ider him as a clever, sharp caricaturist, and nothing
more--a free-handed, comical young fellow, who will do anything he is
paid for, and who is quite content to dine off the proceeds of a 'George
IV.' to-day, and those of a 'Hone,' or a 'Cobbett,' to-morrow." It must
be remembered that these represent but a branch of his work; and that
while content to design a satire as elaborate and as admirable as any
which owe their origin to the hand of Gillray, or to dash off a rough
and carelessly executed caricature, he was equally ready to etch the
work of an inferior artist, or even of an amateur; to execute a drawing
on wood for a ballad, or for one of the numerous political hits of the
day, whether on the loyal or the popular side mattered but little to
him; to do anything, in fact (to use the words of Lockhart), that "was
suggested or thrown in his way." It is barely possible that the very
imperfect series we have given may astonish those who have hitherto
regarded George Cruikshank only as an illustrator of books, and supposed
that, with the exception of the woodcuts for Hone's various _jeux
d'esprits_, and the rough work which appears in "The Satirist," "The
Scourge," and publications of a similar character, he executed but few
pictorial satires. A perfect set of impressions from his caricatures
probably does not exist; if it did it would command a high price indeed.
We have seen a set of about seventy plates advertised by one
enterprising bookseller at the price of seventy pounds. The specimens we
have cited (exclusive of two from "The Scourge") 128 in number, were
published between the years 1808 and 1825, by G. and H. Humphrey, S.
Fairburn, Thomas Tegg, Ackermann, M. Jones, J. Fairburn, J. Dolby, W.
Hone, S. W. Fores, A. Bengo, J. Sidebotham, S. Knight, and J. Johnstone.
If to the foregoing we add the plates in "Cruikshankiana"--twenty-six in
number, thirty in "The Scourge," six in "Fashion," nine in "The
Satirist," and eight in the "Loyalists' Magazine," we get seventy-nine
more, making a sum total of over two hundred in all. How many more have
escaped notice--how many have disappeared for ever from public notice
without a chance of recovery or revival--it would be, perhaps,
impossible to say; for even George himself was sometimes at fault, when
the long-forgotten work of his early years was presented to him for
recognition or acknowledgment.

FOOTNOTES:

[66] Alluding to the "Life in London."

[67] This cer