent attendant on the nursery for
bruising, under the management of the mighty Broughton. Jockey had
a son who rendered himself eminent by boxing with Smallwood, and
many other athletic pugilists. The French pieman, grenadier, and
chimney-sweeper, are also taken from the life, and said, by those
who recollect their persons, to be very faithful resemblances of the
persons intended.
[93] This gentleman displays the great difference between _an_
officer, and _a officer_: he comes under the latter description.
[94] This is Mr. Thornton's remark, and rather too severe. Lord North
once declared in the House of Commons that he saw no harm in the
officers of the Guards. "They have nothing to do," added he, "but
walk in the park, kiss the nursery-maids, and drink the children's
milk."
[95] This figure is introduced in the very curious print of
"Enthusiasm Delineated," and in the eleventh print of "Industry and
Idleness," and was designed as a portrait of Mother Douglass of the
Piazza.
[96] Lavater's character of this people is not exactly similar to
Hogarth's delineation; it is, however, curious: "The form of a
Frenchman is different from that of all other nations, and difficult
to describe in words. No other man has so little of the firm or
deep traits, or so much motion. He is all appearance, all gesture;
therefore the first impression seldom deceives, but declares who and
what he is. His imagination is incapable of high flights; and the
sublime in all arts is to him offence. Hence his dislike of whatever
is antique in art or literature, his deafness to true music, his
blindness to the highest beauties of painting. His last most striking
trait is, that he is astonished at everything, and cannot imagine how
it is possible men should be any other than they are at Paris."
[97] Among the number of ingenious allusions which the seekers of
Hogarth's meanings have pointed out, I have never heard it remarked
that the standard waves immediately over this under-sized hero, who
is consequently _under the standard_!
[98] Let not the reader imagine that this quotation alludes to
the Duke's ponderous equestrian statue in Cavendish Square. That
glittering monument of burnished brass bears no very striking
resemblance to either an angel or a fiery Pegasus. It must, however,
be considered as a monument of the taste, vanity, and gratitude of
Colonel Salter.
[99] Grotesque delineations have more influence upon the populace
than the philosopher is apt to imagine. Sir Robert Walpole inspected
every political print and political ballad that was published,
and said that from these vulgar effusions he could form a certain
judgment of the genuine spirit and local prejudices which actuated
the multitude.
[100] Election is, I believe, in its general sense, the act of
choosing. We see by the application of the word in this book, it was
not then confined to choosing a member of Parliament, but applied
indiscriminately to either bird or beast.
[101] This is mere conjecture; but from Jackson the humpbacked
jockey, and some other sedate personages who were present, I think it
is more likely to be designed for that place than any other.
[102] A man of rank with these plebeian propensities might in the
year 1759 be considered as a phenomenon: in this age of elegant
accomplishment and universal refinement, the thing is common. We
now see men of family and fortune ambitious of becoming umpires in
battles between Big Ben and the Ruffian!
[103] The "March to Finchley."
[104] When Garrick first came on the stage, and one very sultry
evening in the month of May performed the character of Lear, he in
the first four acts received the customary tribute of applause. At
the conclusion of the fifth, when he wept over the body of Cordelia,
every eye caught the soft infection--the big round tear ran down
every cheek. At this interesting moment, to the astonishment of
all present, his face assumed a new character, and his whole frame
appeared agitated by a new passion: it was not tragic, for he was
evidently endeavouring to suppress a laugh. In a few seconds the
attendant nobles appeared to be affected in the same manner; and
the beauteous Cordelia, who was reclined upon a crimson couch,
opening her eyes to see what occasioned the interruption, leapt
from her sofa, and with the majesty of England, the gallant Albany,
and tough old Kent, ran laughing off the stage. The audience could
not account for this strange termination of a tragedy in any other
way than by supposing the _dramatis personæ_ were seized with a
sudden frenzy; but their risibility had a different source. A fat
Whitechapel butcher, seated on the centre of the front bench in the
pit, was accompanied by his mastiff, who being accustomed to sit on
the same seat with his master at home, naturally thought he might
enjoy the like privilege here. The butcher sat very back, and the
quadruped finding a fair opening, got upon the bench, and fixing his
fore-paws on the rail of the orchestra, peered at the performers
with as upright a head and as grave an air as the most sagacious
critic of his day. Our corpulent slaughter-man was made of melting
stuff, and not being accustomed to a playhouse heat, found himself
much oppressed by the weight of a large and well-powdered Sunday
peruke, which, for the gratification of cooling and wiping his head,
he pulled off, and placed on the head of his mastiff. The dog being
in so conspicuous, so obtrusive a situation, caught the eye of Mr.
Garrick and the other performers. A mastiff in a churchwarden's
wig (for the butcher was a parish officer) was too much: it would
have provoked laughter in Lear himself, at the moment he was most
distressed; no wonder, then, that it had such an effect on his
representative.
[105] In the second canto of a poem entitled _The Gamblers_, are the
following notes:--
"By the cockpit laws, the man who cannot or who will not pay his
debts of honour, is liable to exaltation in a basket."
"Stephen's exaltation in a basket, and his there continuing to bet
though unable to pay, is taken from a scene in one of Hogarth's
prints, humorously setting forth that there are men whom a passion
for gaming does not forsake, even in the very hour that they stand
proclaimed insolvents."
[106] Frequently called Deptford Nan, and sometimes dignified with a
title--Duchess of Deptford! She was a famous cock-feeder, well known
at Newmarket, and did the honours of the gentlemen's ordinary at
Northampton, while a bachelor presided at the table appropriated to
the ladies.
[107] A small print published in the year 1732, of which there are
three copies.
[108] I have inserted the name of Gay on the authority of Mr.
Nichols' _Anecdotes_, in page 177 of which is the following remark
from a correspondent:--
"That Pope was silent on the merits of Hogarth (as one of your
readers has observed) should excite little astonishment, as our
artist's print on the South Sea exhibits the translator of Homer in
no very flattering point of view. He is represented with one of his
hands in the pocket of a fat personage, who wears a horn-book at his
girdle. For whom this figure was designed is doubtful; perhaps it was
meant for Gay, who was a fat man, and a loser in the scheme, etc.
The horn-book he wears at his girdle perhaps refers to the fables he
wrote for the Duke of Cumberland. The conclusion to the inscription
under this plate--'Guess at the rest, you'll find out more'--seems
also to imply a consciousness of such personal satire as it was not
prudent to explain."
The conjecture that this is designed for Gay is fair, but I think not
quite conclusive. Hogarth would not have represented the translator
of Homer diving into the coat pocket of a brother bard for coin, and
Gay could not be robbed of anything else. May not the label with
A--B--, etc., be intended to point out Arbuthnot: he also was a fat
man, and so careless of fame, that he suffered Pope, and some other
eminent contemporary authors, to plunder him of the best part of his
writings, which they afterwards modestly published as their own;
_vide_ a very large portion of _Martinus Scriblerus_, particularly
Pope's own edition, published in 1742.
Pope is again introduced in a print published about the year 1728,
entitled "Rich's Glory, or The Triumphant Entry into Covent Garden,"
improperly said to be the production of Hogarth.
[109] This satire is wound up with a well-turned apology for the
folly, but even here a dart must be hurled at the Duke.--The dart
recoils, and returns to him who threw it; for although his Grace was
vainly ostentatious, and absurdly extravagant, he was kind-hearted
and beneficent to a fault:--
"Yet hence the poor are cloth'd, the hungry fed:
Health to himself, and to his infants bread,
The lab'rer bears: what his hard heart denies,
His charitable vanity supplies.
Another age shall see the golden ear
Embrown the slope, and nod on the parterre;
Deep harvests bury all his pride has plann'd,
And laughing Ceres re-assume the land."
It is a singular circumstance that the prophecy in the last four
lines (for a prophecy it must be called) should be fulfilled, I had
almost said in the poet's lifetime. A very few years after his death,
when Hallet the upholsterer purchased Canons, the park was ploughed
up and sown with corn.
I have somewhere seen an epigram, written soon after the publication
of this epistle:--
"What Chandos builds let Pope no more deride,
Because he took not Nature for his guide,
Since, mighty Bard--in thy own form we see
That nature may mistake, as well as he."
[110] We have amateurs of boxing, and why not of cock-fighting?
[111] This noble diversion may with more propriety be called royal
in India than in England, for it is not peculiar to Great Britain,
neither is it confined within the narrow boundaries of Europe. In
a picture which Mr. Zoffani designed from nature, he has exhibited
the Nabob of Oude, and a crowd of his courtiers, dressed in their
robes of state surrounding a cockpit. The Asiatic Sovereign, his
brother, and his attendants, display as much eagerness for gain, and
rapacity of physiognomy, as is to be seen in the most notorious of
our Newmarket gamblers.
[112] Throwing at cocks on this day is, I hope and believe, a less
prevalent custom than it once was. Our ancestors must have formed
strange notions of the duties that were acceptable to the Deity on
commencement of Lent, when they set apart the eve as a proper time
for the martyrdom of this inoffensive animal.
[113]
"Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods,
Draw near them then in being merciful;
Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge."
[114] "A beautiful Diana, with her trussed-up robes, the crescent
alone wanting, stands on the high altar to receive homage in the
character of St. Agnes, in a pretty church dedicated to her (_fuor
della Porte_), where it is supposed she suffered martyrdom: and why?
Why, for not venerating that very goddess Diana, and for refusing to
walk in her procession at the new moons, like a good Christian girl.
Such contradictions put one from oneself, as Shakspeare says."--Mrs.
Piozzi's _Letters_.
[115] A catalogue of the massacres, slaughters, and assassinations
which have taken place for little differences of opinion, would fill
a library. Superstition has been the general cause of man destroying
man.
[116] The infatuation of the lower order of the people during the
drawing of a lottery is hardly to be conceived. They cannot consult
Virgil, but they consult every star in the firmament, and every male
and female astrologer in the parish, to find out lucky numbers.
Figures chalked on the wall, and dreams, have great credit; and much
respect is paid to the year of their birth, a husband's or wife's
death, etc. etc. The destructive consequences of this thirst for
divination it is not necessary to enumerate,--they are recorded in
the annals of Bethlehem Hospital and the Newgate Calendar.
[117] A field preacher in one of the provinces, from the strength of
his lungs and length of his extemporary harangues, being for some
months attended by a more numerous congregation than the parson of
the parish, began to think himself the more orthodox man. Fraught
with this idea, he one Sunday evening went to the vestry-room, waited
until the service concluded, and then very rudely attacked the
clergyman, telling him he came to convince him, to confound him, and
to convert him by the word! This was followed by the recital of a
thousand texts from various parts of the Holy Scriptures, so combined
as to prove whatever he wished; and concluded by, "This is all from
the Bible, and by the Bible I desires to abide.--Answer me by the
same book." The clergyman being a man of some humour, after hearing
him with much patience, very coolly asked this labourer in the
vineyard if he recollected a text in the book of Kings, where it is
written, "Then Ahithophel set his house in order, and went and hanged
himself." "Certainly," replied the man, "I know it to be scripture."
"Good," added the divine; "examine the Gospel of St. Luke, and you
will find it written, 'Go and do thou likewise.' This I earnestly
recommend, and so farewell."
[118] "Some witches, examined and executed at Mohra, in Sweden, in
1670, confessed that the devil gives them a beast about the bigness
and shape of a young cat, which they call a carrier, etc."--Glanville
_On Witches_, p. 494.
"For their being sucked by their familiar, we know so little of
the nature of demons and spirits, that it is no wonder we cannot
certainly divine the reason of so strange an action. And yet we
may conjecture at some things that may render it less improbable.
For some have thought that the Genii (whom both the Platonic and
Christian antiquity thought embodied) are re-created by the reeks and
vapours of human blood, and the spirits that proceed from them: which
supposal (if we grant them bodies) is not unlikely, everything being
refreshed and nourished by its like. And that they are not perfectly
abstracted from all body and matter; besides the reverence we owe
to the wisest antiquity, there are several considerable arguments
I could allege to render it probable: which things supposed, the
devil's suckling the sorceress is no great wonder, nor difficult to
be accounted for. Or perhaps this may be only a diabolical sacrament
and ceremony to confirm the hellish covenant."--_Glanville_, p. 10.
In the above, and any future quotations I may find it necessary to
make from this great and sagacious author, I beg it may be observed
that I quote from the fourth edition, published in 1726.
[119] Master Lilly remarketh that angels (and he must unquestionably
mean to include fallen angels) very rarely speak unto any
one; but when they do, it is like the Irish--very much in the
throat.--_Lilly's Life_, p. 88.
[120] Curses are not peculiar to one church; John Boys, D.D., Dean of
Canterbury, 1629, educated at Clare Hall, in Cambridge, was famous
for his postils in defence of our liturgy, and was also much esteemed
for his good life. He gained great applause by turning the Lord's
Prayer into the following execration, when he preached at Paul's
Cross:--"Our Pope which art in Rome, cursed be thy name; perish may
thy kingdom; hindered may thy will be, as it is in heaven, so in
earth. Give us this day our cup in the Lord's Supper, and remit our
monies which we have given for thy indulgences, as we send them back
unto thee; and lead us not into heresy, but free us from misery, for
thine is the infernal pitch and sulphur, for ever and ever. Amen."
[121] "Several of the female devotees have waxen images in their
hands. Master Glanville observeth that the devil frequently bringeth
unto witches a waxen picture, which they, having christened it by
the name of the person they wish to torment, thrust pins into;
using these words as they perform their ceremonies, _Thout tout,
a tout, tout, throughout and about.--Rentum, tormentum, etc.
etc._"--_Glanville_, p. 297.
How wonderful has Shakspeare appropriated these idle tales in his
tragedy of _Macbeth_! He did not build upon the fables of Greece
and Rome; but leaving the mob of heathen deities to range over the
classic ground which gave them birth, leaving those writers who draw
all their supplies from the fountain of antiquity to take their
copious draughts unmolested, he adopted the creed of his own nation,
and on the dim legends of superstition, and oral traditions of
credulity, raised a superstructure which has stood the test of ages,
become more admired as it has been more minutely examined, and is now
gazed at with an almost idolatrous veneration.
[122] The influence of these men is astonishing. They have the mind,
body, and outward estate of their proselytes under their absolute
direction; all their assertions are considered as prophecies, and
every request has the force of a command.
Men seem to have a natural tendency to a belief in divination; and
we have many instances where the commanders of armies have made
great use of this easy faith. When Cromwell was in Scotland, a
soldier stood with Lilly's _Almanac_ in his hand, and as the troops
passed him, roared out, "Lo! hear what Lilly saith: you are promised
victory! Fight it out, brave boys; and when you have conquered--read
the month's prediction."
[123] Whosoever wisheth to know more of this Surrey Semiramis and her
brood of rabbits, may consult the _Memoirs of M. St. Andre_, and some
twelve or fifteen ingenious pamphlets, published about the year 1726,
at which time a number of surgeons subscribed a guinea each to Mr.
Hogarth, for a print from a whimsical design he had previously made
on this very philosophical subject.
[124] The figure is, I believe, intended for the boy of Bilson,
who, with an ostrich-like appetite, swallowed as many tenpenny
nails as would have furnished a petty ironmonger's shop. This young
gentleman, who in his day deceived a whole county, was only thirteen
years of age. His extraordinary fits, agitations, and the surprising
distempers with which he seemed to be afflicted, induced those who
saw him to believe he was bewitched, and possessed with a devil.
During the time he was in fits, he appeared both deaf and blind;
writhing, groaning, and panting; and although often pinched, pricked
with needles, tickled, severely whipped, and otherwise corrected,
never seemed sensible of what was done to him. When he was thought
to be out of his fits, he digested nothing that was given him for
nourishment, but would often astonish those present by bringing up
thread, straw, crooked pins, nails, needles, etc. At this period
his throat swelled, his tongue grew rigid, and he appeared to be
incapable of speaking.
This juvenile impostor accused a poor honest industrious old woman
of witchcraft, and asserted that she had bewitched him. By his
artful behaviour when she was brought into the room where he was, he
raised in the minds of those about him a strong presumption of his
accusations being founded. Under these impressions, the woman was
tried at Stafford assizes, but the jury had sense enough to acquit
her. By the judge's recommendation, the boy was committed to the care
of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who happened to be present
in court. His Grace took him to his palace at Eccleshall, and there,
having the previous advice of several physicians, intended to try the
effect of severity; but being in the meantime informed that the boy
always fell into violent agitations upon hearing that verse of St.
John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Word," etc., resolved to try
another experiment. Assuming a grave and austere countenance, he thus
addressed him:--
"Boy, it is either thou thyself or the devil that abhorrest these
words of the Gospel; and if it be the devil, there is no doubt of his
understanding all languages, so that he cannot but know and show his
abhorrence when I recite the same sentence out of the Gospel in the
Greek text; but if it be thyself, then thou art an execrable wretch,
who playest the devil's part in loathing that portion of the Gospel
of Christ, which above all other scripture doth express the admirable
union of the Godhead in one Christ and Saviour, which union is the
arch pillar of man's salvation. Wherefore look unto thyself, for now
thou art to be put unto trial, and mark diligently whether it be
the same scripture which shall be read unto thee out of the Greek
Testament, at the reading whereof in the English tongue thou dost
seem to be so much troubled and tormented."
This experiment succeeded, for neither the boy nor the devil
understood the Greek version.
[125] It was deemed an approved remedy for witchcraft, to put a small
wax model of any one under this baneful influence into a quart bottle
with water, cork it up to confine the spirit, and place it before the
fire. Notwithstanding all these precautions, the spirit sometimes
forced the cork, and cast the contents of the bottle a considerable
height.
[126] Of the writings of this paragon of English monarchs--so wise
that he was called the Solomon of Great Britain--it has been truly
said, "They are to be found in chandlers' shops even unto this day."
[127] A very grave historian relates, that the ghost of Sir George
Villiers appeared to one who had been his servant, charging him to
inform his son of the plan laid to destroy him! The servant obeyed
his instructions, and informed his Grace, but the Duke wanted
faith--was negligent--and was assassinated: though it does not seem
probable that the crazed enthusiast who committed the murder had
sufficient coherence of mind to lay any regular plan.
[128] Drelincourt's _Defence against the Fears of Death_ is well
written; and in the confidence that a translation would sell, the
bookseller struck off a very large impression. They lay undisturbed
in his warehouse until Daniel Defoe added this ridiculous narrative,
which carried the book through one-and-twenty editions.
[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.