Second, Third, Fourth, and Fifth Editions, Debrett, 1787. Dublin: White, Byrne, Moore, and Jones, 1787.

This tract is here first assigned to Tickell. His letter to Parr of 20 February [1787], mentioned in the preceding entry, begins:

From some enquiries in your letter to Mrs. Sheridan, I believe you thought it was right to answer the Political Review. I mean the pamphlet that traduced the Prince of Wales and every one else except Hastings. I now send you the answer I gave it, because, as you thought it right it should be answered, you will excuse faults in a paper written in a hurry (Parr, Works, VIII, 131).

The pamphlet to which Tickell refers is A Short Review of the Political State of Great-Britain at the Commencement of the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-Seven, Debrett, 1787, a collection of political portraits and cursory observations as thin in substance as they are florid in style. Its authorship was acknowledged in the Posthumous Memoirs, 1836, of Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, who told there of its immense success upon publication: it ran through six editions in the last ten days of January, sold 17,000 copies, and elicited a half-dozen replies within a month (Historical and Posthumous Memoirs, 1884, IV, 372-375). The People’s Answer was written from Tickell’s precise political position at this time and displays his characteristic style.

Beginning in his usual brisk and pointed manner, Tickell suggests that the celebrity of the Short Review is due largely to such a total want of polite wit among the supporters of Administration “that even a Charade from one of the King’s Friends would excite ... admiration.” The author has provided “the dull desponding train of an unlettered Court” with

a sort of handy manual for the Levee ..., lightly touching on the topicks most in vogue, and sketching out handy sentences for the Lords of the Bedchamber to retail, or the Maids of Honour to scribble on their fans.

Here is the hand of the author of The Wreath of Fashion. In his treatment of Pitt’s commercial treaty, his gift of mimicry is also apparent. Tickell the elegant amateur cannot resist parodying the style of writers on commercial subjects:

Every leaf of these motley compositions displays an epitome of all the tricks of invitation, that are practised by the trades they discuss; some of them intoxicating the eye, like Vintners’ windows, with BRANDY! RUM! and BRITISH SPIRIT! in capitals—while others denote their beaten track, and towns of baiting; like the lettered pannels of a stage coach, in characters of a most extensive and convincing size; as,

HULL, LEEDS, WAKEFIELD, YORK, or BOCKING, BRAINTREE, DUNMOW, COLCHESTER, &c.