765 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 



du6lions, Mr. Pitt is represented 

 riding on his m — ^^j — sty's back, on 

 the !:Ga shore, peeping at the French 

 ships in the offing; here the sove- 

 reign leaps over the channel, and in 

 his jun'p loses his crown ; there he 

 picks up a number of paper cases, 

 on which the names of his dominions 

 are written, but, unable to hold 

 them all, he lets some of them fall. 

 Hanover is already on the ground, 

 Ireland just tumbling, and Malta 

 appears very loose. Here the Eng- 

 lish are seen Dying before a cloud of 

 dust, raised by a "flock of sheep ; 

 and there Mr. Pitt exercising his 

 troops, all of whom have pig's 

 Leads. The caricature which may 

 perhaps be called the wittiest, is the 

 following : a maker of trusses for 

 ruptures presents the king with a 

 new truss, on which is written, 

 *' obsi'rvation des traties — the ob- 

 servance of treaties." At his ma- 

 jesty's feet lie two broken bandages, 

 one bearing the inscription, " forces 

 navales — or, naval forces ;" the 

 other, " levee en masse — raising in 

 a mass." Thus you see that poli- 

 tics are the axis round which every 

 thing turns. A few only of these 

 distorted figures attack the manners 

 of the English ; such as, for in- 

 stance, the English family in Paris, 

 "where a huge, clumsy Englishman, 

 stuffed with roast beef, leads two 

 stitt misses by the arm, who make a 

 very awkward curtesy. &c. &c. 



Hence it appears, on the whole, 

 that no doubt is entertained as to 

 the success of a descent uj^on Eng- 

 land ; and if yon will not credit the 

 printsellers. you may bestow your 

 beli.'f on that fellow, Avho, sur- 

 rounded by hundreds of hearers, is 

 singing a ballad, describing to a 

 tittle ail the occurrences of the fu- 

 ture landing. If you v/ish to hear 



his vain, bombastic prophecies, per* 

 mit me, in the mean time, to go to 

 that statuary's barred yard, which is 

 so full of busts and statues, of mar- 

 ble stone, good and bad, that there 

 is scarcely a narrow winding foot- 

 path left to the artist's door ; nor 

 am I ashamed to stop before this 

 shop with children's play-things, 

 where Fanchon, the lute-player, 

 again performs a distinguished part, 

 and where I observe a circumstance 

 which is quite a riddle to me, viz* 

 that the French, who are so fond of 

 toys, are far behind the people of 

 Nuremburg in inventing and fabri- 

 cating children's toys ; and the Nu- 

 rembergers again are perhaps as 

 much excelled by the people of 

 Berlin. 



If you are by this time tired of 

 the squalling of the ballad-singer, ■ 

 we will saunter about the garden of ^ 

 the Capuchin's, where there are ti- 

 gers and monkeys, where Franconi 

 exhibits Lis equestrian feats, where 

 the spirits appear at night, and 

 where, in a word, a thousand differ- 

 ent spectacles are to be gazed at 

 from morning till night. Here 

 stands for a moment a portable 

 booth, hung with old carpet, in 

 which my dear punchinello is very 

 amiably ligiiting with the devil. Two 

 hocus-pocus men attra6l crowds on 

 both sides; one by cups, the other 

 by tricks with cards. A much 

 greater concourse of people gathers 

 round a man whose whole appara- 

 tus consists of a chafing-dish full of 

 glowing charcoal, and about half a 

 dozen small pieces of asbestos. He 

 begins with an impressive account of 

 the expedition to Egypt : whilst his 

 neighbour represents . at the same 

 time in his show-box, to those who 

 like to see it, what heroic exploits 

 were achieved by his assistance in 



that 



