The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-16 00:00:00

GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

His Genius, has Pension, and his last
P.cture.
Among the most delightful names to this and
,o the preceding generation must be numbered,

beyond any doubt of it, the name of that dear old
friend of all those who love innocent laughter—

George Cruikshank.

His fame as an artist

extends back to the very commencement of the
present century. He has been one of the most

ndustrious workers of his time. He has illus-

trated all sorts of popular writers, and chiefly, it

may be said, those whose reputations have been won
in connection with light literature. From Williatu
Bone's racy radicalism and Pierce Egan's long

since obsolete record of old-fashioned royster-

ngs in what Thackeray loved to call the daqs

of the Consulship of Plancus, meening the wasp-
waisted, high-collared period of the Regency of
Fum the Fourth (vide Tom Moore passim)--from
the eoch (politically) of Derry-down-triangle, and
(socially) of Corinthian Tom that wonderful
wit-sharpened etching needle of Cruikshank
ternating with the fun-pointed pencil with which he

is still wont at intervals (intervals naturally be-
coming rarer as the time runs on) to dash off his
drolleries as the whim or fancy of the moment seizes
him, he has gone on toiling for the entertainment of
children old and young, for we don't care to say
how many to himself earnest and laborious years,
but to those who have had simply to enjoy the
fruits of his labours, years in their regard in
every way delightful ! Until—at last—as if by
a tardy after-thought a long after thought
the nation suddenly wakes up only just novf
to the recognition of the fact that it has never paid
any tribute whatever (any distinct individual tri-
bute, that is) to this right good worker, to this

most original artist (one whosa genius is so
completely and so intensely sui generis), to this
thoroughly consistent and eminently practical
moralist, whose profoundly earnest appreciation
of temperance and patriotism, no less than of the
wierd and the ridiculous, of the grotesque and
the humorous, has long ago passed into a very
proverb under the name of George Cruikshank. At
last, we say—at the eleventh hour, so to speak, and
only then—the nation bethinks itself of its pro-
longed oversight, of its lengthened indebted-
ness, of its seemingly utter thanklessness,
hitherto in regard to George Cruikshank. And
to what end ? With these long arrears of gratitude
to make good—it inscribes at last upon the Civil
List the honoured name of this distinguished artist
—awarding to him henceforth, by right of that
entry, a pension of—£9s per annum ! Begrulging
him even one clear hundred a year ! Asking him
annually, as it were, for five pounds' worth of change
in return for a hundred pound note. About the
shabbiest way, surely, of scraping the gilt off the
gingerbread that could very well have been
contrived. Another of those wretched illustrations
of spoiling the ship for a hap'orth of tar While
they were about it, the £lOO might just as well--
might far rather for that matter—have been made
£2OO, and those two hundred pounds complete !
Instead of which not even one hundred clear are
to be forthcoming. The precise amount—as we
have seen—with a sense of pain, nay, (even as
though it had depended upon ourselves) almost
with a feeling of shamefacedness—the precise
amount--as we have seen—is to be ninety-five
pounds sterling. " Palmam qui meruit ferat "is
all very well in its way as a motto, if only the
symbolic branch be awarded in its integrity.
Here, however, the boon (?) is but a single leaf--
and thst one leaf with a wretched little bit nibbled
out of the corner of it. Altogether—this tribute,
as a national tribute, is quite unworthy of the
man to whom it is proffered. And honouring
his name as we do, regarding his genius, as we
do, with the truest and the sincerest admiration,
we revert, with sentiments of relief, and yet, 0
the same time, of doubt and of bewilderment, to
our recollection of what surely was announced
several months ago—a year or two, at the least,
or we are very much mistaken—as a project
then afoot for the getting together of a fitting
Testimonial, among the friends and admirers of
George Cruikshank, as an evidence towards him of
respect and affection, of heartfelt gratitude,
of the most sincere and of the most cordial admira-
tion. What has become of it—of this project
which once set agoing ought to have been carried
to a successful issue, off-hand, instanter? gas
it merely passed to the limbo of abandoned good in'
tendons? However this may—it ought to be
revived now in right down earnest—if only that it
may afford a world of George Cruikshank's admirers
some opportunity for showing.how far they care to
make good that miserable little five-pound de-
ficiency upon the Civil List. By an interesting
coincidence, especially significant in its way, the
enrolling at last, in any manner, of George Cruilc-
shank's name upon the Civil List, was preceded by
the re-issue from the press of his fa:asous limning
of " The British Beehive"—being, as the substitla
expresses it, in so many words, "A Political Picture
for the People by their old Friend, George
Cruikshauks." Under this alliterative title there has
very recently been republished, we sayy—touched
up afresh—one of thoss wonderfully ingenious aoci
highly elaborated etchings of this sante dear ela
friend of us all, George Cruikshmek. The
original design appeared as long back 4°
seven-and-twenty years ago—but very little
short, indeed, of the lapse of time detined 1:5„.
statisticians as the average life of a generation. Ph
1810, in fact, " The British Beehive" made its tholl
first appearance. It is now reissued, and, .if po; ,
Bible, more appositely than ever, in 1867, in th
midst of all the hubbub created by those " Dusi
B's"—Beales, Bright, Bradlaugh, and all the re's
of them. It comes forth now, therefore, in the
very nick of time, as a delightful reminder to
.11!
one and all, of what it is we really owe to Ve
original, laborious, patriotic, laughter-moving, eX-
hilarating genius of this true English artist, tb!
inexhaustible illustrator of multitudes of our Bog
fish classics, such, for example, as Fielding's "
Jones," and Smollett's " Roderick Random,'' 0.1.`
L John
Dickens's " Oliver Twist," and Cowper's
• ‘s The
Gilpin"—this imaginer (and drawer) oi
baollaids
Toothache"—this celebrant of the legendary
of " Lord Bateman "—this draughtsman ivh
nothing less than peerless as a caricaturist-;tu,„3':
s%.tragic moralist over " The Bottle" in one
ending where we began, and in that one word u
miug up in a manner all. how his
tesqueries, in what seems to us some
.ra...40.0
strangely characteristic name--this our ini
—CraikEtauk,
his many delightful gr?"