No. 189. Clipping the Cock’s Wings.
No. 190. Trumpet and Drum.
No. 191. The Three False Brethren.
The first remarkable outburst of caricatures in England was caused by the proceedings against the notorious Dr. Sacheverell in 1710. It is somewhat curious that Sacheverell’s partisans speak of caricatures as things brought recently from Holland, and new in England, and ascribe the use of them as peculiar to the Whig party. The writer of a pamphlet, entitled “The Picture of Malice, or a true Account of Dr. Sacheverell’s Enemies, and their behaviour with regard to him,” informs us that “the chief means by which all the lower order of that sort of men call’d Whigs, shall ever be found to act for the ruin of a potent adversary, are the following three—by the Print, the Canto or Doggrell Poem, and by the Libell, grave, calm, and cool, as the author of the ‘True Answer’ describes it. These are not all employed at the same time, any more than the ban and arierban of a kingdom is raised, unless to make sure work, or in cases of great exigency and imminent danger.” “The Print,” he goes on to say, “is originally a Dutch talisman (bequeathed to the ancient Batavians by a certain Chinese necromancer and painter), with a virtue far exceeding that of the Palladium, not only of guarding their cities and provinces, but also of annoying their enemies, and preserving a due balance amongst the neighbouring powers around.” This writer warms up so much in his indignation against this new weapon of the Whigs, that he breaks out in blank verse to tell us how even the mysterious power of the magician did not destroy its victims—
Swifter than heretofore the Print effac’d
The pomp of mightiest monarchs, and dethron’d
The dread idea of royal majesty;