"Nay stay Sir, first You must _my Story_ Hear: How could you thus _Delude_ your _Bosome-Friend_? Your _Foes_ to _Heaven_, and _Vs_ to _Hell_ thus send; _Damnation_ seize You for't; ere long You'll be Plung'd _Headlong_ into vast _Eternity_; _There_ for to Howl, whilst _We_ some _Comfort_ gain, ) To see You welter in an endless Pain, ) And without _Pitty_, justly there Complain." ) POPE. "_Ho!_ Cardinals and Bishops, _haste with speed_, Bell, Book, _and_ Candle _fetch_, _let me be free'd_: _Ah! 'tis too late_, by Fear Intranc'd _I lye_." BISHOP. "Heard you that Groan? with speed _from hence_ let's flye." CARDINAL. "The _Fiend_ has got _Him_, doubtless, lets away, And in _this_ Ghastly place no longer stay." BISHOP. "Dread Horrors seize me, _Fly_, for _Mercy_ call, Least _Divine Vengeance_ over-whelm _Vs all_." It was in this crude and lucid way that the forerunners of Gillray, Nast, Tenniel, and Leech satirized the murderous follies of their age. A volume larger than this would not contain the verse and prose that covered the broadsheets in the same style which appeared in London during the reign of Charles II. This specimen, however, suffices for any reader who is not making a special study of the period. To students and historians the collection of these prints in the British Museum is beyond price; for they show "the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure." Perhaps no other single source of information respecting that period is more valuable. [Illustration: French Caricature of Corpulent General Galas, who defeated a French Convoy, 1635.] From the accession of William and Mary we notice a change in the subjects treated by caricaturists. If religion continued for a time to be the principal theme, there was more variety in its treatment. Sects became more distinct; the Quakers arose; the divergence between the doctrines of Luther and Calvin was more marked, and gave rise to much discussion; High Church and Low Church renewed their endless contest; the Baptists became an important denomination; deism began to be the whispered, and became soon the vaunted faith of men of the world; even the voice of the Jew was occasionally heard, timidly asking for a small share of his natural rights. It is interesting to note in the popular broadsheets and satirical pictures how quickly the human mind began to exert its powers when an overshadowing and immediate fear of pope and king in league against liberty had been removed by the flight of James II. and the happy accession of William III.