one to whom the Peer had been a considerate patron. This was Hogarth—a name scarcely less popular—shall we say national?—in its way than that of the great poet, the object of their mutual adoration. One was indeed rather an ancient, the other a contemporary; and therefore perhaps not yet arrived at his full measure of fame. Both were eminently men of the people; both exercised their respective talents upon society at large—not upon classes or sections, but upon the masses, in the hope of shaming and correcting vices and improprieties. Both possessed the clearest views of human nature in its various aspects. They could unveil without reserve the peculiarities of life—its characters, follies, offences, motives—and depict its actions each in his own way, with a power acknowledged by their countrymen to be almost exclusively their own. The pencil of the one was nearly as expressive and intelligible as the pen of the other—sometimes indeed more sarcastic—and each remains in his way unapproached and perhaps unapproachable.
A wish had been expressed in London for an extension of the better class of prints of the artist, with such additions as the possessors of original pictures might choose to supply. Lord Charlemont was known to possess a few of these. Malone was in consequence requested to sound him. The reply forms another specimen of the various topics on which they loved to dilate:—
Dublin, June 29th, 1781.
