The following might well go as companion to ‘Pidcock’s Menagerie’:—

Most Wonderful
WONDER OF WONDERS.

Just arrived, at Mr. Bull’s Menagerie, in British Lane, the most renowned and sagacious Man Tiger, or Ourang Outang called

NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE;

He has been exhibited through the greatest Part of Europe, particularly in Holland, Switzerland, and Italy, and lately in Egypt—He has a wonderful faculty of Speech, and undertakes to reason with the most learned Doctors in Law, Divinity, and Physic—He proves, incontrovertibly, that the strongest POISONS are the most Sovereign Remedies for Wounds of all kinds; and by a Dose or two, made up in his own Way, he cures his Patients of all their Ills by the Gross—He Picks the Pockets of the Company, and by a Rope,[85] suspended near a Lantern, shews them, as clear as Day, that they are all richer than before—If any Man in the Room has empty Pockets, or an empty Stomach, by taking a Dose or two of his Powder of Hemp, he finds them on a sudden full of Guineas, and has no longer a Craving for Food; If he is rich, he gets rid of his tædium vitæ; and, if he is over-gorged, finds a perfect Cure for his Indigestion.—He proves, by unanswerable Arguments, that Soupe Maigre, and Frogs, are a much more wholesome food than Beef and Pudding—and that it would be better for Old England, if her Inhabitants were all Monkeys and Tigers as, in times of Scarcity, one half of the Nation might devour the other half.—He strips the Company of their Cloaths, and when they are stark naked, presents a Paper on the Point of a Bayonet, by reading which they are all presently convinced that it is very pleasant to be in a state of Nature.—By a kind of hocus-pocus Trick, he breathes on a Crown, and it changes suddenly into a Guillotine.—He deceives the eye most dexterously; one Moment he is in the Garb of the Mufti: the next of a Jew, and the next Moment you see him the Pope.—He imitates all Sounds; bleats like a Lamb; roars like a Tiger; cries like a Crocodile; and brays most inimitably like an Ass.

He used also to perform some wonderful Tricks with Gunpowder; but he was very sick in passing the Channel, and has shewn great aversion to them ever since.

Admittance, One Shilling and Sixpence.

N.B. If any Gentleman of the Corps Diplomatique should wish to see his Ourang Outang, Mr. Bull begs a Line or two first; as on such Occasions, he finds it necessary to bleed him, or give him a Dose or two of cooling Physic, being apt to fly at them, if they appear without such preparation.

‘John Bull and the Alarmist’ is as well drawn as any of Gillray’s caricatures (September 1, 1803). Sheridan, in the character of a bill-sticker, having under his arm a sheaf of ‘Loyal Bills, Sherry Andrew’s Address, Playbills,’ &c., and, with a bonnet rouge peeping out of his pocket, is telling John Bull the two last lines of the first verse of the subjoined song.

The old boy stands resolutely before the throne, which he is ready to defend with his huge oak cudgel carved with a bulldog’s head, and, whilst nourishing himself on a tankard of ale, tells his informant his opinion of his intelligence in the words of the second verse:—

John Bull as he sat in his old Easy Chair,
An Alarmist came to him, and said in his Ear,
‘A Corsican Thief has just slipt from his quarters,
And is coming to Ravish your Wives and your Daughters!’

‘Let him come, and be D—d!’ thus roar’d out John Bull,
‘With my Crab-stick assured I will fracture his Scull,
Or I’ll squeeze ye vile reptile twixt my Finger and Thumb,
Make him stink like a Bug, if he dares to presume.’

‘They say a full Thousand of Flat bottomed Boats,
Each a Hundred and Fifty have, Warriors of Note;
All fully determin’d to feast on your Lands,
So I fear you will find full enough on your hands.’

John smiling arose, upright as a post,
‘I’ve a Million of Friends bravely guarding my Coast,
And my old Ally, Neptune, will give them a dowsing,
And prevent the mean rascals to come here a lousing.’

I know not from what source the statistics relative to the strength of the French flotilla, contained in the subjoined broadsheet, are taken. It purports to be an extract from a French letter:—