English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century Part 5

FOOTNOTES:

[9] "If it had not been for you English, I should have been Emperor of the East; but wherever there is water enough to float a ship, we are sure to find you in our way."--_Napoleon to Captain Maitland._ See Maitland's "Narrative of the Surrender of Bonaparte," p. 99.

[10] _London Chronicle_, December 6th, 1806.

[11] See also Gillray's previous satire of the 23rd of January, 1806 (which probably suggested this), _Tiddy Doll, the Great French Gingerbread Baker, drawing out a new batch of kings_.

[12] See also Gillray's cartoon of 1st October, 1807, _British Tars towing the Danish Fleet into Harbour_.

[13] See vol. ii., p. 92, _et seq._

[14] In a loose age, Madame Tallien, notwithstanding such virtues as she possessed, was a loose character. Between 1798 and 1802 she had three children, who were registered in her family name of _Cabarrus_. On the 8th of April, 1802, at her own request a divorce was p.r.o.nounced from Tallien, and with two husbands still alive she married (14th July, 1805,) Count Joseph de Caraman, soon after heir of the Prince de Chimay. She died in the odour of sanct.i.ty, on the 15th of January, 1835.

[15] O'Meara, vol. i, p. 250.

[16] "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers."

[17] According to Mr. Grego, 2,000.

CHAPTER III.

_MISCELLANEOUS CARICATURES AND SUBJECTS OF CARICATURE, 1812-1819._

1812. REBUILDING OF DRURY LANE THEATRE.

Drury Lane Theatre, which was burnt down in 1811, was rebuilt the following year, and the committee, anxious to celebrate the opening by an address of merit corresponding to the occasion, advertised in the papers for such a composition. Theatrical addresses, however, as we all know by reference to a recent occasion,[18] are not always up to the mark; and whether the result of their appeal was unsatisfactory, or whether--as appears not unlikely--they were appalled by the number of compet.i.tors, which is said to have been upwards of one hundred, not one was accepted, the advertisers preferring to seek the a.s.sistance of Lord Byron, who wrote the actual address which was spoken at the opening on the 10th of October, 1812. Among the compet.i.tors was a Dr. Busby, living in Queen Anne Street, who apparently unable to realize the fact that competent men could have the effrontery to reject his "monologue,"

refused to accept the verdict of the committee. A few evenings afterwards, the audience and the company were electrified by an unexpected sensation. Busby and his son sat in one of the stage boxes; and the latter, to the amazement of the audience, stepped at the end of the play from his box upon the stage, and began to recite his father's nonsense, as follows:--

"When energizing objects men pursue, What are the prodigies they cannot do?"

DR. BUSBY'S "MONOLOGUE."

The question remained unanswered; for Raymond, the stage manager, walked at this moment upon the stage accompanied by a constable, and gave the amateur performer into custody. It is said that his father, not content with this failure, actually made an attempt to recite the "monologue" from his box, until hissed and howled down by the half laughing, half indignant audience. The circ.u.mstance is commemorated by an admirable pictorial satire ent.i.tled, _A Buz in a Box, or the Poet in a Pet_, published by S. W. Fores on the 21st of October, in which we see the doctor gesticulating from his box, and imploring the audience to listen to his "monologue." Young Busby, seated on his father's Pegasus (an a.s.s), quotes one of the verses of the absurd composition, while the animal (after the manner of its kind) answers the hisses of the audience by elevating its heels and uttering a characteristic "hee haw." By the side of Busby junior stands the manager (Raymond), apologetically addressing the audience. Certain pamphlets lie scattered in front of the stage, on which are inscribed (among others) the following doggerel:--

"A Lord and a Doctor once started for Fame, Which for the best poet should pa.s.s; The Lord was cried up on account of his name, The Doctor cried down for _an a.s.s_."

"Doctor Buz, he a.s.sures us, on Drury's new stage No horses or elephants there should engage; But pray, Doctor Buz, how comes it to pa.s.s, That you your own self should produce there an a.s.s?"

Dr. Busby was a person desirous of achieving literary notoriety at any amount of personal inconvenience. He translated _Lucretius_, and is said to have given public recitations, accompanied with bread and b.u.t.ter and tea; but in spite of these attractions, the public did not come and the book would not sell, facts which a wicked wag of the period ridiculed, by inserting the following announcement in the column of births of one of the newspapers: "Yesterday, at his house in Queen Anne Street, Dr.

Busby of a stillborn _Lucretius_."

1813.

The medical profession is ridiculed in a satire published in 1813: _Doctors Differ, or Dame Nature against the College_.[19] Four physicians have quarrelled in consultation over the nature of their patient's malady, and the proper mode of administering to his relief.

Unable to convince one another, they wax so warm in argument that they speedily proceed from words to blows. "I say," shouts one (beneath the feet of the other three), "I say it is an exfoliation of the glands which has fallen on the membranous coils of the intestines, and must be thrown off by an emetic." "_I_ say," says another, raising at the same time his cane to protect his head, "I say it is a pleurisie in the thigh, and must be sweated away." "You are a blockhead!" cries a third, furiously striking at him with his professional cane. "I say it is a nervous affection of the cutis, and the patient must immediately lose eighteen ounces of blood, and then take a powerful drastic." "What are you quarrelling about?" asks a fourth, arresting the downfall of his professional brother's cane. "You are all wrong! I say it is an inflammation in the os sacrum, and therefore fourteen blisters must be immediately applied to the part affected and the adjacents." The table is down, and the prescriptions of the learned doctors covered with the ink which flows from the ruined inkstand. The amused patient (whom nature has meanwhile relieved of the cause and effect) watches the combat from the adjoining bedroom, and makes preparations to retreat and save both his "pocket and his life."

1814. JOANNA SOUTHCOTT.

The year 1814 was marked by the bursting of one of the most extraordinary religious bubbles with which England has ever been scandalized. The person identified with and responsible for the craze to which we allude, was Joanna Southcott, the daughter of a farmer residing at the village of Gettisham, in Devonshire, where she herself was born in the month of April, 1750. At the time, therefore, the imposture was made patent to such of her deluded followers as retained any remnants of the small stock of common sense with which nature had originally endowed them, Joanna was sixty-four years of age.

The village girl appears to have been a constant reader of the Scriptures, which she studied with so much enthusiasm, that a strong religious bias was established, which took almost entire possession of her mind. Still, no marked peculiarity was manifested until after she had attained forty years of age, at which time we find her employed as a workwoman at an upholsterer's shop at Exeter. The proprietor being a Methodist, the shop was visited by ministers of that persuasion, and Joanna, with her "serious turn of mind," was not only permitted to join in their discussions, but was regarded by these harmless folk somewhat in the light of a prodigy. To a mind predisposed to religious mania (for it would be unjust to stigmatize Joanna altogether as a wilful impostor) the result was peculiarly unfortunate; she was visited with dreams, which she quickly accepted as spiritual manifestations, instead of being, as they really were, indications of a disordered digestion.

Two years afterwards Joanna retired from secular business, and set up as a prophetess at Exeter. She declared herself to be the woman spoken of as "the bride," "the Lamb's wife," the "woman clothed with the sun." The county lunatic asylum might have done good at this point; but its wholesome discipline, unfortunately, was not resorted to. She published in 1801 her first inspired book, "The Strange Effects of Faith," which absolutely brought five "wise men of Gotham" to inquire into her pretensions from different parts of England. Three of these learned pundits were Methodist parsons, and these three parsons declared themselves satisfied that the mission of Joanna was a divine one. It is needless to add that in England, no matter how absurd the nature of a so-called divine mission, it is safe and certain to attract believers; and by the year 1803 the doctrines of Joanna Southcott were eagerly swallowed by numerous simpletons in various parts of the country.

Thus fortified, Joanna issued a manifesto, in which she stated her calling and pretensions: we set it out in all the original baldness of its composition:--

"I, Joanna Southcott, am clearly convinced that my calling is of G.o.d, and my writings are indited by His Spirit, as it is impossible for any spirit but an all-wise G.o.d, that is wondrous in working, wondrous in wisdom, wondrous in power, wondrous in truth, could have brought round such mysteries, so full of truth, as is in my writings; so I am clear in whom I have believed, that all my writings came from the spirit of the most high G.o.d."

Joanna was clear in whom she believed, and her followers were equally "clear" in their belief in Joanna. This incoherent nonsense was signed in the presence of fifty-eight simpletons, all of whom expressed their confidence in the inspired mission of their precious prophetess.

Her disciples rapidly increased, and she visited in her apostolic character, Bristol, Leeds, Stockport, and other large centres, obtaining numerous converts everywhere. Among them was the celebrated engraver, William Sharp; and to the last this man, who out of his calling was the veriest simpleton living, and who had swallowed successively the doctrines of Richard Brothers, Wright, Bryan, and Joanna, believed in the divine mission of this unincarcerated lunatic.

Although Joanna did not (like Joseph Smith) discover a book, she discovered a seal, which one of her disciples is said to have picked up in a dust-heap at Clerkenwell. With this miraculously acquired talisman the spirit ordered her to "seal up the people," and as "the people" were limited to one hundred and forty-four thousand, and each of the elect had to pay a sum varying at different times from a guinea to twelve shillings, or even lower, for the privilege of being "sealed up," the scheme promised at first to turn out a comfortably profitable one. Into the details of the "sealing" it is unnecessary for us to enter. Suffice it to say that the numbers of the "sealed," up to 1808, when for some unexplained reason the process appears to have been discontinued, exceeded six thousand simpletons; the numbers of her deluded followers in the metropolis and its vicinity alone, are supposed at one time to have amounted to a hundred thousand.

Joanna was a coa.r.s.e, common-place, and somewhat corpulent woman; she dressed in a plain, quaker-like garb, in a gown of Calimancoe, with a shawl and bonnet of drab colour. The three leading preachers in her chapel in Southwark (her great stronghold), were a Mr. Carpenter, who, after learning his business, set up as a prophet on his own account; a Mr. Foley, and a lath-render named Tozer. She had chapels also in Spitalfields, Greenwich, Twickenham, and Gravesend.

The scribblings in prose and verse of this illiterate creature, instead of being committed to the waste paper basket, were solemnly preserved and received as prophecies. Attacked at last with dropsy, her delusions a.s.sumed the following objectionable form: she prophesied, and Sharp and his fellow-disciples--some of whom were men of fair education--actually believed, that Christ was to be born again under the name of "Shiloh,"

and that she, Joanna, at the age of sixty-five, was to be the mother.

The revelation which proclaimed the miraculous _accouchement_ was worded as follows: "This year [1814], in the sixty-fifth year of thy age, thou shalt have a son by the power of the Most High; which if they (the Hebrews) receive as their prophet, priest, and king, then I will restore them to their own land, and cast out the heathen for their sakes, as I cast out them when they cast out Me, by rejecting Me as their Saviour, Prince, and King, for which I said I was born, but not at that time to establish My kingdom."

One might have imagined that this gibberish would open the eyes of some at least of her votaries: their insane enthusiasm, on the contrary, increased. Joanna was absolutely inundated with the "freewill" offerings of the faithful--a costly cradle, white robes, pinafores, shoes of satin and worsted, flannel shirts, napkins, blankets, silver spoons, pap-boats, mugs, silver tea-pots, sugar-basins, tongs, and corals,--absolutely without number. The absurdity of the simpletons who sent these offerings was severely criticised, both in England and on the Continent; and by way apparently of answering her traducers, Joanna inserted an apostolical advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Morning Chronicle_ of Thursday, 22nd September, 1814, and in the _Courier_ of Friday, 23rd, in which she stated that, in consequence of the false and malicious reports in circulation respecting herself, she was desirous of treating for "a s.p.a.cious and ready-furnished house to be hired for three months, in which her _accouchement_ may take place in the presence of such competent witnesses as shall be appointed by proper authority to prove her character to the world." The appointed day--the 29th of October--however pa.s.sed by, and the prophecy remained of course unfulfilled, although, in the manufacturing towns of the north, crowds of the faithful a.s.sembled to wait the arrival of the coaches, in expectation of tidings of the great manifestation. The satire ent.i.tled, _Delivering a Prophetess_ (in vol. 8 of "The Scourge"), has reference to the actual event which occurred on the 27th of December, 1814, when death relieved Joanna of her delusions and her dropsy; the wretched creature declaring on her deathbed that, "if she had been deceived, she had at all events been the sport of some spirit, good or evil." Joanna forms the subject of one of Rowlandson's caricatures of 1814, _Joanna Southcott, the Prophetess, Excommunicating the Bishops_, published by Tegg on the 20th of September, 1814. We shall also have to refer to her again when we treat of the caricatures of George Cruikshank.

FLIGHT OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE.

This year (1814) the Princess Charlotte, heiress presumptive actually ran away in a hackney coach, to avoid being affianced to the Prince of Orange, to whom Her Royal Highness evinced an invincible repugnance. The event is referred to in a caricature ent.i.tled, _Plebeian Spirit, or Coachee and the Heiress Presumptive_ (published by Fores on the 25th of July), which shows us the princess emerging from Warwick House, followed by Britannia (who raises her hands in a suppliant att.i.tude), and the dejected British lion. "Coachman, will you protect me?" she appeals to the driver. "Yes, yes, your Highness," replies the fellow, "to the last drop of my blood!" A servant in the royal livery holds up his hands in amazement and horror, while another spurs off in hot haste to apprise the Regent of the flight of his daughter. But a satire of far superior merit, ent.i.tled, _Miss endeavouring to excite a glow with her Dutch Plaything_,[20] was issued by the same publisher a few days previously, in which the rejected prince figures as a Dutch top, which the princess has kept spinning for some time. "There," she says to her father at last, "I have kept it up for a long while; you may send it away now, I am tired of it; mother [_i.e._ the Princess Caroline] has got some better plaything for me." "What! are you tired already?" exclaims the Regent. "Take another spell at it, or give me the whip." "No, no,"

replies Her Royal Highness; "you may take the top, but I'll keep the whip." Behind her is a picture representing an orange falling with Cupid headlong into s.p.a.ce. The Regent was so incensed at his daughter's refractoriness, that he went at once to Warwick House and dismissed all her attendants, and never forgave the Duke of Suss.e.x for his supposed share in breaking off the connection. It was immediately after this event that her mother, the Princess Caroline, contrary to the advice of her friends and well-wishers, applied for permission to make that tour on the Continent which, owing to her own obstinate folly and contempt for the duties of her high station, was destined--as we shall afterwards find--to end in such disastrous consequences to herself.

1812 1815. AMERICA AND ENGLAND.

In the course of the year 1812, England had become involved--scarcely through any fault of her own--in a war with the United States of America. The causes of difference were mainly due to the obnoxious Orders in Council, which had been _forced_ upon us in consequence of the Berlin and Milan Decrees of Napoleon. As an evidence, however, of our own friendly intentions, it may be mentioned that the Regent had issued a declaration on the 23rd of April, that if at any time the obnoxious decrees should by _an authentic act be absolutely_ repealed, thenceforth the Orders in Council of 7th January, 1807, and 26th April, 1809, should be revoked; and the American representative, having, on the 20th of May, transmitted to the English Court a copy of a French decree of the 20th of April, by which the decrees of Milan and Berlin were declared to be no longer in force, _so far as American vessels were concerned_, the Regent declared that, although he could not accept the terms of the decree as satisfying the conditions of his own declaration of the 23rd of April, yet, with the view of re-establishing friendly relations, _he revoked_ the Orders in Council of 7th January, 1807, and April 26th, 1809, so far as regarded American vessels and American cargoes. Of this repeal, be it observed, the United States Government took no notice, it might be in consequence of the very reasonable proviso annexed to the Regent's concession, that unless the Government of the United States revoked their exclusion of British armed vessels from their harbours, while those of France were admitted, and their interdiction of British commerce, while that of France was allowed, the order was to be of no effect.

A very old English proverb tells us that "a stick is never wanting to beat a dog;" and where one nation wishes to fasten a quarrel on another, and the opportunity be favourable, there will be no difficulty in finding an excuse. There were other causes of discontent; in particular our claim to search not only for English goods, but for British seamen serving on board neutral vessels; and as the sovereignty of the seas depended on upholding these a.s.sumptions, our Government was as strenuous in enforcing them as the French emperor was bent on the maintenance of his continental system.

HOSTILE SPIRIT OF THE AMERICANS.

The Americans, however, were anxious for a war with this country, and in particular, the opportunity seemed eminently favourable for attempting the conquest of Canada. A motion in the House of Representatives, for the indefinite postponement of a bill for raising 25,000 additional troops, was rejected by a majority of 98 to 29. An outrageous bill, specially intended as an insult to England, was introduced into the same House about the end of April, "for the protection, recovery, and indemnification of American seamen," the first clause of which declared that every person who, under pretence of a commission from a foreign power, should impress upon the high seas a native seaman of the United States, should be adjudged a pirate and a felon, and should upon conviction suffer death. Another of its articles gave to every such seaman impressed under the British flag, the right of attaching in the hands of any British subject, or in the hands of _any debtor of any British subject_, a sum equal to thirty dollars per month for the whole time of his detention. This monstrous bill was actually allowed to pa.s.s a third reading. The temper of the Americans may be judged by the result of the voting on Mr. Randolph's motion in the same House, on the 29th of May. That gentleman submitted "that, under the present circ.u.mstances, it was inexpedient to resort to a war with Great Britain." The question being then put, that the House do proceed to the consideration of the said resolution, it was negatived by 62 votes against 37. Under the overpowering influence of these feelings, war was declared against England on the 18th of June, 1812; our own declaration was not issued until the 13th of October following.