er claim or receive
compensation for their stolen property. The tradesmen in the plate
before us look anything but injured persons, and as a matter of fact the
award is sufficiently ample to make amends for all damage. The two
persons officiating as assessors and apportioning compensation to the
various claimants, are Westmacott and "Robert Transit" (the artist
himself). The illustration is full of life and character. Among the
groups may be noticed a young fellow holding a bull-terrier suspended by
its teeth from a handkerchief; a bet depends on the dog's patience and
strength of jaw, and an interested companion watches the result,
chronometer in hand. _The King at Home_, represents a scene which is
said to have actually taken place when Mathews was giving his
entertainment at Carlton House. The performer was imitating Kemble, when
the king started up, and to the surprise of every one, particularly of
Mathews, interrupted the performance by a personal and very clever
imitation of the actor, who, by the way, had taught him elocution.
This, indeed, was one of George's strong points, who, if not a good
king, was at least an admirable mimic. Says old Dr. Burney (writing to
his daughter on the 12th of July, 1805), "He is a most excellent mimic
of well-known characters; had we been in the dark, any one would have
sworn that Dr. Parr and _Kemble_ were in the room."[64] In this plate we
find likenesses not only of the king and of Mathews, but also of the
Princess Augusta and the too celebrated Marchioness of Conyngham.

Thomas Rowlandson's single pictorial contribution to the "English Spy,"
_R---- A----ys of Genius Reflecting on the True Line of Beauty at the
Life Academy_, is described by Mr. Grego under date of 1825. This is not
the only time in which the artist was associated in work with
Rowlandson. There is a rare work (one of an annual series)--"The Spirit
of the Public Journals," for the year 1824, with explanatory notes by C.
M. Westmacott, a collection of whimsical extracts from the press, which
appeared in print in the previous season, which has illustrations on
wood by four distinguished coadjutors: Thomas Rowlandson, George
Cruikshank, Isaac Robert Cruikshank, and Theodore Lane.

"FITZALLEYNE OF BERKELEY."

The Foote _v._ Hayne affair mentioned in our last chapter afforded grist
for the kind of mill driven by literary blacklegs of the class of
"Bernard Blackmantle." The black-mail system was tried at first, a