Plate VII. The celebrated _Beccaria_, in his "Essay on Public Happiness," vol. II. p. 172, observes, "I am sensible there are persons whom it will be difficult for me to persuade: I mean those profound contemplators, who, secluding themselves from their fellow-creatures, are assiduously employed in framing laws for them, and who frequently neglect the care of their domestic and private concerns, to prescribe to empires that form of government, to which they imagine that they ought to submit. The celebrated _Hogarth_ hath represented, in one of his moral engravings, a young man who, after having squandered away his fortune, is, by his creditors, lodged in a gaol. There he sits, melancholy and disconcerted, near a table, whilst a scroll lies under his feet, and bears the following title: 'being a new scheme for paying the debt of the nation. By _T. L._ now a prisoner in _The Fleet_.'" The Author of the poem already quoted, intimates that the personage in the night-gown was meant for some real character: "His wig was full as old as he, In which one curl you could not see. His neckcloth loose, his beard full grown, An old torn night-gown not his own. _L------_, great schemist, that can pay, The nation's debt an easy way." In Plate VIII. (which appears in three different states) is a half-penny reversed (struck in the year 1763) and fixed against the wall, intimating, that _Britannia_ herself was fit only for a mad-house. This was a circumstance inserted by our artist (as he advertises) about a year before his death. I may add, that the man drawing lines against the wall just over the half-penny, alludes to _Whiston's_ proposed method of discovering the Longitude by the firing of bombs, as here represented. The idea of the two figures at each corner of the print appears to have been taken from _Cibber's_ statues at _Bedlam_. The faces of the two females are also changed. That of the woman with a fan, is entirely altered; she has now a cap on, instead of a hood, and is turned, as if speaking to the other. Mr. _Gilpin's_ opinion concerning this set of prints is too valuable to be omitted, and is therefore transcribed below.[12] The plates were thus admirably illustrated by Dr. _John Hoadly_. PLATE I. O Vanity of _Age_, untoward, Ever spleeny, ever froward! Why these Bolts, and massy chains, Squint suspicions, jealous Pains? Why, thy toilsome Journey o'er, Lay'st thou in an useless store? _Hope_ along with _Time_ is flown, Nor canst thou reap the field thou'st sown. Hast thou a son? in time be wise--. He views thy toil with other eyes. Needs must thy kind, paternal care, Lock'd in thy chests be buried there? Whence then shall flow that friendly ease, That social converse, home-felt peace, Familiar duty without dread, Instruction from example bred, Which youthful minds with freedom mend, And with the _father_ mix the _friend_?