aneous; his
sense of beauty, in subjects outside of pure caricature, often very
fascinating and refined; while in both classes of subject he remains
happily free from that coarseness which disfigures to some extent the
great caricaturists whom I shall treat of in my next two chapters. A
charming personality--all his work seems to tell us--and a lovable man;
English to the core, in the best sense, fond of his home, fond of
outdoor life, fond of his joke, but a joke whose laughter has no
bitterness or malice, and leaves no bad taste behind.

="LUMPS OF DELIGHT" BY H. W. BUNBURY=

="LUMPS OF PUDDING" BY H. W. BUNBURY=

IV

THE COMEDY OF POLITICS

In treating here of English eighteenth-century caricature, I find that
the conditions of space at my command in this work compel me, in order
to do my subject any justice at all, to focus my reader's interest on
certain central figures, who typify, each in themselves, one side or
other of their art; and to pass by more slightly some of the lesser men,
whose interest is either divided or secondary.

Such a towering personality in caricature as James Gillray comes
necessarily into the first of these categories; such draughtsmen as
Woodward or Sayer into the second.

Woodward comes near to Bunbury in style and subject, and like him seems
to have preferred social satire, though occasionally--as in his "General
Complaint," of 1796--he touches political topics of the time. Sayer,
belonging to the period of Gillray, is, like him, essentially a
political caricaturist. James Sayer was the son of a merchant captain,
and had been put to the profession of attorney: but caricature attracted
him more than law, and, having gained the notice and interest of the
younger Pitt, he attached himself to his service with such industry and
success that Charles James Fox is said to have remarked that Sayers'
caricatures had cost him more votes than all the speeches in the House
of Commons.

In fact, just as certain modern English politicians,--Lord Palmerston in
earlier days, and, in later, Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Joseph
Chamberlain--seem to have been singled out (a compliment this to the
public interest in their personality) as especial targets for the
caricaturist's shaft, so Fox was throughout the object of Sayer's
constant devotion. His first effort was directed against the Rockingham
Ministry of 1782; but far happier was his "Paradise Lost," published on
the fall of that Admi