another arose. The masquerades at Carlisle House, Soho-square, attracted even royalty itself, though an indictment was presented against it by the grand jury of Middlesex, as a common and disorderly house," and the company was described as "divers loose, idle, and disorderly persons, as well men as women." At one of these, incredible as it may now appear, Colonel Luttrell appeared as a dead corpse in a shroud within his coffin! The effect of these loose and licentious scenes was felt, and it is said severely felt, throughout the various channels of social life, high and low.

But the reign of folly was not yet closing, for the next outbreak brought the Bishop of Durham into a severe attack upon the danseuses of the Opera, as regarded the scanty quantity of apparel with which these frail and fascinating ladies covered "their many-twinkling feet;" and the good Bishop absolutely said, it was his intention to move on some future day that an address be presented to his Majesty, beseeching him to order all such dancers out of the kingdom, as people who were likely to destroy our morality and religion, and who are very probably in the pay of France; for the Bishop was persuaded that as the French could not subdue us by force of arms they were determined to gain their ends by destroying our morals, and they had sent over these persons (the Taglionis, Ceritos, and Duvernays of that day) to this country to make indecent exhibitions in our theatres for that purpose. * The consequence of episcopal interference was, that the Bishop and the opera dancers figured together in numerous caricatures. In one of Gillray's, a group of danseuses are made to conceal a portion of their personal charms by adopting the episcopal apron; it is entitled "Operatical Reform; or, la Danse à l'Evêque:" another, which appeared soon after, called " Ecclesiastical Scrutiny; or the Durham Inquest on Duty," represents the bishops attending at the dressing of the opera ladies, &c.; while a third, which was the best, entitled "Durham Mustard too powerful for Italian Capers; or the Opera in an Uproar," represents the Bishop, armed with his pastoral staff, rushing on the stage to encounter the spirit of the Evil One, embodied in those fair but dangerous forms of seductive beauty. It was an unequal combat; the favourite leader of the flowery band, Miss Rose, with a new ally in Vestris, after having discomfited the prelate, might have addressed him in the words of an older heroine, in a still more fatal engagement:

Silvis te Tyrrhene feras agitare putasti?

Advenit qui vestra dies muliebribus armis

Verba redarguerit, nomen tamen haud leve Patrum

Manibus hoc referes, telo cecidisse Camilla.

But we must not dwell longer on this subject, mindful of the Poet's advice,

Soft, and o'er females' failings lightly pass,

And may Aglaia lead them to the glass.

The O. P. riots diverted the public attention into another channel, of

* Ah! what avails it that from slavery far
I drew the breath of life in English air,
Was early taught a Briton's right to prize
And lisp the tale of Henry's victories,
If the gulled conqueror receives the chain,
And flattery subdues when arms are vain ?

Vide Johnson's "London, a Satire."

The Bishop might in his episcopal palace be alarmed at Mirabeau's declaration, "Si vous voulez une Revolution, il faut commencer par decatholiciser la France."-REV.

66

which Gillray, as usual, took advantage; and when that was closed, the satires turned against the Pic-Nics, which were flourishing at Wynnstay, Wargrave, and elsewhere; while a set of "dilettanti actors, under the patronage of Lady Albina Buckinghamshire, were performing in Tottenham-street.-Gillray produced no less than three caricatures on the subject; one of which," it is said, "representing the motley group dressing for the stage, is full of humour, with a considerable sprinkling of licentiousness." The subjects immediately succeeding these seemed to be the Shaksperean forgeries of Ireland, the Shakspere Gallery of Boydell, and the wellknown disputes of the Royal Society, with Bishop Horsley's attack on SIR JOSEPH BANKS, "the president," as Peter Pindar calls him, "in butterflies profound."

In 1801 Pitt left the seat of power empty, which he had filled for nearly twenty years, and the reins of empire were placed in Mr. Addington's hands; peace followed, and a remission of the heavy taxation : English visitors flocked to Paris, and Gillray satirized the new posture of affairs in a humorous caricature (see p. 391,) entitled "The first Kiss these ten years; or, the Meeting of Britannia and Citizen François."-Britannia, who has suddenly become corpulent by peace and

plenty, appears as a fine lady in full dress, her shield and spear leaning neglected against a wall. The French citizen expresses his joy at the amicable meeting in warm terms :-"Madame, permittez me to pay my profound esteem to your engaging person; and to seal on your divine lips my everlasting attachment! The lady, blushing deeply at the salute, with a strong tint of red on her cheek, replies, "Monsieur, you are truly a well-bred gentleman! and, though you make me blush, yet you kiss me so delicately, that I cannot refuse you, though I was sure you would deceive me again." On the wall just behind the two figures are framed profiles of King

George and Buonaparte, scowling on each other. This caricature enjoyed an unusual degree of popularity: many copies were sent to France, and Buonaparte himself is said to have been highly amused with it. When hostilities were again commencing, the "Armed Heroes," a clever caricature, was published, in which Addington, "the doctor," is drawn in a ridiculous dilemma, between assumed courage and real fear, anxious to preserve the dish of roast beef of old England threatened by the Corsican, while Lord Hawkesbury, seated behind him with a resolute form and attitude, calls to mind his old threat of marching to Paris.

The papers and prints were now full of satire against the threatened invasion of England. Everything was brought into play that could stir up and support the national spirit; biographies of Buonaparte and his family; accounts of the atrocities committed by his armies; burlesques in which he was treated with ridicule and contempt; parodies on his bulletins and proclamations, sometimes in the shape of playbills, sometimes of dialogues between the Corsican and John Bull; and in other papers the conqueror of Europe was represented as a mere pigmy—a man in miniature when compared to King George and the Britons In this spirit Gillray in 1803 represented the King as the KING OF BROBDIGNAG, eyeing his diminutive assailant through his opera-glass as he held him in his hand a neat and happy hit, which we accordingly have transferred to our pages. In another, bearing the same title, the diminutive boaster is seen attempting to manœuvre his small boat in a basin of water to the great amusement of the King and his court. The painters were well supported by the poets and essayists, and the spirit of patriotism was aroused and fed with an industry and zeal that produced the most beneficial effects, and, indeed, saved the country from the dangers with which it was threatened, and when, in all probability, the conflict would have been more fierce and fatal than any that had been witnessed or recorded for a long period in the history of war. We now quote from Mr. Wright some account of the most annoying of these attacks to the tender feelings of our great enemy.

"The effect of the songs and papers was confined to home, but the caricatures were carried abroad, and gave no little uneasiness to Buonaparte, for they were often coarsely personal, and the First Consul was particularly sensitive to anything like ridicule against himself or his family. The caricature which gave him the greatest offence was a rather celebrated one by Gillray, published on the 24th of August, 1803, under the title of The Hand

Writing upon the Wall.' It is a broad parody on Belshazzar's feast. The First Consul, his wife Josephine (to whom the artist has given a figure of enormous bulk), and other members of his family and court, are seated at their dessert devouring the good things of old England. Buonaparte himself is called off by the vision from the palace of St. James's, which is seen in his plate, with his fork stuck into it. Another worthy is swallowing the Tower of London. Josephine is drinking large bumpers of wine. A plate inscribed 'Oh, de roast beef of old England!' bears the head of King George; the bottle

labelled Maidstone' is understood to refer to some of the Irish conspirators tried at the assizes in that town. A hand above holds out the scales of Justice, in which the legitimate crown of France weighs down the red cap with its attendant chain-despotism under the name of liberty. Behind Josephine stand the three Princesses of the afterwards imperial family, the Princess Borghese, the Princess Louise, and the Princess Joseph Buonaparte. These ladies, who were the cause of some scandal by their alleged irregularities, were bitterly satirized, not only in caricatures, but even in medals and in other shapes, some of which were not of a character to describe here. Gillray's large caricature of the grand Coronation Procession,' published on the 1st of January, 1805, on occasion of Napoleon's assumption of the imperial dignity, the three princesses, clad in very meretricious garb, walk at the head of the procession as the three imperial Graces,' and scatter flowers in the way of the emperor and empress."

In

We are now approaching a new period of parliamentary history, when the old compact bodies of the hostile parties showed symptoms of breaking up: and when a new one assuming the opprobrious name of Radicals was going a-head, under the patronage of Sir Francis Burdett, supported by the veteran abilities of Horne Tooke, and the fearful alliance of Cobbett. In the next year, that of 1806, Pitt's last and not very fortunate or glorious administration was terminated by his death. In a few months his illustrious rival followed him to the grave. In the meantime the two very clever and ingenious artists, the productions of whose genius we have so long been reviewing with delight, began to make way for new competitors, and the names of Rowlandson and Cruikshank take the place of our old friends Gillray and Sayer. At this period, therefore, a voice, also not to be disregarded, tells us "Tempus abire tibi est," and we must leave to others the agreeable employment of further researches into this curious though hitherto neglected province of history.

THE KING OF BROBDIGNAG.

UNPUBLISHED CONTEMPORARY CHARACTER OF DR. JOHNSON.

MR. URBAN,

I FIND written in the first page of a Johnson's Dictionary, which belonged to a literary ancestor, the following notice of the great grammarian's character and person. It is headed, "Some account of Dr. Johnson, the compiler of this Dictionary." After a slight sketch of his early history, and an enumeration of his publications, which it would be superfluous to transcribe, it proceeds thus:

"His character and conduct prove him not only to be a moral but a religious man; generous and benevolent to the utmost extent of his abilities, the patron of merit however obscure, and the constant protector of the unfortunate and indigent.

"As to his person (in 1774) he is full six feet high, of an athletic make, but stoops as he walks, which diminishes his stature. He is rather of a sallow complexion, with a cast in his eye, and appears wrapt in contemplation. He is above sixty years of age; but time does not seem, as yet, to have made any depredations on his constitution. He is very communicative in company, and without any affectation of pedantry. He is a widower, and will probably remain in that state. Add to this, that his manner of speaking in conversation is slow but nervous in delivery, and perfectly correct and elegant in diction."

Yours, &c. L.

TRADESMEN'S TOKENS.

No. I.

THE MOTHER RED CAP IN HOCKLEY HOLE.

* Mr. J. Y. Akerman has now in the press a work on the "Tradesmen's and Tavern-Tokens of London in the Seventeenth Century," which promises to be of considerable antiquarian and historical interest.