Vivetur ingenio is the motto over the curtain.
EXAMINATION OF BAMBRIDGE.
BAMBRIDGE ON TRIAL FOR MURDER.
This very fine picture, Hogarth himself tells us, was painted in 1729 for Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk, Bart., at that time Knight of the Shire for Aberdeen, and one of the Committee represented in the painting,—many of whom attended daily, and some of them twice a day.
That every other figure in this print is a genuine portrait, there cannot be the least doubt, though at this distant period it is not possible to identify the particular persons; they are all, however, to be found in the following list of the names of the Committee:—
| James Oglethorpe, Esq., Chairman. | ||
| The Right Hon. the Lords | ||
| { Finch. | General Wade. | |
| { Morpeth. | Humphrey Parsons, Esq. | |
| { Inchequin. | Hon. Robert Byng. | |
| { Percival. | Edward Houghton, Esq. | |
| { Limerick. | (Judge-Advocate.) | |
| Sir Robert Sutton. | Captain Vernon. | |
| Sir Robert Clifton. | Charles Selwyn, Esq. | |
| Sir Abraham Elton. | Velters Cornwall, Esq. | |
| Sir Edward Knatchbull. | Thomas Scawen, Esq. | |
| Sir Humphrey Herries. | Francis Child, Esq. | |
| Hon. James Bertie. | William Hucks, Esq. | |
| Sir Gregory Page. | Stampe Brooksbank, Esq. | |
| Sir Archibald Grant. | Charles Withers, Esq. | |
| Sir James Thomhill. | John La Roche, Esq. | |
| Gyles Earle, Esq. | Mr. Thomas Martin. | |
"The scene," says Mr. Walpole, "is the Committee. On the table are the instruments of torture. A prisoner in rags, half-starved, appears before them; the poor man has a good countenance, that adds to the interest. On the other hand is the inhuman gaoler. It is the very figure that Salvator Rosa would have drawn for Iago in the moment of detection. Villany, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance; his lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape; one hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, it is the most striking that ever was drawn; if it was not, it is still finer."