Time, the supposed finisher, but real destroyer of paintings, has rendered them fit for those more sacred repositories where schools, names, heads, masters, &c. attain their last stage of preferment, may from hence be convinced that multiplicity at least of his, Mr. Hogarth's, pieces, will be no diminution of their value."

This is petulant enough, and in very indifferent taste. His strange advertisements, and still stranger plans of sale, stirred up the spirit of the town against him, and the result is thus related by Mr. Lane, who unexpectedly became the public purchaser of the Marriage-à-la-Mode. "The sale was to take place by a kind of auction, where every bidder was to write on a ticket the price he was disposed to give, with his name subscribed to it. These papers were to be received by Mr. Hogarth for the space of one month, and the highest bidder, at twelve o'clock on the last day of the month, was to be the purchaser. This strange mode of proceeding probably disobliged the public, and there seemed to be at that time a combination against Hogarth, who, perhaps, from the frequent and extraordinary approbation of his works, might have imbibed some degree of vanity, which the town in general, friends and foes, seemed resolved to mortify. If this was the case, and to me it was fully apparent, they fully effected their design; for on the 6th of June, 1750, which was to decide the fate of this capital work, when I arrived at the Golden Head, expecting, as was the case at the sale of the Harlot's Progress, to find his study full of noble and great personages, I only found Hogarth and his friend Dr. Parsons, secretary to the Royal Society. I had bid £110; no one arrived; and, ten minutes before twelve, I told the artist I would make the pounds guineas. The clock struck, and Mr. Hogarth wished me joy of my purchase, hoping it was an agreeable one; I said, perfectly so. Dr. Parsons was very much disturbed, and Hogarth

very much disappointed, and truly with great reason. The former told me the painter had hurt himself by naming so early an hour for the sale, and Hogarth, who overheard him, said, in a marked tone and manner, 'Perhaps it may be so.' I concurred in the same opinion, said he was poorly rewarded for his labour, and, if he chose, he might have till three o'clock to find a better bidder. Hogarth warmly accepted the offer, and Dr. Parsons proposed to make it public. I thought this unfair, and forbade it. 'At one o'clock,' Hogarth said, 'I shall trespass no longer on your generosity, you are the proprietor, and if you are pleased with the purchase, I am abundantly so with the purchaser.' He then desired me to promise that I would not dispose of the paintings without informing him, nor permit any person to meddle with them under pretence of cleaning them, as he always desired to do that himself."

The excellence of these six noble pictures was acknowledged by the whole nation, and they were in frames worth four guineas each; yet no one felt them to be worth more than ninety pounds six shillings. Well might the proud heart of Hogarth be stung as he closed this memorable sale. He knew how opulent the land was, and how lavish of its wealth to the impostor, the mountebank, and the cheat. On Farinelli, the Italian singer, for one night's performance in the Opera of Artaxerxes, the nobles of England showered more riches than would have purchased all the productions which Hogarth ever painted. Gold boxes, diamond rings, diamond buckles, &c. came in such abundance, that the vain creature exclaimed, "There is but one God and one Farinelli." "The sums lavished," says Ireland, " upon exotic warblers, would have paid an army; the applause bestowed upon some of them would have turned the brain of a saint. It was little short of adoration."

VOL. I.-L

Hogarth projected a corresponding series of paintings under the name of the Happy Marriage, and made some progress in the designs. He had, indeed, gone so far as to sketch out the whole six scenes in colours; and Nichols gives us a description of them which he obtained from a gentleman whom the painter had indulged with a hasty glance : "The time supposed was immediately after the return of the parties from church, and the scene lay in the hall of an antiquated country mansion. On one side, the new-married couple were represented sitting. Behind them was a group of their young friends, of both sexes, in the act of breaking the bride-cake over their heads. In front appeared the father of the young lady grasping a bumper, and drinking, with a seeming roar of exultation, to the future happiness of her and her husband. By his side was a table covered with refreshments. Under the screen of the hall several rustic musicians in grotesque attitudes, together with servants and tenants, were arranged. Through the arch by which the room was entered the eye was led along the passage into the kitchen, which afforded å glimpse of sacerdotal luxury. Before the drippingpan stood a well-fed divine in his gown and cassock, with his watch in his hand, giving directions to a cook, dressed all in white, who was employed in basting a haunch of venison."

This work, which bore the promise of great excellence, and also of great moral value, was never finished; and why the artist discontinued his labour it is now in vain to inquire. If wedded life could not supply him, as Nichols absurdly and injuriously supposes, with six successive images of domestic happiness, he was truly an unfortunate man. the painter's own marriage-bed was unblessed with children is true; but surely the absence of children does not imply the absence of all that is picturesque in human enjoyment. If it were so-Hogarth had

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many friends more fortunate in this respect than himself; and, for an imagination such as his, it could have been no hard task to endow his wedded pair with a progeny worthy of the patriarchs. Nor is wedded felicity necessarily made up of continual seriousness, grave admonitions, examples of regular conduct, and precepts of wisdom and prudence. It embraces enough of mirth, enough of folly, enough of humour, to have mingled well with the austere composure, and meek affection, and graver duties of domestic life,—and to have formed a work of the picturesque kind which Nichols desired, and which Hogarth excelled in. We may seek some other cause than want of proper materials for the aban donment of this design.

A work of a less important character came across his fancy. He had been an apprentice, and witnessed the various ways in which the youth of London wasted or improved their time. He was aware of the allurements which tempt boys to idleness, and knew from experience how necessary industry is to obtain success in any pursuit of profit and honour. Under the influence of these feelings, he conceived and etched his twelve scenes of alternate Industry and Idleness, and in 1747 gave them to the world. Their aim was better than their execution; for, from a wish to render them popular among those whose purses were light, and whose condition needed them most, he made the size of his prints moderate and the price low. Hogarth thus modestly announces his object and his work: "Industry and Idleness exemplified in the conduct of two fellow-'prentices; where one, by taking good courses, and pursuing points for which he was apprenticed, becomes a valuable man, and an ornament to his country: the other, by giving way to idleness, naturally falls into poverty, and ends fatally, as expressed in the last print." The thrifty citizens of London welcomed these works warmly,

and hung them in public and private places as guides and examples to their children and dependants. They are not equal in character to many of the works of the artist; but they are plain, natural, and impressive scenes, and fulfil the purpose of the moral painter.

Soon after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, Hogarth went into France, to extend his sphere of observation. His journey was short, and his stay brief. He imagined himself in a land as free as England; began to sketch one of the gates of Calais; was arrested as a spy, and carried before the governor for examination. The offence which he had unwittingly committed was thought serious enough to warrant his immediate transportation to England, and this seems to have been performed in a manner calculated to imbitter his feelings. Two guards accompanied him on board, and, after having insolently twirled him round and round on the deck, told him he might proceed on his voyage without farther molestation. This circumstance was not calculated to lessen that sturdy good-humoured sort of dislike which old-fashioned English people even now entertain towards France, and of which Hogarth had his full share. He arrived at Dover deeply incensed; and as he was of a temper which resented injuries, something sarcastic and bitter was expected from his pencil.

Those persons who went with Hogarth to France, Hayman the painter, and Cheere the sculptor, find an excuse for the governor of Calais in the blunt rudeness and uncivil curiosity of their companion. They were witnesses of his conduct, and of his arrest and dismissal. They related on their return that he was displeased, from the first, with the people, with the country, with the houses, and with the fare. All he looked upon was declared to be in bad taste; the houses, he said, were either gilt or befouled; he laughed when he saw a ragged boy;