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Make ‘em Laugh: Images of Law in Eighteenth Century Popular Culture

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Abstract

In the eighteenth century, satire was seen as a liberty and could be expressed as visual popular culture. When aimed at power, satire deflected the taint of treason and sedition through the use of public voice in the name of liberty. Law and its actors stood as juxtaposition to the newly found ideals of liberty. Visual satire was instrumental in shaping the move from exemplary punishment to defining new paradigms of justice through the use of visual metaphor.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Simon Turner (2004). Collections of British and Satirical Prints in England and America. Journal of the History of Collection, 16(2), 255–265.

  2. 2.

    F.G. Stephens, (4 vols, 1870–1883). Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. Division I: Political and Personal Satires; and, M.D. George, (7 vol., 1935–1954). Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings… (All 11 volumes reissued on microfilm in 1978). Prints cited BM refer to entries in this catalogue.

  3. 3.

    “The true state of nation is the state of common life. The manners of a people are not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces greatness, where the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or instruction, by philosophy or vanity, or is public happiness to be estimated by the assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The great mass of peoples is neither rich nor gay: those whose aggregate constitutes the people, are found in the streets, and the villages, in the shops and the farms; and from them collectively considered, must he measure of prosperity be measured” Samuel Johnson, (1775). A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (London: Strahan, Cadell, 1775) at 45. Accessed 7 Dec 2009. Göttinger Digitalisierungszentrum. http://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/dms/load/img/?IDDOC=22496

  4. 4.

    One example: Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies, or Man of Pleasure’s Kalendar for the year 1793, containing the Histories and some curious Anecdotes of the most celebrated Ladies now on the Town, or in keeping and also many of their Keepers (London: Ranger, 1793). Eighteenth Century Collections Online.

    http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW3325762697&source=gale&userGroupName=ucalgary&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE. Accessed December 14, 2009.

  5. 5.

    (1764). The Bloody Register: A Select and Judicious Collection of the Most Remarkable Trials for Murder, Treason, Rape, Sodomy, Highway Robbery, Pyracy, House-Breaking, Perjury, Forgery and Other High Crimes and Misdemeanors, From the Year 1700 to 1764 Inclusive (London, Viney). Making of Modern Law, Trials, 1600–1926.

    http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/servlet/MMLT?af=RN&ae=Q4201898646&srchtp=a&ste=14. Accessed 12 January, 2010.

  6. 6.

    Myles Davies, (1715), Eikon Mikro-Biblike sive icon libellorum, or, a critical history of pamphlets. Tracing out the rise, growth and different views of all sorts of small tracts or writings, both collectively and singly, in a general and gradual Representation of the respective Authors, Collections and their several Editions, &c. Part. I. (London, Eighteenth Century Collections Online.) at p. 3.

    http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW3304802200&source=gale&userGroupName=ucalgary&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE.

  7. 7.

    BM 9476 (1799): Part of Rowlandson’s series “Cries of London” no. 3: “Last Dying Speech and Confession of the Unfortunate Malefactors Who Were Executed This Morning” shows a woman selling copies of popular broadsides. This was a reminiscent print depicting the brisk trade in “dying speeches” from Tyburn gallows. In mid-eighteenth century, these were published exclusively by Thomas Parker and Charles Corbett.

  8. 8.

    Jonathan Swift, 24–31 May, 1711, In Rictor Norton, Early Eighteenth-Century Newspaper Reports: A Sourcebook, “Definition of Whig and Tory”, 24 April 2002.

    http://grubstreet.rictornorton.co.uk/whigtory.htm

  9. 9.

    Mississippi & South Seas Bubble (1717); also, National Lotteries (1730); Excise (1733).

  10. 10.

    Describing this phenomenon as “heritage-making”, this article describes the wide appeal as well as the reproduction of prints on consumer goods such as bowls, snuffboxes and fans: David A. Brewer, (2000) Making Hogarth Heritage, Representations. 72 (Autumn), 21–63. at 25.

  11. 11.

    George at 118. Put into perspective, a gallon of decent brandy sold at 6s in mid-eighteenth century.

  12. 12.

    BM 8394: Dighton, A Lawyer and His Agent.

  13. 13.

    BM 8393; BM 9486.

  14. 14.

    BM 8520; “Diogenes alias A.B. in ton Looking for an Honest Lawyer!!!”.

  15. 15.

    (BM 9079: Gillray, Discipline a la Kenyon) Lady Buckinghamshire cashes in by hosting Faro parties at her home. (BM 8075: Gillray, “Modern Hospitality, or a Friendly Party in High Life”). (BM 8876: Gillray, “Exaltation of Faro’s Daughters”); (BM 8879: Cruikshank, Faro’s Daughters or the Kenyonian blow up to Gamblers); (BM 8880: Gillray “Dividing the Spoils”); (BM 9078: Gillray, The Loss of the Faro bank or the Rooks Pigeon’s); (BM 8878: unknown, Cocking the Greeks). The affair resulted in a flurry of increasingly tasteless satires.

  16. 16.

    For an overview of jestbooks and eighteenth century humour, see Simon Dickie (2003), Hilarity and Pitilessness in the Mid-Eighteenth Century: English Jestbook Humor, Eighteenth Century Studies, 37(1), 1–22.

  17. 17.

    Welsh = Irish, Scots, Newfies or any group that can be used for the point of a joke.

  18. 18.

    Lord Robert Molesworth (1752) Account of Denmark, (Glasgow), Eighteenth Century Collections Online, published a critique of the Danish court and politics. The Danish court insisted on action by William against the author. William refused noting that government action against freedom of speech would result in a new edition of the book with a larger audience, see, Pierre Jean Grosley (1772). A Tour to London, or, New Observations on England and Its Inhabitants, translated from the French by Thomas Nugent, 2 v. (London, v. 1) at p. 60–61.

  19. 19.

    “Faro’s Daughters” by Cruikshank (BM 8879) was lettered “London Pub May 16 1796 by SW Fores N 50 Piccadilly Folios of caricatures lent out for the evening”.

  20. 20.

    Nathan Moore (2007). Icons of Control: Deleuze, Signs, Laws, International Journal for the Semiotics of Law, 20(1) 33–54. Moore makes the distinction between Deleuze’s “la loi” (justice) and “les lois” (the administration of justice). He characterizes the administration of justice as “jurisprudence” as a French verb, rather than “jurisprudence” as an English noun denoting the “theory of justice”. In this essay, I refer to justice (as the English ideal of equity, common law, and the current philosophical flavour of “natural justice”). The administration of justice refers to the politics of law-making and enforcement: representatives of the crown (judges, magistrates, etc.), the courts and punishment. Practitioners are those who are hired by the crown or by private individuals to represent their own interests: lawyers.

  21. 21.

    See William P. MacNeill (2007) Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture. (Stanford: Stanford University Press) for a collection of essays legal themes in popular culture.

  22. 22.

    1751, BM 3153 Hogarth: Four Stages of Cruelty.

  23. 23.

    Jacob Giles (1791) Every Man his own Lawyer: or, a Summary of the Laws of England in a New and Instructive Method, …. Dublin: James Moore, at 393. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Accessed 4 Dec 2012.

    http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW3325307559&source=gale&userGroupName=ucalgary&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE

  24. 24.

    4&5 W&M, c. 8.

  25. 25.

    BM Cat 3662 ; Index v. 3b, p. 1187 “The publication of this print is noticed in “Payne’s Universal Chronicle”, Sept. 2–9, 1758, p. 182, col. 3, thus, among new works”.

  26. 26.

    BM 7265 Elijah fed by the Ravens (1787). Coincidentally tied to the impeachment proceedings brought at the same time against Warren Hastings by Edmund Burke.7 (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, “Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum”, VI, 1938) On 12 Dec. 1787 Sir Gilbert Elliot moved six charges against Impey, the first being the “deliberate murder” of Nandakumar. Impey’s triumphant defence was made on 4 Feb. 1788 at the bar of the House; on 9 May the House divided against the first charge, and the impeachment was dropped. “Parl. Hist.” xxvi. 1335 ff., xxvii. 35 ff., 292 ff., 416 ff. Sir G. Elliot, “Life and Letters”, i. 119, 121, 199 ff. Wraxall, “Memoirs”, 1884, v. 48–51, 57–63, 100–12. P. E. Roberts in “Camb. Hist. of India”, v. 246–7. See BMSat 7285.

  27. 27.

    BM 8910, 1796 The Bosky (drunk) magistrate.

  28. 28.

    BM 6123.

  29. 29.

    More likely attributable to Bracton, see De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, ed. Travers Twiss, 1878, v. 1 at 47.

  30. 30.

    Stephens/George, vol. 3b at 922.

  31. 31.

    An artisan is shown to say “Thank God there is an upright Judge on Earth who will plead the cause of the poor and prevent rich villains from feeding luxuriously at the expense of the lives of the industrious poor” BM 9545.

  32. 32.

    BM 9194 “Legal Mistake or Honest Men Mistaken for Cospiritors” (1798): Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, ‘Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum’, VII, 1942. On 4 Apr., the Attorney-General brought in a bill for the regulation of newspapers, it having been found that prosecutions failed on account of difficulty in identifying proprietor, printer or publisher, instancing the case of the “courier”, whose printer was not to be found, while the registered proprietor had severed his connection with the paper. Tierney defended the editor of the paper (“courier”) which, Pitt said, “was giving information and advice to the Directory of France”. “Parl. Hist.” xxxiii. 1415–21. Before 26 Apr., Dundas had received information from France: “The courier is regularly brought over, carried first to the Minister of Marine, … it is then sent to the Central Bureau, and then the paragraphs allowed to be translated into French papers, which are distributed among the coffee houses”. “Navy Records Soc., Spencer Papers”, ii, 1915, pp. 325–6. The “anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine”, Aug. 1798, published a facsimile of the “courier” (for 23 Nov. 1797) directed to the “Ministre de la Marine, à Paris”, with the columns containing a report of Moira’s speech (see BMSat 9184) inscribed ‘à lire’ (cf. BMSat 9240). Eight men were arrested in Manchester on 8 Apr. and brought to London, as part of a Committee of United Irishmen, Englishmen and Scotchmen. “Lond. Chron.”, 14 Apr., 4 May. See BMSats 8500, 9227, 9240, 9345, 9370, 9434, 9522. Listed by Broadley (attributed to I. Cruikshank).

  33. 33.

    British Museum. Not described in Stephens/George. 1795. Reg’n 2001,0520.24, print by Richard Newton; pub’d Wm. Holland.

  34. 34.

    BM 3766, A Country Lawyer and His Clients, c. 1776.

  35. 35.

    BM 7593 The Old Bailey Advocate, 1789.

  36. 36.

    BM 3767 A Bailiff and Attorney, c. 1780; BM Undescribed, Reg. 1948,0214.369, Destruction: A Wicked Attorney’s Coat of Arms, 1794. This is an extremely large poster-size coloured print. The printer made a special note on the poster “It is not Mr. Holland’s intention in publishing this print to cast a general stigma on a profession”. On a musical note, there are several variations of A Flat Between Two Sharps and A Sharp Between Two Flats (BM 7259).

  37. 37.

    Act for Preventing Tumults and Riotous Assemblies, 1 Geo. I, stat 2, c. 5.

  38. 38.

    1795, Act for the More Effectually Preventing Seditious Meetings and Assemblies (36 Geo. III, cap. 8) see Penelope J, Corfield, (1990). Walking the City Streets: The Urban Odyssey in Eighteenth Century England, Journal of Urban History, 16:2, 132–174.

  39. 39.

    The identity of Argus Centoculi has never been established; see, Ruthe R. Battestin, (1989). Henry Fielding: A Life (London: Routledge) at 429.

  40. 40.

    Argus Centoculi, (1749). Old England (London) November 25, Issue 290.

  41. 41.

    See George Rude, (1956). The Gordon Riots: A Study of the Rioters and their Victims. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 6, p. 93–114; and George Rude, (1971). Hanoverian London, 1714–1808. (Berkeley: University of California).

  42. 42.

    See Michel Foucault, (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, (New York: Pantheon).

  43. 43.

    Bernard Mandeville, An Enquiry into the Causes of the Frequent Executions at Tyburn, and a Proposal for Some Regulations Concerning Felons in Prison, and the Good Effects That Could be Expected from Them Eighteenth Century Collections Online (London: Roberts, 1725).

    http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW105769247&source=gale&userGroupName=ucalgary&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE>

  44. 44.

    See previous: Whereas he had been described as an “upright judge” for disciplining profiteers (BM 9545).

  45. 45.

    BM 9079, Discipline a la Kenyon (1797). Gillray depicts Judge Kenyon flogging a rather fat and comical Lady Buckinghampshire towards a pillory where two other women are already confined. Following up on his threat (BM 8876) on the information of two dismissed footmen (BM 9078 & 9080). Following up on his threat.

  46. 46.

    BM 8879, Faro’s Daughters, three ladies stand in three pillories, two on small low platforms, the third resting the tips of her toes on a pair of stocks, straddling across Fox (see BMSat 8877), who sits between the legs of the prisoner which he holds firmly, his own feet projecting through the stocks, one shoeless and in a ragged stocking; his expression is melancholy. In the foreground (left), Lord Kenyon in wig and gown, seated on the ground, crouches over a bonfire of implements of gaming: a broken table, dice boxes and cards. The three pillories are marked with letters to indicate their occupants. [In another impression these letters have been scraped out] On the left “S” indicates Mrs. Sturt, a middle-aged woman, her head in profile to the right. In the centre, “A” for Lady Archer whose vulture profile is unmistakable. On the right, “C.” indicates Mrs. Concannon, a pretty young woman, full face, with bare breasts, who indecorously bestraddles Fox. In the background, a fourth pilloried lady stands in back view, her petticoats looped up and attached to the pillory, exposing her bare posteriors. (Perhaps Lady Buckinghamshire, but not resembling her in figure.) A crowd of spectators is indicated. On the extreme left stands another judge; his profile suggests Loughborough. 16 May 1796 Hand-coloured etching inscription content: Lettered with title and publication line: “London Pub May 16 1796 by S W Fores N 50 Piccadilly Folios of caricatures lent out for the evening”; illegible annotation in ink on the recto at bottom right, on verso: “p: s [?or j]”.

  47. 47.

    BM 4115 “The Pillory Triumphant”: “A broadside on the public support of John Williams, bookseller, who was put in the pillory in Palace Yard, Westminster, for re-publishing number 45 of John Wilkes’s ‘North Briton’; with an etching showing a open square crowded with people, in the centre, raised on a platform, Williams in the pillory, holding a laurel branch, on the left a scaffolding with a jack boot (representing Lord Bute) and a bonnet, in the right background a coach with the number 45, in the foreground a man holding a money purse; with engraved title, inscriptions, and speech-bubbles, and with letterpress title and verses in five columns, and with four vertical segments of type ornaments”. ([London], Sumpter: [1765]). Inscription Content: Price 6d plain or 1s. coloured.

  48. 48.

    BM 2799, Satire on the executions of Townley and Fletcher after the Jacobite rebellion, with a view of Temple Bar seen through an arch.

  49. 49.

    Stephens/George, v. 5 at 9–11.

  50. 50.

    See Ronald Paulson (1975). The Art of Hogarth. (London: Phaidon); and, F. Antal (1952), The Moral Purpose of Hogarth’s Art, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 15:3/4, p. 169–197.

  51. 51.

    For a description of the culture of copying, pirating or otherwise disseminating the artistic work of others, see David A. Brewer (2000), Making Hogarth Heritage, Representations, 72 p. 21–63.

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Hemmings, M. (2014). Make ‘em Laugh: Images of Law in Eighteenth Century Popular Culture. In: Wagner, A., Sherwin, R. (eds) Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9322-6_40

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