"Mr. _Hogarth_ is obliged to inform the subscribers to his Election Prints, that the three last cannot be published till about _Christmas_ next, which delay is entirely owing to the difficulties he has met with to procure able hands to engrave the plates; but that he neither may have any more apologies to make on such an account, nor trespass any further on the indulgence of the public by encreasing a collection already sufficiently large, he intends to employ the rest of his time in portrait-painting; chiefly this notice seems more necessary, as several spurious and scandalous prints[8] have lately been published in his name. "All Mr. _Hogarth's_ engraved works are to be had at his house in _Leicester-fields_, separate or together; as also his Analysis of Beauty, in 4to. with two explanatory prints, price 15_s._ With which will be delivered gratis, an eighteen-penny pamphlet published by _A. Miller_, called _The Investigator_, written in opposition to the principles laid down in the above Analysis of Beauty, by _A. R._,[9] a friend to Mr. _Hogarth_, an eminent portrait-painter now of _Rome_." The foregoing advertisement appears to have been written during the influence of a fit of spleen or disappointment, for nothing else could have dictated to our artist so absurd a resolution as that of quitting a walk he had trod without a rival, to re-enter another in which he had by no means distinguished himself from the herd of common painters. [1] I learn from _The Grub-street Journal_ for _June_ 13, 1734, that the same subject had been attempted by an earlier hand, under the title of _The Humours of a Country Election_. The description of some of the compartments of this work (which I have not seen) bears particular resemblance to the scenes represented by _Hogarth_. "The candidates very complaisant to a _Country Clown_, &c."--"The candidates making an entertainment for the electors and their wives.--At the upper end of the table the _Parson_ of the Parish, &c." [2] The intimate friend of _Hogarth_, at that time a Commissioner of the Admiralty; afterwards Sir _George Hay_, knight, Dean of the Arches, Judge of the Prerogative Court, and also of the High Court of Admiralty, who died _October_ 6, 1778, aged 63. He was possessed of several of _Hogarth's_ paintings, which are now the property of Mr. _Edwards_, and have been mentioned in p. 98. Our honourable Judge has the following character in a work of great authority. On the trial of her Grace the Duchess of _Kingston_, for bigamy, before the House of Lords, in _April_ 1776, the present Lord Chancellor _Thurlow_ (then Attorney-General) thus speaks of Sir _George_ as a judge:--"The most loose and unconsidered notion, escaping in any manner from that able and excellent judge, should be received with respect, and certainly will; if the question were my own, with the choice of my court, I should refer it to his decision." State Trials, XI. 221.