"Lord Temple is a nobleman of fine parts and unsullied honour, who has shewn a thorough disinterestedness, a great love of liberty, and a steady attachment to the public, in every part of his conduct through life. It was impossible such a character could be missed by the poisonous shafts of envy, which we see pointed at all superior virtue.... Mr. Hogarth's wit on this noble lord is confined to the wretched conceits of the Temple Coffee-house, and a squirt to signify the playing on the ministry. I really believe this wit is all Mr. Hogarth's own.
"When a man of parts dedicates his talents to the service of his country, he deserves the highest rewards: when he makes them subservient to base purposes, he merits execration and punishment. Among the Spartans, music and poetry were made to serve the noblest purposes of the Lacedemonian state. A manly courage and great contempt of death were inspired by them; and the poet, musician, soldier, and patriot, were often the same good citizen, who despised the low mechanic lucre of the profession, and was zealous only for the glory of his country. In the year 1746, when the Guards were ordered to march to Finchley, on the most important service they could be employed in, the extinguishing a Scottish rebellion, which threatened the intire ruin of the illustrious family on the throne, and, in consequence, of our liberties, Mr. Hogarth came out with a print to make them ridiculous to their countrymen and to all Europe; or perhaps it rather was to tell the Scots in his way how little the Guards were to be feared, and that they might safely advance. That the ridicule might not stop here, and that it might be as offensive as possible to his own sovereign, he dedicated the print to the king of Pruia[A] as an encourager of arts. Is this patriotism! In old Rome, or in any of the Grecian states, he would have been punished as a profligate citizen, totally devoid of all principle. In England he is rewarded, and made serjeant painter to that very king's grandson. I think the term means the same as what is vulgarly called house-painter; and indeed he has not been suffered to caricature the royal family. The post of portrait-painter is given to a Scotsman, one Ramsay. Mr. Hogarth is only to paint the wainscot of the rooms, or, in the phrase of the art, may be called their pannel-painter. But how have the Guards offended Mr. Hogarth, for he is again attacking them in The Times? Lord Harrington's second troop of grenadier guards is allowed to be very perfect in every part of military discipline; and Hogarth's friend, the king of Prussia, could have shewn him the real importance of it. He had heard them much applauded, and therefore must abuse them. The ridicule ends however in airs composed by Harrington, and in a piece of clock-work; but he ought to have known, that though l'homme machine is not sound philosophy, it is the true doctrine of tactics.
"The Militia has received so many just testimonies of applause, both from their king and country, that the attack of envy and malevolence was long expected. But I dare say this poor jester will have Mr. George Townshend's free consent to vent his spleen upon him and the gentlemen of Norfolk. I believe he may ever go on in this way almost unnoticed; at one time ridiculing the Guards for a disorderly, and at another the Militia for an exact and orderly march. Mr. Townshend will still have the warm applause of his country, and the truest satisfaction, that of an honest heart, for his patriot labours in establishing this great plan of internal defence, a Militia, which has delivered us from the ignominy of foreign hirelings, and the ridiculous fears of invasion, by a brave and well-disciplined body of Englishmen, at all times ready and zealous for the defence of their country, and of its laws and constitution."
[A] This is the orthography of Mr. Hogarth. See the [print].
[66] The present Lord Camden.
[67] This gave rise to a catchpenny, intituled, "Pug's Reply to Parson Bruin; or, a Political Conference, occasioned by an Epistle to William Hogarth, Esq;" 4to.
[68] "Which was probably accelerated by this unlucky (we had almost said unnatural) event; for Wilkes, Churchill, and Hogarth, had been intimate friends, and might have continued such as long as they lived, had not the dæmon of politics and party sown discord among them, and dissolved their union."
[69]—the friend——Dr. Morell. The conduct of this gentleman cannot fail to put the reader in mind of Sir Fretful Plagiary's complaint in Mr. Sheridan's Critic: "—if it is abuse, why one is always sure to hear of it from one damn'd good-natured friend or another."
"While thinking figures from the canvas start,
And Hogarth is the Garrick of his art,"