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Wherefore add this particular rule to your code,
Let all vehicles take the wrong side of the road,
And man, woman, and child be left-handed.

Yet regard not the awkward appearance with doubt,
But remember how often mere blessings fall out,
That at first seemed no better than curses:
So, till things take a turn, live in hope, and depend
That whatever is wrong will come right in the end,
And console you for all your reverses.

But the acid has duly been lower'd and bites
Only just where the visible metal invites,

Like a nature inclined to meet troubles;
And behold as each slender and glittering line
Effervesces, you trace the completed design
In an elegant bead-work of bubbles.

But before with the varnishing brush you proceed,
Let the plate with cold water be thoroughly freed
From the other less innocent liquor;
After which, on whatever you want to protect,
Put a coat that will act to that very effect,

Like the black one which hangs on the vicar.

Then the varnish well dried-urge the biting again,
But how long, at its meal, the cau forte may remain,
Time and practice alone can determine :
But of course not so long that the mountain, and mill,
The rude bridge, and the figures-whatever you will
Are as black as the spots on your ermine.

It is true, none the less, that a dark looking scrap,
With a sort of Blackheath and Black Forest, mayhap,
Is considered as rather Rembrandty;
And that very black cattle and very black sheep,
A black dog, and a shepherd as black as a sweep,
Are the pets of some great dilettante.

But before your own picture arrives at that pitch,
While the lights are still light, and the shadows, though rich,
More transparent than ebony shutters,

Never minding what Black-Arted critics may say,
Stop the biting, and pour the green blind away,
As you please, into bottles or gutters.

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ETCHING MORALIZED.

Then removing the ground and the wax at a heat,
Cleanse the surface with oil, spermaceti or sweet-
For your hand a performance scarce proper―
So some careful professional person secure,
For the laundress will not be a safe amateur,
To assist you in cleaning the copper.

Thus your etching complete, it remains but to hint
That with certain assistance from paper and print,
Which the proper mechanic will settle,

You may charm all your friends—without any sad tale
Of such perils and ills as beset Lady Sale-

With a fine India Proof of your metal.”*

II

Thomas Hood's "Etching Moralized," in New Monthly Magazine, 1843, vol. lxvii. p. 4, and seq.

PROPOSED METHOD OF ARRANGEMENT.

CHAPTER II.

MISCELLANEOUS CARICATURES AND SUBJECTS OF
CARICATURE, 1800-1811.

ALTHOUGH Gillray began his work in 1769,-thirty years before our century commenced, and Rowlandson five years later on, in 1774, their labours were continued some years after 1799, and are so interwoven, so to speak, with the work of their immediate successors, that it is almost impossible in a work dealing with. nineteenth century caricaturists to omit all mention of them. In collecting too materials for the present treatise, we necessarily met with many anonymous satires, without signature, initials, or distinguishing style, which may be, and some of which are probably due to artists whose pencils were at work before the century began. Even if equal in all cases to the task of assigning these satires to the particular hands which designed and executed them, we submit that little real service would be rendered to the cause of graphic satire. It appears to us therefore that the most convenient method will be to indicate in this and the following chapters some of the leading topics of caricature during the first thirty years of the century, and to cite in illustration of our subject such of the work of anonymous or other artists, for which no better place can be assigned in other divisions of the work.

The attention of the public during the first fifteen years of the century was mainly directed to the progress and fortunes of the great national enemy, Napoleon Bonaparte. The hatred with which he was regarded in this country can scarcely be appreciated in these days; and in order that the cause of this bitter antipathy may be

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