'Rules to be Observed in this Society.
- '1st. That each member shall fill a half-pint bumper to the first toast.
- '2nd. That after twenty-four bumper toasts are gone round every member may fill as he pleases.
- '3rd. That any member refusing to comply with the above regulations to be fined, i.e. compelled to swallow a bumper of salt and water.'
January 15, 1801. Undertakers Regaling. John Nixon, Esq., del., Rowlandson sculp. Published by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand.—This large plate, which is designed with a due appreciation of grim humour and tipsy jocularity, introduces the traditional relaxations of the funeral furnishers, whose jollifications are supposed to offer the most ghastly contrast to their sober professional duties. On a convenient plot of grass mutes, wandsmen, hearse-drivers, and all the other melancholy functionaries of the last rites of unconscious humanity, are picnicking with a true zest and appreciation of rural freedom. A substantial pie, and other suggestive 'funeral baked meats,' are being disposed of to the best advantage; but, excellent trenchermen though the undertakers may prove themselves, their main distinction must rest on their bibulous qualities; the members of the fraternity are applying themselves with hearty goodwill to the fluids, far on the road to becoming 'glorious,' while some of the party have already reached their congenial stage 'of half seas over.' These festivities, of course, take place in the vicinity of a 'house of call for funerals,' at the sign of 'The Owl,' in the neighbourhood of a burial-ground, the hospitable hostelry being kept by 'Robert Death,' whose inn is a resting-place for all returning hearses on that particular road. Groups of gentlemen engaged in the 'black business' are seated at tables, enjoying their long clay pipes, or otherwise diverting themselves with romping and horse-play; the members of another party, preparing to resume their route back to the metropolis, are on the roof of their hearse, their legs hanging over the side with pastoral-like simplicity, smoking their 'church-wardens' and hobnobbing their pewter quart pots with true bacchanalian appreciation of the enjoyments of the hour. The results of too indiscriminate indulgence are noticeable in the dangerous situation of those coaches which are attempting to 'homeward wend their melancholy way,' and are being overturned in the process by their tipsy drivers.
SYMPTOMS OF SANCTITY.
January 20, 1801. [Symptoms of Sanctity.] Published by S. W. Fores, 50 Piccadilly.—This subject—which, to say the least of it, is suggestively bold, though by no means, in our opinion, coming under the enumeration of 'risky equivoque'—might be fittingly described as Superstition and Sensuality; the pious belief, amounting to fanaticism, of the conventual 'Sister' contrasting strongly with the licentious impiety of the gross priest.
January 30, 1801. Single Combat, in Moorfields, or Magnanimous Paul O! Challenging All O! Published by R. Ackermann, 101 Strand.—The ring is formed in Moorfields, crowds of spectators are gathered around, the curious have climbed up every available point of sight, and observers are scrambling over the roofs. 'Magnanimous Paul O!' the mad Emperor, is represented as a Russian bear; his sword is tempered 'à la Suwarrow,' and his shield is inscribed 'Swallow all O!' The British champion, Pitt, encased in a demi-suit of mail, is jauntily meeting his adversery; the Minister's sword is tempered 'à la Nelson,' and the names of his redoubtable admirals, Howe, Duncan, Nelson, Jervis, and Parker, are the safeguards of his buckler. A Russian general, who is acting as his master's squire, is reading Paul's extraordinary cartel: 'Be it known to all men, that my master, the most magnanimous, most puissant, most powerful, and most wonderful Great Bear of the North, being in his sound and sober senses, challenges the whole world to single combat, and commences his first trial of skill here, in Moorfields, after which it is his intention to pursue his travels, and visit every Court in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.'
The Emperor Paul, who had acquired almost universal popularity at the commencement of his reign by putting himself at the head of the allied armies which were opposing the victorious career of Napoleon, now astonished his admirers in England by a complete change of policy. He proclaimed himself Grand Master of Malta, which had been conquered by us in 1800. The British Government refused to recognise his authority; the Emperor in revenge laid an embargo upon all British ships in Russian ports, and succeeded in inducing the Danish, Swedish, and Prussian Courts to enter into a convention to protect their commerce against the encroachments of the English. Gillray has drawn the ill-favoured and mad sovereign, under the title 'Mens turpe, corpore turpi,' trampling on the treaty of alliance into which he had entered in concert with Austria and England.
Some two months after the issue of this caricature the wayward tyranny of the Emperor, who gave unmistakable evidence of mental aberration, became insupportable, and he was requested to abdicate. Paul obstinately clung to absolute power, but in spite of his precautions a conspiracy was organised by his disgusted nobles, his palace was entered, and he was strangled with his own military scarf, which, by the way, the satirists always drew of extravagant dimencions well suited for such a purpose.