Immediately behind, a priest (in allusion to the support which the Papal party were receiving from this "eldest son of the Church") helps himself from a plate of money which stands by the President"s side; the floor is littered with miscellaneous articles,--bayonets, knapsacks, imperial and other crowns, crosses of the legion of honour, the _code Napoleon_,--and, in reference to Louis"s craze on the subject of his uncle and his "ideas," one of Napoleon"s old boots. On a stool stands a bust of the first Napoleon, and on a chair to the right a roll of "Imperial purple."
By the year 1853, the only persons who steadily shut their eyes to the signs of the times, and continued steadfastly to believe in the immediate advent of the "Millennium," were the peace-at-any-price party (represented by Messrs Bright and Cobden), the members of the Peace Society, and the very strange people who obstinately opposed any attempt on the part of England to provide for her national safety by putting her defences in order. To the Peace Society, Leech especially addressed his cartoon of _No Danger_, which represents a donkey braying in front of a loaded cannon; while to the mischievous lunatics who opposed any scheme of national defence, he dedicated an appropriate gift in the shape of _A Strait Waistcoat Worked by the Women of England_.[143] By this time John Bull had awoke from his dreams, and tacitly admitting that the time for conversion of his swords into ploughshares and his spears into pruning hooks had scarcely arrived, adopted the far more sensible method of sending his troops to the camp at Chobham by way of getting them acclimatized to the trials and vicissitudes of wind and weather. This step leads of course to a number of little pleasantries. In one cartoon we see an officer of household cavalry parting his hair in front of his cuira.s.s, whilst a soldier servant brings him his shaving water in a bucket; another, ent.i.tled _A Cold in the Head_, represents an officer in this melancholy condition, who requests his servant to bring him his bucket of gruel as "sool as he has tallowed his loze." John, in fact, had been aroused from his slumbers by the Emperor Nicholas, who, thinking it a good time to appropriate Turkey, was suspected of having offered a slice to Austria. The rumour is referred to in the cartoon of _The Old "Un and the Young "Un_, in which we see the Russian and Austrian Emperors at table with a bottle of port between them, "Now then, Austria," says Nicholas, "just help me to finish the Port(e)." In another cartoon, John Bull nails the Russian eagle to his barn door, remarking to his French friend the while, that _he_ "wouldn"t worry the Turkeys any more." Lord Aberdeen, who, notwithstanding the signs of the times, refused like Nicholas to believe in a war with England, is represented placidly smoking the _Pipe of Peace_ over a barrel of gunpowder.
Thanks to Messrs Bright and Cobden, who obstinately persisted in opposing the popular feeling which had set in steadily in the direction of war,--thanks to the exertions of the Peace Society, who were not restrained from sending certain zealous members of their body to the Emperor Nicholas, who not unnaturally supposed that these broad-brimmed gentlemen represented the sentiments of the great English people,--but thanks above all to the French Emperor and his astute advisers, who were enabled to take advantage of the state of English feeling to hoodwink the "great nation" by the prospect of an alliance with a great and respectable power, the year 1854 found us in actual conflict with Russia, starting off after our usual fashion with a handful of men to attack the strongest fortress in Europe, provided with an unlimited supply of men and metal and inexhaustible stores of warlike _materiel_ of all kinds. In vol. xxvi. we see Her Majesty _Throwing the Old Shoe_ after her Guards, who, for the first time since 1815, are seen setting out on foreign service. Another cartoon, which has reference to our _Bombardment of Odessa_, is divided into two parts, in one of which we see Lord Aberdeen (whose dream of peace had been so rudely dissipated), and in the other Nicholas of Russia, both reading the newspaper. Says Aberdeen, "Bombardment of Odessa! Dear me, this will be very disagreeable to my imperial friend!" Says the Emperor, "Bombardment of Odessa! Confound it! this will be very annoying to dear old Aberdeen!"
In November, 1854, occurred our disastrous victory of Inkermann, in which scarcely four thousand English troops found themselves opposed by forty thousand Russians and drove them into flight. No thanks, however, to our allies, who--with the exception of sixty brave Zouaves and their lieutenant, who played truant from their regiment to give us timely a.s.sistance--either looked on or absolutely ran away.[144] Spectators of this battle were two of the Imperial family, a circ.u.mstance alluded to in vol. xxvii. by Leech"s cartoon of _The Russian Bear"s Licked Cubs, Nicholas and Michael_.
THE PURCHASE SYSTEM.
Picton remarked of our officers, when _en route_ to Waterloo, that with fifty thousand of his own men, and _French_ officers at their head, he would march from one end of Europe to the other. But both the quality of French officers and soldiers had deteriorated at the time of the Crimean War, and was destined still further to deteriorate until the utter unsoundness of their military discipline was laid bare years afterwards by Prussia. The French had no generals, while we had _one_ general and an excellent body of soldiers. Unquestionably the Russian war did us the service of thoroughly exposing the rottenness of our military system so far as concerned the officering of the army. The principle followed was precisely that complained of by Sir Thomas Picton forty years before; there was no actual test of fitness until it came to be subjected to the practical test of emergency; money invariably had the advantage of merit, not only in the appropriation of first commissions, but in the purchase of subsequent regimental grades, which were given in exchange for pecuniary value, and not as a reward for military efficiency. The material thus obtained was splendid as regards manliness and bravery, but something more than these were wanted in the absence of a leader like the great Duke; and although the type selected is an extreme one, the result may be indicated by my Lord Cardigan, who, though equal to any amount of endurance and heroism, proved himself incapable of the exercise of the smallest particle of common sense. The scandal of the then existing system of purchase was aptly exposed by the artist in vol. xxviii., where we find a rich t.i.tled old lady in a shop served by military counter-jumpers, one of whom, wrapping up a lieutenant-colonelcy for her boy, inquires, in the well-known jargon of the trade, "What is the next article?" in answer to which she expresses a wish to have "a nice majority for his little brother"; a wounded officer with his arm in a sling timidly inquires the price of a captain"s commission, and turns wearily away on finding the preposterous price (3,694) is wholly beyond his means. Fortunately for us (for events proved that in trusting to French a.s.sistance we were leaning on a broken reed indeed!) the Russian rank and file, besides being badly led, were as inferior to our own in endurance and pluck as they were superior to us in the mere matter of numbers. Justly wondering why forty thousand men, supported by twenty thousand reserves, had failed to hold their own against a mere handful of British infantry, Nicholas nevertheless treated the result apparently in a philosophical spirit, and calmly asked his people to wait for "Generals _Janvier_ and _Fevrier_."
But the brave man"s heart was broken, and when February came it found the Imperial prophet a corpse.[145] The death of this great and disappointed man is forcibly commemorated by Leech"s memorable cartoon of _General Fevrier Turned Traitor_. Lord John Russell, true to his character of "Lord Meddle and Muddle," had done nothing for us at the Congress, and in _The Return from Vienna_, Her Majesty catches the frightened little statesman by the collar and angrily asks him, "Now, sir, what a time you have been!
What"s the answer?" To her Lord John--"Please "M--there is--is--is--is--isn"t any answer."
An English general in those days was so scarce a commodity that in Lord Raglan we seemed absolutely to have exhausted the supply: one old incapable was replaced by another, until the dearth of English military ability became at length nothing less than an absolute scandal. In _What we must Come to_, reference is made to this lamentable state of things, wherein an old woman in bonnet and shawl, with a capacious umbrella, applies for a post to Lord Panmure (the Minister of War), "Oh, if you please, sir, did you want a sperity old woman to see after things in the Crimea? No objection to being made a Field Marshal, and glory not so much an object as a good salary"; in another (_A Grand Military Spectacle_) we find the heroes of the campaign engaged in inspecting the Field Marshals, a pair of decrepid, purblind, old men seated in arm chairs; in the third we recognise the amiable Prince Consort, who was most unjustly suspected in those days of a desire to interfere in the administration of our military matters--it would be moonshine to term it military _system_, as we had none. _The New Game of Follow my Leader_ is a palpable hit at a practice common enough too in those days.
Applications were frequently made by officers for leave to return home on the plea of "urgent private affairs," and you were astonished to see gentlemen walking about whose duty it was to be with their regiments in the Crimea. In the cartoon referred to, a long line of soldiers is drawn up in front of the general"s tent; a little drummer boy steps out of the ranks, and making the usual salute inquires, "Please, general, may me and these other chaps have leave to go home on _urgent private affairs_?"
A more unsatisfactory state of things for the belligerents all round than this miserable Crimean conflict can scarcely well be imagined. Lord Raglan, who had learned war by practical experience under the eye of the great Duke himself, speedily realized the fact that he had been made the victim of French military jealousy and imbecility, the leaders having been selected not on account of their military efficiency, but solely for attachment to the cause of the Emperor. The battle of the Alma had been won without the a.s.sistance of the French, who for all practical purposes might just as well have been away.[146] Marshal St. Arnaud, who, to do him simple justice, was at this time dying literally by inches, had refused to follow up the defeated Russians,[147] whose retreat a _competent_ French general must have converted into an absolute rout; whilst, had he followed the advice and wishes of Lord Raglan, we should probably have entered Sebastopol in a fortnight, instead of having to wait three years for an event which was afterwards accomplished at a ruinous waste of time, men, _materiel_, and money.[148] We had defeated the Russians at Inkerman without French a.s.sistance,[149] whilst the timidity and professional jealousy on that occasion of Marshal Canrobert had again failed to turn _our_ success into a crushing disaster for the enemy.[150] If England was dissatisfied, Russia was still more discontented, and her strength moreover at this time well-nigh exhausted. Efforts in the direction of peace were being made by Austria, which are referred to in the cartoon, _Staying Proceedings_ (vol. x.x.x.), wherein plaintiff John Bull instructs his solicitor Clarendon (who is setting off for Paris bag in hand), "Tell Russia," says angry John, "tell Russia if he doesn"t settle at once I shall go on with the action;" but so unprofitable to us in the end was the arrangement effected by the solicitor, that the action was settled after all on the terms of each party having to pay their own costs. This preposterous result is referred to in the admirable sketch ent.i.tled _Swindling the Clarendon_, wherein landlord Bull angrily expostulates with his two waiters (Louis Napoleon and Palmerston), "What!" says John, "_quite the gentleman_! Why he has left nothing but a portmantel of bricks and stones, and gone off without paying the bill."[151]
Just complaints were made in the papers of 1857 of the arrangements, or rather want of arrangements, at the Royal _levees_. The s.p.a.ce was circ.u.mscribed and the crush frightful, and ladies returned from the ceremony with torn dresses and dishevelled hair, just as if they had been engaged in some feminine battle-royal. To accustom them to this uncomfortable but apparently inevitable ordeal, John Leech, in one of the very best of his sketches (vol. x.x.xii.), suggested a _Training School for Ladies about to Appear at Court_, where we see charming women in court dresses leaping over forms, crowding beneath barriers, and going through a vigorous course of saltatory exercises, to prepare them for what they might expect at the ceremony; the floor is strewn with broken fans, gloves, feathers, watches, and jewellery; while one fat old lady, who, in attempting to scramble beneath the barrier has become a permanent fixture, presents a truly comical appearance.
THE ENGLISH DISSATISFIED.
The war was at an end; the "Eastern Question," as it was called in the political jargon of that day, had been settled for the next twenty years, and John Bull had now leisure to sit down to count the cost, and consider the value of the French alliance, and the quality of the a.s.sistance he had derived from French generalship and the French army.
The result of John"s calculation was eminently unsatisfactory to himself, for he felt that while he had done all the hard work and nearly all the fighting, the French, as might have been expected, had arrogated to themselves all the praise. John in his secret heart was angry; he felt he had been drawn into a contest from which he personally derived little advantage, and from which he emerged nominally triumphant at a ruinous waste of men and money; the Frenchman, on his part, was doubtful of the reality of the _gloire_ he claimed for himself, and distinctly conscious, moreover, that the English soldiers looked coldly on the French army and its achievements.[152] The result was a feeling of secret dissatisfaction on both sides, which found, however, no actual expression until an unexpected circ.u.mstance afforded opportunity for its manifestation. The war had been succeeded by a period of inaction, a state of things always dreaded by Louis, who was now hara.s.sed by plots and conspiracies, and a certain foreigner connected, or supposed to be connected, with one of these had sought and found an asylum on our sh.o.r.es. Certain valorous French colonels, desirous of displaying their loyalty at a cheap cost, presented an address to his Majesty, which contained the following intemperate pa.s.sage:--"Let the miserable a.s.sa.s.sins--the subaltern agents of such crimes--receive the chastis.e.m.e.nt due to their abominable attempts; but also, let the _infamous haunt_ where machinations so infernal are planned _be destroyed for ever_....
Give us the order, sire, and we shall pursue them even to their places of security." French military composition, even in the time of the first Napoleon, was never of the highest order of merit, and the third Napoleon, whose policy it was to distract the attention of his people from reflecting on the questionable means by which he had attained his position, never lost an opportunity of earning popularity with any cla.s.s of his subjects, particularly with the army. He suffered this quintessence of bombastic absurdity to appear in the pages of the official _Moniteur_, whence it was duly copied by the English newspapers, and afforded us the most intense amus.e.m.e.nt. _Punch_ answered this valorous appeal with Leech"s celebrated cartoon (in vol. x.x.xiv.) of _c.o.c.k-a-doodle-do!_ wherein the French c.o.c.k, habited in the uniform of a French colonel, crows most l.u.s.tily on his own dunghill. This remarkable caricature possesses a singular historical interest, as it exactly expresses the feeling which pervaded England for some time after the close of the Crimean war. The hostile spirit towards Frenchmen which formed a part of John Leech"s nature, once aroused was not easily allayed, and in the same volume he gives us specimens of _Some Foreign Produce that Mr. Bull can very well Spare_, in which he angrily includes French conspirators, vile French women, organ grinders (the artist"s peculiar abomination), and other foreign refuse of an objectionable character. Further on, he follows up the subject in _A Discussion Forum (!) as Imagined by our Volatile Friends_, which represents a party of English conspirators from a French point of view. They wear the peaked hats, long cravats, long hair, boots, and inexpressibles peculiar to the Reign of Terror, and carry knives, revolvers, axes, and other weapons of destruction; a speaker occupies the rostrum, and below him sits the registrar with a bowl of blood, in which sanguinary fluid the proceedings are supposed to be recorded. The opposite picture, _A Discussion Forum (!) as it is in Reality_, shows us a number of foolish, ignorant, harmless youths, smoking pipes, drinking brandy and water, and discussing politics (so far as they are capable of understanding them) in a tavern club-room. Returning once more to his attacks on what he justly deemed the Romanizing tendency of the practices of certain members of the English Church, he gives us the cartoon of _Religion a la Mode_, in which a handsome woman is about to "confess" to a truculent and knavish looking ritualist. In the distance appears John Bull with his horsewhip, "No, no, Mr. Jack Priest," says he; "after all I have gone through, I am not such a fool as to stand any of _this_ disgusting nonsense." Some sensation was created this year by a private fete which was given by a member of the aristocracy at Cremorne Gardens. It occasioned considerable talk at the time, and as Ritualism was then in the ascendant amongst certain female leaders of fashion, Leech gives us (in vol. x.x.xv.) a powerful picture, ent.i.tled _Aristocratic Amus.e.m.e.nts_, in which John Thomas asks his mistress (a magnificent specimen of the artist"s handsome women) as he puts up the steps of her carriage, whither she would wish to be driven,--"Confession or Cremorne, my lady?"
Misfortune, the proverb tells us, makes us acquainted with strange a.s.sociates. The Emperor Louis, during his early exile, had picked up certain undesirable acquaintances, who were in the habit in after life of forcing themselves on his notice after a peculiarly disagreeable and dangerous fashion. His unfaithfulness to the principles of the brotherhood of which he and they had been members, had seriously exercised the minds of certain of these quondam acquaintances, who had given forcible expression to their feelings by attempting his a.s.sa.s.sination. The pear-shaped hand grenades of Orsini and his fellow-conspirator were the fruit of Louis"s early connection with the secret societies of the Carbonari. They indicate the forces which controlled the policy of the Third Napoleon, and obliged him constantly to pick quarrels with his neighbours for the double purpose of employing his army and of keeping the attention of his restless subjects and quondam acquaintances distracted from himself. As the advisers upon whom he depended were removed by death, the absence of military capacity which his habitual reticence had concealed was manifested by his extraordinary ignorance of the weakness of the force which he had at his disposal, and the utter rottenness of its organization. Meanwhile Italian a.s.sa.s.sins warned Louis"s advisers of the desperate insecurity of the tenure by which they held their own position, and of the necessity of distracting the attention of the restless spirits who made it their business to inquire into their master"s t.i.tle. Within a year, therefore, of the execution of Orsini and his friend, a quarrel was fastened on the Austrian amba.s.sador, which reminded us of the first Emperor"s insult to our own Lord Whitworth, and the Imperial word went forth that Italy was to be freed "from the Alps to the Adriatic."[153] Although Louis was unable to accomplish this programme, he was enabled by great good fortune, the aid of Sardinia, the execrably bad generalship of the Austrians, and the military _prestige_ which still attached to the French name, to pave the way for this result; and Austria was not only humbled, but had moreover to surrender Venetia to Sardinia. No sooner was the war over, than Louis was suspected of casting longing eyes at the territories of his brave little ally,[154] and in _A Scene from the New Pantomime_, he figures as clown, holding a revolver in his hand, with a goose marked "Italy" in his capacious pocket, a.s.suring Britannia (a stout elderly woman who looks suspiciously on) that his intentions were of the most honourable description.
In the sketch ent.i.tled _The Next Invasion, Landing of the French (Light Wines), and Discomfiture of Old General Beer_ (vol. x.x.xviii.), we have a pictorial prophecy which has not borne fulfilment. Although the so-called _vin ordinaire_ made some progress among us for a time, it was soon discovered that a low cla.s.s of wine, which the French themselves would not drink, was being manufactured for the English market, and that good sound claret remained (as might have been antic.i.p.ated) as dear, if not dearer, than ever. The climate and const.i.tution of John Bull do not enable him to appreciate the merits of "red ink" as a table beverage, and in the end old General Barleycorn rallied and drove the invaders out of the popularity they had for a time achieved.
And here we break off--for reasons which will be apparent in our next chapter--the further consideration of the graphic satires of the late John Leech. Before pa.s.sing on to other matters, we are bound to say that we regard them rather for what they might have been than for what we actually find them. Had they been executed with the same materials and under the same conditions as the graphic satires of Gillray or Cruikshank, or still better, in the manner in which the sporting pictures to the late Mr. Surtees" novels were produced, we have no hesitation in saying that they would have distanced anything in the nature of caricature which had gone before. Unfortunately, the productions of the modern caricaturist (if, indeed, we may term him one) have no reasonable chance, it being apparently taken for granted that a modern public will not invest in caricatures of an expensive character.[155] Moreover, he has no longer any hand in the completion of his picture, the wood-block being cut up into segments, each entrusted to a different hand, and executed with materials with which the older caricaturists had nothing to do, and under conditions of pressure and haste to which they were happily strangers. Hence it is, that while the admirable satires of John Leech enhance the value of the _Punch_ volumes themselves, taken _singly_, not only will they not command a fiftieth part of the price asked and given for the coloured but inferior productions of an earlier school, but they are to all intents and purposes valueless. Leech himself has often been known to say to friends who admired his composition on the wood block:--"Wait till Sat.u.r.day, and see how the engraver will have spoiled it." We will subject the justice of these observations to a practical test. Let the reader compare an ordinary _Punch_ cartoon with one of the tinted lithographs issued from the _Punch_ office during the artist"s lifetime under the t.i.tle of _The Rising Generation_, and he cannot fail to be struck with the enormous advantages possessed by the latter. These last have their price, and command, by reason of their scarcity, a comparatively high one.
FOOTNOTES:
[139] The prosecution, however, answered its purpose. The funds of the Repeal a.s.sociation were nearly exhausted by the contest, the influence of the "Liberator," as he was called, was destroyed, and he himself was more guarded and circ.u.mspect in his language. He died three years afterwards.
[140] See the "Political Sketches of HB."
[141] _Edinburgh Review_, October, 1840.
[142] See Chapter xviii.
[143] The national defences, such as they are, being an accomplished fact, these strange people are now making themselves active in the promotion of the last suicidal mania--the Channel Tunnel!
[144] _Vide_ Kinglake"s "Invasion of the Crimea."
[145] There are of course curious stories about as to the _cause_ of the Emperor"s death: for one of these see "Journal of the Rev. J. C.
Young," vol. ii. p. 331.
[146] Figures will conclusively prove who bore the burden and heat of the day. The English loss was: killed, 25 officers, 19 sergeants, 318 rank and file; 81 officers, 102 sergeants, and 1,438 rank and file wounded. The French loss was simply 60 killed and 500 wounded. The Russian loss in killed and wounded was 5,709.
[147] Kinglake"s "Invasion of the Crimea," 6th edition, 1877, vol.
iii. p. 305.
[148] Kinglake"s "Invasion of the Crimea," 6th edition, 1877, vol.
iii. p. 349.
[149] At 8.30 a.m. the Russians had 17,000 infantry and 100 guns opposed to 3,600 English with 36 guns and 1,600 French infantry and 12 guns [_Ibid._ vol. vi. p. 321]. Three hours later on, Canrobert had under his orders 9,000 fresh men, who remained inactive: "So far as concerned any active exertion of infantry power, our people were now left to fight on _without any_ aid from the French"--_Ibid._ pp.
416, 417.
[150] _Ibid._ vol. vi. pp. 439, 440.
[151] A more telling commentary on our useless waste of blood and treasure could scarcely be found. Truly they manage these things better in Germany.
[152] See the remarkable expressions of dissatisfaction _wrung_ from the placid Lord Raglan on various occasions, and the very free manner in which the English officers expressed themselves when the 7th French _leger_ regiment ran away from the Russians at Inkerman for the second time.--_Kinglake"s_ "_Invasion of the Crimea_," 6th edition, 1877, vol. vi. pp. 327-8, 344-5.
[153] Louis was fond of these theatrical announcements, which answered the purpose he designed, of attracting the sympathy of the impressionable French people. The following is a short summary of the mode in which Italy was _really_ freed "from the Alps to the Adriatic":--Lombardy was surrendered to Sardinia 11th July, 1859; the treaty ceding Savoy and Nice to France was signed 24th March, and approved by the Sardinian Parliament 29th May, 1860. The French troops retired from Italy the same month. Garibaldi landed at Marsala 11th May, 1860, and entered Naples on the 18th of August. The kingdom of Italy was recognised by Great Britain 31st March, 1861. In 1864 Florence was declared the capital of Italy. The French troops left Rome in November, 1865. Venetia was ceded to France by Austria 3rd July, 1866. They retired from the Quadrilateral in October, 1866; Venice was annexed to Italy the same month; the Italian troops entered Rome in September, 1870, when Napoleon III. was no longer able to interpose, and it was incorporated in the Italian kingdom in October.
[154] See previous note.
[155] Since the above was written, a weekly paper has been established, which promises to promote the revival of caricature art.
CHAPTER XV.
_JOHN LEECH_ (_Continued_).
_Giovanni._ What do the dead do, uncle?--do they eat, Hear music, go a hunting, and be merry, As we that live?
_Francesco de Medicis._ No, Cuz; they sleep.
_Giov._ ... When do they wake?
_Frances._ When G.o.d shall please.
WEBSTER"S _White Devil; or, Vittoria Corombona_ (1612), Act 3.
Many of our readers will remember the exhibition at the Egyptian Hall, in 1862, of John Leech"s "Sketches in Oil," the subjects being enlarged reproductions from selected examples of his minor drawings for _Punch_.
To his friend Mark Lemon is due the credit of this idea, which was carried out after the following manner:--The impression of a block in _Punch_ being first taken on a sheet of india-rubber, was enlarged by a lithographic process; the copy thus obtained was transferred to stone, and impressions obtained on a large sheet of canvas. The result was an outline groundwork, consisting of his own lines enlarged some eight times the dimensions of the original drawing, which the artist then proceeded to fill up in colour. His knowledge of the manipulation of oil colours was, however, slight, and his first crude attempts were made under the guidance of his friend Mr. Millais. The first results can scarcely be said to be satisfactory; a kind of transparent colour was used, which allowed the coa.r.s.e lines of the enlargement to be distinctly visible, and the finished production presented very much the appearance of an indifferent lithograph slightly tinted. In a short time, however, he conquered the difficulty; and, instead of allowing the thick, fatty lines of printer"s ink to remain on the canvas, he removed them--particularly as regards the outlines of the face and figure--by means of turpentine. These outlines he re-drew with his own hand in a fine and delicate manner, and added a daintiness of finish, particularly in flesh colour, which greatly enhanced the value and beauty of the work. He nevertheless experienced some difficulty in reproducing in these enlargements the delicacy of touch and exactness which characterized the original drawings, and would labour all day at a detail--such as a hand in a certain position--before attaining a result which entirely satisfied himself. The catalogue of this exhibition may be cited in evidence of Leech"s characteristic modesty. "These sketches," it said, "have no claim to be regarded or tested as finished pictures. It is impossible for any one to know the fact better than I do. They have no pretensions to a higher name than that I have given them--"Sketches in Oil.""
Popular and eminently successful as this exhibition proved to be, it was undeniably rendered more popular and successful by his staunch friend Thackeray"s article in the _Times_ of 21st June, 1862:--"He is a natural truth-teller," said the humourist, "as Hogarth was before him, and indulges in as many flights of fancy. He speaks his mind out quite honestly, like a thorough Briton.... He holds Frenchmen in light esteem.
A bloated "Mossoo" walking in Leicester Square, with a huge cigar and a little hat, with "billard" and "estaminet" written on his flaccid face, is a favourite study with him; the unshaven jowl, the waist tied with a string, the boots which pad the Quadrant pavement, this dingy and disreputable being exercises a fascination over Mr. Punch"s favourite artist. We trace, too, in his work a prejudice against the Hebrew nation, against the natives of an island much celebrated for its verdure and its wrongs; these are lamentable prejudices indeed, but what man is without his own?" Thackeray"s kindly article delighted Leech; he said "it was like putting 1,000 in his pocket." The exhibition, indeed, was so splendid a success that it is said to have brought in nearly 5,000.