George Cruikshank





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GEORGE CRUIKSHANK

counthry, yes, my Lard, that Ireland (do not laugh, I am proud of it) is ever, in spite of her tyrants, green, lovely, and beautiful; in like manner my client's cause will rise superior to the malignant

imbecility, I repeat, me Lard, the malignant imbecility of those who would thrample it down, and in whose teeth, in my client's name, in my counthry's, aye, and in my omn, I with folded arrums hurl a scornful and eternal defiance! "

We should be glad to devote a few pages to the ' Illustrations of Time,' the * Scraps and Sketches,' and the 'Illustrations of

Phrenology,' which are among the most famous of our artist's publications; but it is very difficult to find new terms of praise, as find them one must, when reviewing Mr Cruikshank's publications, and more difficult still (as the reader of this notice will no doubt have perceived

for himself long since) to translate his designs into words, and go to the printer's box for a description of all that fun and humour which the artist can produce by a few skilful turns of his needle. A famous article upon the ' Illustrations of Time ' appeared some dozen years since in ' Blackwood's Magazine,* of which the conductors have always been great admirers of our artist, as became men of humour and genius. To these grand qualities do not let it be supposed that we are laying claim, but, thank Heaven, Cruikshank's humour is so good and benevolent that any man must love it, and on this score we may speak as well as another.

Then there are the 'Greenwich Hospital' designs, which must not be passed over. ' Greenwich Hospital ' is a hearty, good- natured book, in the Tom Dibdin school, treating of the virtues of British tars, in approved nautical language. They maul Frenchmen and Spaniards, they go out in brigs and take frigates, they relieve women in distress, and are yard-arm and yard- arming, athwart-hawsing, marlinspiking, binnacling, and helm's- a-leeing, as honest seamen invariably do, in novels, on the stage, and doubtless on board ship. This we cannot take upon us to say, but the artist, like a true Englishman, as he is, loves dearly these brave guardians of Old England, and chronicles their rare or fanciful exploits with the greatest good will. Let any one look at the noble head of Nelson, in the ' Family Library,' and they will, we are sure, think with us that the designer must have felt and loved what he drew. There are to this abridgment of Southey's admirable book many more cuts after Cruikshank; and about a dozen pieces by the same hand will be found in a work equally popular, Lockhart's excellent ' Life of Napoleon.' Among these the retreat from Moscow is very fine; the Mamlouks most

vigorous, furious, and barbarous, as they should be. At the end of these three volumes Mr Cruikshank's contributions to the '

Family Library ' seem suddenly to have ceased;


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