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May 12 * 1860.J The Leader and Saturday ...
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MODERN CARICATURE. THE battle betweon th...
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? Saturday Analj/tt, No. 2, pngo 41.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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- Hoksmanship In The Commons. - On Monda...
At this point Mr . Wameb must have felt that he had no rival in the globe—except Tom Sjltebs . But now , having set him up on so high a pedestal , Mr . HoBsaiAir proceeds to knock him down . ^ It would really seem as if it was . only to make him a convenient cockshy that he gave him so elevated a place . ' " Now that you are up there / ' says Mr . Hobsmabt , " let me tell you that the journalism of England , so honourably conducted—elevating the tone of public morality and sustaining the character of public men—is of inestimable value in strengthening the national institutions , but , "—look out there , on the top of the garden wall , —here conies the well-aimed pebble , — " but it is nothing short of a national calamity when public opinion is influenced by great journals , which , less mindful of the responsibilities than the privileges of the press , show themselves true to no principle ^ constant to no policy , and disdainful of all rules
of public justice and morality . " And here Humpty Dumpty had his great fall , coming : down crash , while the boys on the Opposition benches hailed his discomfiture with fiendish glee . Unfortunately , however , for Mr . Hobsman , he had lavished both his praise and his blame upon the wrong party . It was not of Mr . Walter ' s speech that he complained , but of Mr . Walter ' s leading article , and of Mr . Walter ' s influence as chief proprietor of and leader in the councils of the Times . When Charles the Second puzzled the savans with the problem , Why was not a vase of water heavier when a fish was put into it ? a simple-minded philosopher put an end to the vexed question by simply denying the premises . So Mr . Walter demolished Mr . Hobsman by declaring , first , that he was not the principal proprietor of the Times and ruler of its councils ; secondly , that he had no hand in the article af which Mr . HoRsiiAir complained ; and thirdly , and lastly , that he did not even know who was the author of that article .
Thus it is that a very laughable farce is offceii constructed on a very slender plot , involving some ludicrous mistake . And , as we ¦ w onder , on calm reflection , at the improbabilities of these dramatic trifles , so we must wonder at the innocence displayed by Mr . Horshan in imagining that , because Mr . Walter is a proprietor of the Times , he must necessarily edit the paper and write all the leading articles . Does Mr . Hohsman still believe that the moon is made of green cheese , and that babies are dug out of parsley beds ? We have it on high authority that an old lady of fourscore and odd Is-a large shareholder in the Times . Why does not Mr . Horsman fall foul of her ? Is it because of this new act , which is to hedge the sex romid without an outwork of whipping posts ? And is iff not-a fact , too , that Sir Walter Carden , Knight , is a proprietor of the Times ? And does not the editor of the Times pitch into him when occasion requires , nevertheless and notwithstanding .
But there is an epilogue to this comic drama , Lord Palmerston and Mr . Disraeli coming forward at the . end to speak it in duologue . Mr , HoRSiiVK had wanted to know what were the magnetic influences which drew Mr . Delane , one of the editors of the Times , towards Lord Palmerston ? Mr , Horsman was evidentlymorethan half inclined to think that there was something wrong " . He had seen Mr . Delane's name in the list of Lord Pjulmekston-s dinner guests , and amongst her Ladyship ' s Saturday evening visitors ; and why should an editor hob-a-nob with such great folks if there were not a secret compact 1 between them ? The case was clear . Mr . "T ) TfenTTrhaci-Rnlf ^ the ^ * nfl « eiuie ^) flthaJZ ^ 7 zg ^ for a , mess of G pjfTER ' s pottage , and a smile from my lady . Was it not so ? ¦ " I wislTTt were , "
says the noble Lord , " I should be most happy to plead guilty to the soft impeachment . " And this elicits the flattering reason of Mr . Delane ' s being made so much of at Cambridge House . " The contributors to the press "—we take a pride in these words— - " are the favourites and the ornaments of every society into which they enter . They are generally men of very great attainments and great information , and therefore men in whom society must be interested . " His Lordship ' s intimacy with Mr . Dei . ane was of that character , of course . Did the noble lord know what an agreeable person we are , would he not invite us to dine with him at once ? And would not her ladyship put us on the free list of her Saturday Nights' Entertainments ? Can there bo a doubt about it ? Mr . Hqrsman , we
are ashamed of you . And now Mr . Disraeli , with the moral . Ho has less respect than the noble lord for nblo editors , and consequently may be expected to be chary of his mutton in that quarter . He objects to leading articles being quoted in the debates , as being a practice derogating from the dignity and independence of the House ; and ) as a guardian of the British Constitution in its Integrity , he must deny to the press the usurped title of the Fourth Estate . And finally , to make Mr . Horsmaf and everybody else happy , he brings down the curtain \ vith an assuraneo that the good people whom the wicked Times lids slain are not dead after all , but are all alive and kicking , and ready to dio to-morrow night , and every night to the end of the session .
May 12 * 1860.J The Leader And Saturday ...
May 12 * 1860 . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 447
Modern Caricature. The Battle Betweon Th...
MODERN CARICATURE . THE battle betweon tho two alcoholic intoxicants , beer and wine , is raging as fiercely as ever , and it is curious to mark that the old war cries and party feelings crop out now , as they did formerly . We hear still , that ' " Firm and erect the Caledonian stood , His drink vraa claret , and hig mutton good . " And we hear also that port and poison are synonymous , that perseverance and palo ale go together , and that the British constitution , in both the senses of that noun , is irretrievably ruined if we take from John Bull his customary beer . This is , as Mr . Dickens would say , a " gushing thing" to contemplate . A Brahmin , given
entirely to pure liquids and to contemplation , to the acquisition of wisdom and water cresses , might well wonder at the immense animus which pervades each party . " Sublime essence of things , ' * he would cry , " can it be that men place their happiness in retailing * slow poison in pewter measures over pewter counters all day long ? And oh , dost thou ordain that those who vend coloured liquids as a spurious grape juice , should be jealous of the success of the other poisoners ! " It is probable that the Brahmin would find the men and measures which he contemplated equally ridiculous . But , as if sufficient ridicule , were not inherent in the case , we have a considerable quantity imported into it by the professional caricaturists who live by showing her Majesty's lieges the vii comica of things actual . Whether the matter be purely political , or purely
social , or politico-social , or simply pertaining to commerce , it matters not . A certain quantity of fun has to be made every week , and it is but to do justice to the industrious purveyors of the article to own that if the quality be not always first-i'ate , the supply at least never fails . Here it is only the other day tbat we had " General Beer being routed by the French Light Wines , " and a day or two ago the difference between the " Pious Public House * ' and the " Pernicious Pastrycook ' s'' was drawn with all the old vigour of the well-trained artist . As the teetotallers know perfectly well , that one full gadfly or bloodsucker is much less troublesome than a dozen or so fresh , vigorous , and hungry ones , we have the amusing 1 sj > ectacle of these virtuous people taking up arms in favour of the vested .
interests of the publicans , and from shop windows and hoardings appealing by caricature and burlesque verses to the feelings of the people . The inside of a wine shop , as it will be , is drawn with great vigour ; and poor Hood's Song of the Shirt , parodied into the behest of " Drink , Drink , Drink , " flames on the walls hitherto sacred to much less poetical announcements . All this is quite refreshing . We forget the alcoholic battle , and cannot help going back to the days of Pitt , Fox , and Castlereagh , and to those times , enlightened by the shop-window genius of James Gilray and of the elder Cruikshank , when the great supporters of "Fox for Westminster" were the aforesaid artists , the Duchess of Devonshire , and Sam House , who was proud to sign himself both a " publicsm and republican . "
The part played in modern political history by . caricature is not altogether an unimportant one , and as we have already * - hastily traced up to a certain period what it has done , we may here take the opportunity of continuing the sketch , and of shoiving what it still continues to do . _ The pencil of tho artist seems to be no longer an irregular force , but like our volunteers has of late years been well drilled , and serves the political party to . which it is attached as light horse , infantry , and skirmishing bodies in general do the great" ~ bod ; y * of the army . The largest amount of this sort of power , however ,
lies now , and Iras always laid , on the side of the popular party in the State . Whether the aristocratic element disdains the weapony or whether it be totally deprived-of pictorial wit , it is hard to say ; but , certainly , with the exception of a wooden and stiff draughtsman , only clever at- 'taking portraits , and whose imagination was of the very poorest , the governing classes appear to have been very little indebted to this kind of art . As a general rule , it may be stated that those out satirise those who arc in , whilst the latter seem to be unable or unwilling to use the pencil against the opposition .
Perhaps within the memory of man the greatest eilect upon any party r pEoducod ~ entirel y Jb ; y :. parod iv and caricature , was that from the hands of Mr . Hone , the bookseller , andPGfeorge Cruilcslmnirr-Partyfeelings then ran high , and the nation was , through the obstinacy of its rulers and the vicious stupidity of its monarch , in a very great danger . Reform whs loudly called for , and as vigorously denied . Riots took place in the manufacturing districts , the ? oldiery and yeomanrv were called out , and the " Doctor "—Addington—tried , as they
then said , to cure the people ' s complaint by a strong dose of " steel lozenges "—meaning 1 , by poetic license , soldiers' bayonets . Into this turmoil Hone and Cruikshank threw their little brochure , " The Political House that Jack Built , " intending by this the constitution then assailed , in political slang , by " rats . " Who that has seen this book does not wonder at and admire the boldness of the * artist ? Tho people were then not awakened from their pride in their King , whom they devoutly believed to be the first gentleman in Europe , and whoso melodious voice and distinct tones in reading royal
speeches were dwelt upon with as ' much delight as now are those of our present Queen . But the caricaturists put an end to all this . The portraits of the courtly artists of the day were painted to please ; the caricatures were made purposely to ridicule , and the immense bulk of tho king , his foppery , and unwieldy figure , the dull pride painted on each heavy feature , were given with a force which the royal " party" could not endure , but writhed under . The rhymes were as rough and vigorous as tho pictures j and the gay , brilliant , haughty , and almost , as he believed , absolute monarch , was described
as " Tho dandy of sixty , who bows with a grnoe , And has taste in wigs , collars , cuirasses , and lace , Who to tricksters and fools leaves the Stato and its treasure , And when Britain ' s in tears sails about at his p leasure ; Who spurned from his presence tho friends of his youth , Arid now has not ono who will toll him tha . truth . " We doubt whether tho bitter satiric answers of BrvunmcU and the taunt about tho " fat friend" hurt tho king so much as this , for these caricatures , if small and powerless , aro like the spawn of old Nile , which in the ten plagues still managed to pervade tho land and penetrate into kings' palaqes . Upwards * of onp hundred thousand copies , in spito of prosecution and opposition , in spite of informers and spies , were sold , and proved tho trenchant power of caricature ;
? Saturday Analj/Tt, No. 2, Pngo 41.
? Saturday Analj / tt , No . 2 , pngo 41 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 12, 1860, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12051860/page/11/
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