of riot. The front of this plate exhibits the oversetting
of a board, on which some girls had stood, and represents them sprawling
upon the ground; on the left, at the back of the scaffold, is a fellow
saluting a fair nymph, and another enjoying the joke: near him is a
blind man straggled in among the crowd, and joining in the general
halloo: before him is a militia-man, so completely intoxicated as not to
know what he is doing; a figure of infinite humour. Though Mr. Hogarth
has here marked out two or three particular things, yet his chief
intention was to ridicule the city militia, which was at this period
composed of undisciplined men, of all ages, sizes, and height; some fat,
some lean, some tall, some short, some crooked, some lame, and in
general so unused to muskets, that they knew not how to carry them. One,
we observe, is firing his piece and turning his head another way, at
whom the man above is laughing, and at which the child is frightened.
The boy on the right, crying, "A full and true account of the ghost of
Thomas Idle," which is supposed to have appeared to the Mayor,
preserves the connexion of the whole work. The most obtrusive figure in
his Lordship's coach is Mr. Swordbearer, in a cap like a reversed
saucepan, which this great officer wears on these grand occasions. The
company of journeymen butchers, with their marrow-bones and cleavers,
appear to be the most active, and are by far the most noisy of any who
grace this solemnity. Numberless spectators, upon every house and at
every window, dart their desiring eyes on the procession; so great
indeed was the interest taken by the good citizens of London in these
civic processions that, formerly, it was usual in a London lease to
insert a clause, giving a right to the landlord and his friends to stand
in the balcony, during the time of "the shows or pastimes, upon the day
commonly called the Lord Mayor's Day."

Thus have we seen, by a series of events, the prosperity of the one and
the downfall of the other; the riches and honour that crown the head of
industry, and the ignominy and destruction that await the slothful.
After this it would be unnecessary to say which is the most eligible
path to tread. Lay the roads but open to the view, and the traveller
will take the right of course; give but the boy this history to peruse,
and his future welfare is almost certain.

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS.

PLATE 12.

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE LORD MA