to allude in the Monkey riding on the Bear, with a cockade in his hat, and a carbine by his side, which goes off and kills the little sweep, who has clambered up on the wall. The member chaired is said to bear more than an accidental resemblance to Mr. _Dodington_, afterwards Lord _Melcombe_. In 1759 appeared "A Poetical Description of Mr. _Hogarth's_ Election Prints,[3] in four Cantos. Written under Mr. _Hogarth's_ sanction and inspection," which I shall with the less scruple transcribe at large below,[4] as it was originally introduced by the following remarkable advertisement, dated _Cheapside, March_ 1, 1759. "For the satisfaction of the reader, and in justice to the concealed author, I take the liberty, with the permission of Mr. _Hogarth_, to insert in this manner that gentleman's opinion of the following Cantos, which is, 'That the thoughts entirely coincide with his own; that there is a well-adapted vein of humour preserved through the whole; and that, though some of his works have been formerly explained by other hands, yet none ever gave him so much satisfaction as the present performance.' JOHN SMITH." In the second state of the first of these plates few variations are discoverable. The perspective in the oval over the stag's horns is improved. A shadow on the wainscot, proceeding from a supposed window on the left side, is effaced; the hand of the beldam kissing the young candidate, is removed from under her apron, and now dangles by her side: a saltseller is likewise missing from the table. In the first impression also, the butcher who is pouring gin on the broken head of another man, has _For our Country_ on his cockade; in the second we find _Pro Patria_ in its stead. The lemons and oranges that once lay on a paper, by the tub in which the boy is making punch, are taken away; because _Hogarth_, in all probability, had been informed that vitriol, or cream of tartar, is commonly used, instead of vegetable acids, when a great quantity of such liquor is prepared at public houses on public occasions. In the third impression a hat is added to those before on the ground, and another on the bench. The whole plate has also lost much of its former clearness. The original inscription at one corner of it was--"Painted, and _the whole_ engraved by _Wm. Hogarth_."[5] The two Words in _Italicks_ were afterwards effaced.